Brightness temperatures in the southern sky at 408 MHz

Absolute brightness temperatures for a number of regions of the southern sky have been measured on an 1-b grid with 150 spacing. The measurements were taken at a nearly constant zenith angle and have been related to the brightness temperature observed at the south celestial pole, at the same zenith angle. Repeatability and analysis of the drift characteristics of the receiver indicate that the rms error in bright- ness temperature of any point with respect to that at the south celestial pole should be less than 1 K. This leads to absolute brightness temperatures with rms errors of less than +2.7 K.