The imaging capability of VSOP Original Research Article

One of the prime goals of the VSOP mission is to produce VLBI images of radio sources at unprecedented high angular resolution for a given observing frequency. Of crucial importance in the production of VSOP images is the choice of weighting schemes. The paper examines some of the issues involved in choosing an appropriate weighting scheme and shows that a couple of schemes in common use by VLBI astronomers are inadequate for making VSOP images. When the appropriate weighting scheme is chosen, VSOP images of moderate dynamic range (≈ 1000:1) can be produced.