A large group of NOAO staff members and collaborators is undertaking a deep optical and near-infrared wide-field imaging survey that will sample two 9 square degree regions of the sky. This NOAO Deep Wide Field Survey is designed to investigate the existence and evolution of large scale structures at redshifts z > 1 as sampled by a diverse set of objects, but its depth and area coverage will be suitable for a a diverse set of astronomical problems. A key goal is to provide the astronomical community a sensitive multicolor-database of objects from which samples may be selected for future study. This is motivated by the anticipated commissioning of the Gemini Telescopes before the end of this millennium, which will provide the astronomical public with an efficient array of instrumentation to investigate both the local and the distant Universe.
The survey begins in the second semester of this year, and
will cover two regions of sky: the second semester 1997 field is a 2° X 4.5°
equatorial strip centered on RA = 2h 10m, DEC = -4° 30' (J2000), roughly 30
degrees from the South Galactic Pole; the first semester 1998 field will be
a 3 X 3 degree region in an area (still to be finalized) roughly near the
North Galactic Pole. The fields were selected because of their low IRAS
cirrus emission, low NHI, and the eventual public availability of radio data
from the FIRST VLA Survey for these fields. The equatorial field has
,
,
corresponding to E(B-V)<0.04. This field
is also only 15° from the ecliptic, allowing a search for Kuiper belt
objects.
We plan to observe each region to the depths specified in Table 1 using the
MOSAIC camera at the KPNO Mayall Telescope and the BTC at the CTIO Blanco
Telescope for the optical observations; and the ONIS camera at the KPNO
2.1-m for the near-infrared observations. The optical survey depths (see
Table 1) were selected to allow detection of an L* star-forming galaxy at
z 
3.5. The IR imaging depths were selected to detect an "unevolved" L*
elliptical galaxy at z = 1.5, and passively evolving luminous systems to
z = 2. The planned depth will also permit the study of the Galactic halo
stellar populations, the coolest high-latitude white dwarfs to ~ 1.5kpc,
young (bright) field brown dwarfs
(like GL229B) to ~ 75pc, distant supernovae, and distant radio sources.
We are committed to maximizing the scientific return of the survey by engaging the intellectual resources of the astronomical community in the analysis and follow-up of the survey. To make this possible we will make the data and object catalogs publicly available on a rapid time-scale in an easily accessible format. This will allow everyone to benefit from the survey and to make use of the survey data for their own projects. NOAO provides an excellent set of ground-based facilities for the execution of a public project of this scope. Several large wide-field imaging telescopes, the availability of the necessary wide-field imaging instruments (ONIS and eventually the upgraded SQIID, the BTC, provided by Tyson and Bernstein, and the MOSAIC), computing resources for data-reduction, the technical expertise (hardware, software, and computer support) provided by the NOAO staff, and NOAO's orientation toward service to the community make NOAO an ideal institution to carry out such a project.
Detection Limits In Each Band
5s Detection 1s surface brightness
in 2" aperture limit per sq-arcsec
Band AB mag Vega-mag AB mag Vega-mag
B 26.6 26.9 9.0 29.3
R 26.0 25.8 28.4 28.2
I 26.0 25.5 28.4 27.9
J 21.0 20.2 23.4 22.6
H 21.0 19.6 23.4 22.0
K 21.4 19.5 23.4 21.9
Buell Jannuzi, Arjun Dey, Tod Lauer