Imaging the redshifted 21-cm pattern around the first sources during the
  cosmic dawn using the SKA
  Understanding properties of the first sources in the Universe using the
redshifted \HI ~21-cm signal is one of the major aims of present and upcoming
low-frequency experiments. We investigate the possibility of imaging the
redshifted 21-cm pattern around the first sources during the cosmic dawn using
the SKA1-low. We model the \HI ~21-cm image maps, appropriate for the SKA1-low,
around the first sources consisting of stars and X-ray sources within galaxies.
In addition to the system noise, we account also for the astrophysical
foregrounds by adding them to the signal maps. We find that after subtracting
the foregrounds using a polynomial fit and suppressing the noise by smoothing
the maps over $10^{'} - 30^{'}$ angular scale, the isolated sources at $z \sim
15$ are detectable with $\sim 4 - 9 \, \sigma$ confidence level in 2000 h of
observation with the SKA1-low. Although the 21-cm profiles around the sources
get altered because of the Gaussian smoothing, the images can still be used to
extract some of the source properties. We account for overlaps in the patterns
of the individual sources by generating realistic \HI ~21-cm maps of the cosmic
dawn that are based on $N$-body simulations and a one-dimensional radiative
transfer code. We find that these sources should be detectable in the SKA1-low
images at $z = 15$ with an SNR of $\sim 14 (4)$ in 2000 (200) h of
observations. One possible observational strategy thus could be to observe
multiple fields for shorter observation times, identify fields with SNR
$\gtrsim 3$ and observe these fields for much longer duration. Such
observations are expected to be useful in constraining the parameters related
to the first sources.
