Images of the Moon at short radio wavelengths

The following images were observed using the NRAO 12 Meter Telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona at a frequency of 90 GHz (3.3 mm.) The images were made by scanning the telescope beam (beam size 65 arc seconds, about 0.018 degrees) back and forth over the Moon, recording the total receiver output noise in the computer. The receiver frontend was a mixer using a superconducting (SIS) junction operating at 4 K, with a noise temperature of about 100 K.

The observations started at 10:37 UT on April 1, 1994, and took about 1 hour to complete. The phase of the Moon was just before the last quarter; most of the right half of the Moon was in darkness. The images presented here are still in the observed azimuth-elevation coordinate frame. The observers were Phil Jewell and Darrel Emerson, both of the NRAO.


Greyscale total power image
False colour, total power image
Contrast enhanced, greyscale
Contrast enhanced, edge enhanced image

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