The Star Formation Across Cosmic Time (SFACT) Survey. II. The First Catalog from a New Narrow-Band Survey for Emission-Line Objects

Star Formation Across Cosmic Time (SFACT) is a new narrowband survey designed to detect faint emission-line galaxies and QSOs over a broad range of redshifts. Here we present the first list of SFACT candidates from our pilot-study fields. Using the WIYN 3.5m telescope, we are able to achieve good image quality with excellent depth and routinely detect ELGs to r = 25.0. The limiting line flux of the survey is ~1.0 x 10^16 erg/s/cm^2. SFACT targets three primary emission lines: H-alpha, [O III]5007, and [O II]3727. The corresponding redshift windows allow for the detection of objects at z ~ 0-1. With a coverage of 1.50 square degrees in our three pilot-study fields, a total of 533 SFACT candidates have been detected (355 candidates per square degree). We detail the process by which these candidates are selected in an efficient and primarily automated manner, then tabulate accurate coordinates, broadband photometry, and narrowband fluxes for each source.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Prospectus, September 21, 1988

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1988/1021/thumbnail.jp

The Star Formation Across Cosmic Time (SFACT) Survey. III. Spectroscopy of the Initial Catalog of Emission-Line Objects

The Star Formation Across Cosmic Time (SFACT) survey is a new narrowband survey designed to detect emission-line galaxies (ELGs) and quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) over a wide range of redshifts in discrete redshift windows. The survey utilizes the WIYN 3.5m telescope and the Hydra multifiber positioner to perform efficient follow-up spectroscopy on galaxies identified in the imaging part of the survey. Since the objects in the SFACT survey are selected by their strong emission lines, it is possible to obtain useful spectra for even the faintest of our sources (r ~ 25). Here we present the 453 objects that have spectroscopic data from the three SFACT pilot-study fields, 415 of which are confirmed ELGs. The methodology for processing and measuring these data is outlined in this paper and example spectra are displayed for each of the three primary emission lines used to detect objects in the survey (H-alpha, [O III]5007, and [O II]3727). Spectra of additional QSOs and non-primary emission-line detections are also shown as examples. The redshift distribution of the pilot-study sample is examined and the ELGs are placed in different emission-line diagnostic diagrams in order to distinguish the star-forming galaxies from the active galactic nuclei.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Prospectus, September 13, 1988

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1988/1020/thumbnail.jp

Prospectus, September 28, 1988

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1988/1022/thumbnail.jp

Prospectus, July 12, 1988

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1988/1017/thumbnail.jp

The Star Formation Across Cosmic Time (SFACT) Survey. I. Survey Description and Early Results from a New Narrow-Band Emission-Line Galaxy Survey

We introduce the Star Formation Across Cosmic Time (SFACT) survey. SFACT is a new narrow-band survey for emission-line galaxies (ELGs) and QSOs being carried out using the wide-field imager on the WIYN 3.5 m telescope. Because of the superior depth and excellent image quality afforded by WIYN, we routinely detect ELGs to r = 25.0. Our survey observations are made using three custom narrow-band filters centered on 6590 A, 6950 A, and 7460 A. Due to the sensitivity of the survey, we are able to simultaneously detect sources via a number of different emission lines over a wide range of redshifts. The principal lines detected in SFACT are H-alpha (redshifts up to 0.144), [O III]5007 (redshifts up to 0.500) and [O II]3727 (redshifts up to 1.015). In this paper we detail the properties of the survey as well as present initial results obtained by analyzing our three pilot-study fields. These fields have yielded a total of 533 ELG candidates in an area of 1.50 square degrees (surface density of 355 ELGs per square degree). Follow-up spectra for a subset of the ELG candidates are also presented. One of the key attributes of the SFACT survey is that the ELGs are detected in discrete redshift windows that will allow us to robustly quantify the properties of the star-forming and AGN populations as a function of redshift to z = 1 and beyond. The planned acquisition of additional narrow-band filters will allow us to expand our survey to substantially higher redshifts.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Prospectus, March 1, 1989

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1989/1003/thumbnail.jp

Prospectus, August 9, 1988

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1988/1018/thumbnail.jp

Prospectus, April 27, 1989

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1989/1009/thumbnail.jp