Targets Page Help

This page is used to add, remove or modify targets in the target list. The target list serves as a shared resource for any observations added to the proposal. Targets may be added here, or may be created as needed in the observations section (see the GBT Observations page and help for more details on this approach).

Targets can be added individually or from a file. Edit an individual target by selecting it in the table (if this is a new proposal a blank entry is selected by default) and entering its name, flux density and coordinates at the bottom of the page. The default coordinate system is (RA, dec) and the J2000 frame. For non-sidereal objects, the time at which the coordinates are valid must be entered to assist scheduling. The target RA format is hr:min:sec and declination format is deg:arcmin:arcsec. The flux density entry should include the units (Jy or mJy). Additional targets can be entered by clicking on the new button.

An ASCII file containing tab-separated columns with name, flux density, frame (e.g. J2000), RA and dec, can be loaded using the appropriate button. Similarly the target list can be saved locally to disk (which is an easy way to examine the file format):

load target list from file, save target list to disk

An example file entry is:

0127+25   01:27:23.3   +25:16:27   J2000   32.4   LSR   326mJy

Targets in the list may be cut, copied (to the clipboard) or pasted (from the clipboard) using the buttons (or shortcut keys ctrl-x, ctrl-c, ctrl-v respectively). The ordering of the list maybe modified by using the arrow buttons.

The number of occasions that a target is used (i.e. referenced) in the  Observations page is indicated in the final column of the table.