Current status and future plan of Osaka Prefecture University 1.85-m
  mm-submm telescope project
  We report the current status of the 1.85-m mm-submm telescope installed at
the Nobeyama Radio Observatory (altitude 1400 m) and the future plan. The
scientific goal is to reveal the physical/chemical properties of molecular
clouds in the Galaxy by obtaining large-scale distributions of molecular gas
with an angular resolution of several arcminutes. A semi-automatic observation
system created mainly in Python on Linux-PCs enables effective operations. A
large-scale CO $J=$2--1 survey of the molecular clouds (e.g., Orion-A/B,
Cygnus-X/OB7, Taurus-California-Perseus complex, and Galactic Plane), and a
pilot survey of emission lines from minor molecular species toward Orion clouds
have been conducted so far. The telescope also is providing the opportunities
for technical demonstrations of new devices and ideas. For example, the
practical realizations of PLM (Path Length Modulator) and waveguide-based
sideband separating filter, installation of the newly designed waveguide-based
circular polarizer and OMT (Orthomode Transducer), and so on. As the next step,
we are now planning to relocate the telescope to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile
(altitude 2500 m), and are developing very wideband receiver covering 210--375
GHz (corresponding to Bands 6--7 of ALMA) and full-automatic observation
system. The new telescope system will provide large-scale data in the spatial
and frequency domain of molecular clouds of Galactic plane and Large/Small
Magellanic Clouds at the southern hemisphere. The data will be precious for the
comparison with those of extra-galactic ones that will be obtained with ALMA as
the Bands 6/7 are the most efficient frequency bands for the surveys in
extra-galaxies for ALMA.
