Observing with VST/OmegaCAM

Want to submit an ‘open time’ observing

proposal for VST/OmegaCAM?2

NO, you can’t !

Time allocated to Public Surveys GTO, Chilean

(Open Time available in the future)

BUT

- Policies: Following recommendations by STC and OPC, roughly 75% of the ESO time on VST (and VISTA) will be devoted to Public Surveys.

- Public Survey Panel (PSP): experts from the community, review PS proposals submitted to ESO and give recommendation to OPC for final acceptance, periodically review progress and achievements of PS

- ESO Survey Team (EST): evaluate and coordinate the operational implementation of public survey observations (OBs, strategy, time allocation), monitor the progress of the public surveys, oversee the delivery of data products from the Survey Teams to the ESO archive, etc.

Observing with VST/OmegaCAM

VST/OmegaCAM time allocation

• GTO/INAF: • GTO/OmegaCAM: 15% eligible 20% but

decreasedfor first years

• Chilean: 10%• Public Surveys: ~70% hrs

Allocated hours

VST Public Surveys

VST Public Surveys

528 hrs

657 hrs

207 hrs

(Feb 2013)

KIDS Public Survey

Science cases of KIDS- Matter distribution in the universe through weak gravitational lensing

'Strong lensing'--> Measure dark matterin galaxy clusters--> Observations with HST

- Gravitational lensing (KIDS)'Weak lensing'--> Measure dark matterall over the universe--> Need large field andvery sharp images--> OmegaCAM@VST!

KIDS Public Survey

dark energy, structure of galaxy halos,

evolution of galaxies and clusters,stellar streams and the Galactic halo.

Other science:

- synergy with VIKING (VISTA PS) covering the same area in 5 near-IR bands

KIDS south

coverage(as of Feb’13)

VPHAS+ Public SurveyGalactic plane survey (u,g,r,i,Hα)

Science cases of VPHAS+- Identification and study of emission line objects

• Wolf-Rayet and other massive evolved emission line stars in the

inner Milky Way

• compact planetary nebulae and rapidly evolving post-AGB stars

• Be stars of all types - including young Herbig stars

• clustered and field T Tau stars

NB_659 filter

Segmented filter purchased by members of the VPHAS+ consortium

VPHAS+ Public SurveyGalactic plane survey (u,g,r,i, Hα)

• a range of interacting binary stars: symbiotics, 'supersoft' compact

binaries, WD/NS/BH accreting binaries

• white dwarfs, horizontal branch stars and large numbers of early

A-type stars via their strong Hα absorption

ATLAS Public Survey

Science cases of ATLAS- Determine the dark energy equation of state by

detecting 'baryon wiggles' in the power-spectrum

of ~450000 z~0.7 Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs)- photo-z from VST ATLAS + VHS imaging- Galaxy groups and clusters

ATLAS coverage as of

Dec 2012

COMPLETED

REMAINING

g’-band

r’-band

- Monitoring of Supernovae- Monitoring of stars in star clusters and dwarf galaxies- Wide-field surveys of galaxies and galaxy clusters

Science cases of OmegaCAM, GTO/Chilean:

OmegaCAM Data- REMEMBER: data from PUBLIC surveys becomes publicly available immediately (accessible via ESO archive)

- Data volumes: 550 MB per file (uncompressed)

- Approximately 80 GB per night (VISTA: ~200GB/night)

- VST data reduction centers: AstroWise, CASU, VST tube

- No data reduction at ESO, only for quality control

KIDS ATLASVPHAS+

OmegaCAM Data/Data Access ESO Phase3: Public Survey Teams must deliver reduced

data products to ESO (March 2013 first submission)Access to reduced images and catalogs: www.eso.org/sci/observing/phase3

Operations + quality control at the telescope

- no night astronomer, fully operated by TIOs (like at VISTA)

- clear indication of how to classify an execution sophisticated QC0 script which determines OB grade

- quick pipeline reduction of 8/32 chips. QC0 evaluates three IQ parameters: mean FWHM, ellipticity, FWHM (IQ) variation across FOV

Data quality/QC0 at the telescope

DISTRIBUTION of IQ variation over FOV (based on ~10,000 images)

z’

g’

u’r’

i’

90% percentile

OB successfully executed if dIQ < 25%

Performance: (based on ~10000 images)

Mean measured FWHM per filter

0.90 arcsec (r’,i’,z’)

0.95 arcsec (g’)

1.10 arcsec (u’)

Mean ellipticity 5 %

Mean dIQ 4.3%

Data quality/QC0 at the telescope

Observing with VST/OmegaCAMhr

s/ni

ght

FM

FM

FM

Empty queues for full moon and thin conditions

that’s your niche for the near future!

~40 hrs per semester

QUESTIONS?

ASK NOW

OR

WRITE TO usd-help@eso.org

THANKS