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Session 48 - Workshop on the Future of Antarctic Astrophysics - I.
Topical, Oral session, Wednesday, June 10
Presidio,

[48.04] The Python Cosmic Microwave Background Experiment

M. Dragovan (Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics University of Chicago)

A summary of the five years of data from the Python Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)experiment will be presented. Python was an experiment that detected and sampled the anisotropy in the CMB at sub-degree angular scales. In the first three years of observations, the system consisted of a .75 m telescope and a four pixel bolometric photometer operating at 90 GHz. In the last two years of observations, the photometer was replaced by a two pixel HEMT amplifier based radiometer operating at 40GHz. The same region of sky, uncontaminated by any known foregrounds, was observed at both frequencies. A joint analysis of the 40 and 90 GHz data sets confirms that the anisotropy observed is consistent with that expected from the CMB. In its last year of observations the Python experiment sampled approximately 600 \deg ^2 of sky. The large sky coverage, high signal to noise, and low contamination due to foregrounds, allows a reliable and robust determination of the power spectrum and higher order correlations of the CMB anisotropy.


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