• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.293-299
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• 2023

The Wide-Angle Polarimetric Camera (PolCam) is installed on the Korea's lunar orbiter, Danuri, which launched on August 5, 2022. The mission objectives of PolCam are to construct photometric maps at a wavelength of 336 nm and polarization maps at 461 and 748 nm, with a phase angle range of 0°-135° and a spatial resolution of less than 100 m. PolCam is an imager using the push-broom method and has two cameras, Cam 1 and Cam 2, with a viewing angle of 45° to the right and left of the spacecraft's direction of orbit. We conducted performance tests in a laboratory setting before installing PolCam's flight model on the spacecraft. We analyzed the CCD's dark current, flat-field frame, spot size, and light flux. The dark current was obtained during thermal / vacuum test with various temperatures and the flat-field frame data was also obtained with an integrating sphere and tungsten light bulb. We describe the calibration method and results in this study.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2023

The Crab nebula is widely used as a polarization angle calibrator for single-dish radio observations because of its brightness, high degree of linear polarization, and well-known polarization angle over a wide frequency range. However, the Crab nebula cannot be directly used as a polarization angle calibrator for single-dish observations with the Korean VLBI Network (KVN), because the beam size of the telescopes is smaller than the size of the nebula. To determine the polarization angle of the Crab nebula as seen by KVN, we use 3C 286, a compact polarized extragalactic radio source whose polarization angle is well-known, as a reference target. We observed both the Crab nebula and 3C 286 with the KVN from 2017 to 2021 and find that the polarization angles at the total intensity peak of the Crab nebula (equatorial coordinates (J2000) R.A. = 05^h34^m32.3804^s and Dec = 22°00'44.0982'') are 154.2° ± 0.3°, 151.0° ± 0.2°, 150.0° ± 1.0°, and 151.3° ± 1.1° at 22, 43, 86, and 94 GHz, respectively. We also find that the polarization angles at the pulsar position (RA = 05^h34^m31.971^s and Dec = 22°00'52.06'') are 154.4° ±0.4°, 150.7° ±0.4°, and 149.0° ± 1.0° for the KVN at 22, 43, and 86 GHz. At 129 GHz, we suggest to use the values 149.0° ± 1.6° at the total intensity peak and 150.2° ± 2.0° at the pulsar position obtained with the Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Millimeter Range (IRAM) 30-meter Telescope. Based on our study, both positions within the Crab nebula can be used as polarization angle calibrators for the KVN single-dish observations.