### POINTING

POINTING observations are done to optimize the positioning of the telescope in Azimuth and Elevation. This is normally done by continuum observations of a cross scan in azimuth and elevation on a point source (or at least a small source) near the intended target source.

It is normally used with BEAM SWITCHING or WOBBLER SWITCHING; it is also possible with TOTAL POWER. (With the bolometer POINTING is done with WOBBLER SWITCHING).

A calibration is not needed for POINTING, if one is only interested in the pointing corrections, and not in the source intensity.

After a pointing the data processing software displays the results and you can enter a correction for the observed pointing offsets with the command

SET POINTING azimuthCorrection elevationCorrection

Note that this is the total correction, i.e., the previous correction plus the additional offset found with the POINTING observation.

After you enter a pointing setup manually, we recommend to “save” it, optionally to a named file:

SAVE POINTING [/FILE pointing-1]

It can then at any later time be reloaded with @ pointing[-1], see HELP SAVE.