| Description: | A few months ago, it was even in the national press that the first, real image had been made with Apertif (see the AJPOD of 31-Jan-2017). Work on Apertif has been progressing steadily since then and more images have been made. The image above shows the active galaxy NGC 315 with its very extended radio jets. The extent on the sky of NGC 315 is about 1 degree and the complete object does not fit in a single beam of the telescope. So in the old days, several observations were needed to make a full image. Using the new `wide-angle' capability of Apertif, it can now be imaged in a single observation.
NGC 315 is a famous object. With its extent of over one Mpc, it is one of the largest single objects known in the Universe. It also has an old connection with ASTRON. It was first detected as a radio source in 1967 with the Dwingeloo dish and was named DW0055+30 (Davis 1967). Only later it was identified with the early-type galaxy NGC 315. The WSRT studies of this object done in the late 70's, involving Tony Willis and Richard Strom, belong to the canon of classic WSRT observations. Also around 2005 the object was observed with WSRT, this time to study the cold gas in and around the galaxy (Morganti+ 2009) |
