Optical Guiding of Radio Interferometers I: Tracking Optical and Radio Offsets

Stuartt Corder 
Division of Physics, Mathematics & Institute of Technology, Pasadena

and 

Melvyn C. H.  Wright
Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley


We explore the benefits of moving toward optically-guided,
radio-interferometric observations.  Optical cameras mounted on the
radio dishes give rapid measurement of the optical pointing error
closer to the science targets than can be obtained with radio pointing
measurements.  In this memo we describe observations of the radio
source 3c454.3 and the bright optical source HIP113963.  We find that
the use of optical reference pointing gives marked improvement over
radio pointing especially during sunrise times when thermal effects
are causing rapid change in radio pointing.