Parkes observations for project P456 semester 2007APRS

The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) project has three main goals: detection of gravitational waves from astronomical sources, investigation of the stability of terrestrial clocks and improvement of our understanding of Solar-system dynamics. Achievement of these goals requires frequent observations of about 20 MSPs at two or preferably three widely spaced frequencies over several years. We propose to observe such a sample at 2-weekly intervals using both the 10/50cm and Multibeam or H-OH receivers. The new Parkes digital filterbank (PDFB2), CPSR2 and probably APSR, the next generation baseband system, will be used for data recording. With continued development of observing and data analysis systems we are making good progress toward our goals with sub-microsecond precision already achieved on nearly half of the sample. Because of the high sensitivity and wide bandwidths required, RFI is a significant problem and PDFB2/APSR will incorporate real-time RFI mitigation. We have established a collaboration with the European Pulsar Timing Array project which will assist us to reach the sensitivities necessary to reach our primary goals.