This grant supports a general research program to utilize the 14 meter diameter telescope at the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (FCRAO) which is operated by the University of Massachusetts. This instrument is the largest Americal millimeter wave, single dish telescope, and it is equipped with state-of-the-art receivers for observations in the 7, 3, 2, and 1 mm wavelength bands. The research program covers a variety of topics which include studies of extragalactic systems, the dense interstellar medium, star formation, the late stages of stellar evolution, astrochemistry, and planetary science. The Observatory also plays a major role in graduate education in radio astronomy in the United States. Continued development of new instrumentation is vital to the scientific productivity of the telescope, and that area is a high priority at FCRAO. During this grant period, the focus will be on implementing a 15 element array receiver for use at a wavelength of 3 mm, on constructing a versatile spectrometer backend for data acquisition with the array receiver, and on obtaining the computer hardware and software to support the reduction and analysis of a substantially increased data flow. The array detector will result in more than an order of magnitude improvement in the efficiency with which the telescope can obtain data, and it will permit an entirely new class of millimeter wavelength projects to be undertaken.
