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J.M. Wrobel (NRAO)
The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) is a user facility run by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Many AAS members currently use the VLBA to study astrophysical topics as diverse as gamma-ray blazars, gravitational lenses, black holes in nearby galaxies, astrometry of pulsars and stellar companions, supernova evolution, magnetic fields in stellar atmospheres, and molecules and atoms in active galaxies. Numerous examples of such studies will be presented at this meeting and many other examples appear in ``Radio Emission from Galactic and Extragalactic Compact Sources'' (1998, ASP Conference Series, Volume 144, eds.\ J.A.~Zensus, G.B.~Taylor, and J.M.~Wrobel).
This talk has three parts. (1) I will briefly summarize the VLBA's capabilities, so potential observers can asses the suitability of the VLBA as a tool for their research and so theorists can become familiar with the parameter space probed with VLBA observations. (2) I will offer guidelines for preparing technically sound proposals to the NRAO for observing time on the VLBA and will describe the proposal process. (3) I will summarize some strategies for VLBA observers to help them optimize the scientific return from their observations, especially when those observations involve phase referencing, polarimetry, surveys, or spectroscopy.
The NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
If the author provided an email address or URL for general inquiries, it is a
s follows:
http://www.nrao.edu/vlba/html/VLBA.html