Parkes observations for project P456 semester 2006OCTS

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 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 prototype digital filterbank, the wideband correlator and CPSR2 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. Further improvement is expected with the commissioning of the final digital filterbank system and development of a new-generation baseband system based on it. Because of the high sensitivity and wide bandwidths required, RFI mitigation is an important part of the project.