Gauribidanur Pulsar System

A dedicated system for observations of Pulsars and other astrophysical transients in the frequency range of 50–80 MHz has been recently commissioned at the Gauribidanur Radio Observatory near Bangalore, India. One of the salient features of the system is digital delay beamforming to simultaneously phase the antenna response pattern (“beam”) to different directions in the sky as compared to the generic cable phase/delay shifters which help to observe only a particular direction of the sky at a given epoch. Mechanical steering is difficult for the large antenna arrays used at low frequencies. The work reported is expected to provide useful inputs for similar work with SKA-Low.