Use of cosmic radio sources for investigation of the characteristics of the RATAN-600 radio telescope.

Results are presented of measurements of northern-sector parameters of the RATAN-600 radio telescope performed using observations of discrete radio sources in 1979. Improved formulas are presented for calculating the far-zone scattered field, with allowance for the periodic structure of the telescope surface and features of telescope fabrication. The formulas show that there is a relationship between scattered fields of different scale; this relationship has been confirmed experimentally. Measurements of extended radio sources were used to evaluate the surface error (sigma = 0.35 mm) in the aperture of the telescope. Examples of the observation of complex sources with a resolution exceeding 10 arcsec are presented, and ways to further improve the performance of the telescope are discussed.