Three beams, 50% more fun!
We’ve enabled the third (and final) target beam at the ATA, so that means you’ll be classifying three Kepler targets and that will make it more likely that a signal you mark in only one beam is actually a “signal of interest” and worth making the ATA go back to that Kepler target for a followup measurement. This will become the norm (if all goes well). We don’t think you’ll have any problem marking that third target image in the same 60 seconds you’re used to and with a third image, that’s 50% more Kepler targets to classify each time, so you might just enjoy it 50% more than usual. Let us know here or even better, on Talk if you have anything to say about it.
With two beams, a weak signal appearing in only one target beam can mean that instead of coming from the target ET star system, it was a satellite or other interference but just a little too weak in the second beam for you to see. The sensitivity to interfering signals coming in from the side (in the ATA’s “peripheral vision”, instead of in the direction of the target) varies enough between the beams so that this can happen. With three beams “voting”, it’s less likely that one beam is that much more sensitive than both of the others and the interfering signal is more likely to show up in two of the beams.
Again, let us know if you have any comments here or even better, on Talk.
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