BEST - 1

BEST-1 was the first step of the BEST project. It expected the installation of 4 receivers on a single cylindrical reflector of the North-South arm. The working bandwidth is 400-416 MHz and the overall geometrical area is 176 square meters.

BEST-1 was completed with 4 front-ends, lasers installed on the focal line and 4 fibers to transfer the optical analogue signal to the processing room. Maximum length of the optical link is 700 meters.
The pictures below represents the main tasks realized on the North-South cylindrical reflector.

The first test was performed observing the Cassiopea A transit. To compare the output of BEST-1, the old receiver of the Northern Cross Antenna was used. Using only a receiver (blue line) we obtain an aperture beam of 7.2°, whereas adding the signals coming from 4 receivers we obtain an aperture beam of 1.8° (red line). Narrowing the beam of course we obtain a greater resolution and so we can observe with more detail the radio source.