The Spitzer Space Telescope First - Look Survey: KPNO MOSAIC-1 R-band images and source catalogs

Mar, 2004
21 pages
Published in:
  • Astron.J. 128 (2004) 1
e-Print:

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2004200920142019202302468
Abstract: (arXiv)
(Abridged) We present R-band images covering more than 11 square degrees of sky obtained with the KPNO 4-m telescope in preparation for the Spitzer Space Telescope First Look Survey. The FLS was designed to characterize the mid-infrared sky at depths 2 orders of magnitude deeper than previous surveys. The extragalactic component is the first cosmological survey done with Spitzer. Two relatively large regions of the sky were observed: the main FLS extra galactic field (17h18m+59d30m) and ELAIS-N1 field (16h10m+54d30m). The overall quality of the images is high. The relative astrometric accuracy is better than 0.1'' and the typical seeing is 1.1''. Images are relatively deep since they reach a median 5-sigma depth limiting magnitude of R=25.5 (Vega). Catalogs have been extracted using SExtractor using thresholds in area and flux for which the number of false detections is below 1% at R=25. Only sources with S/N greater than 3 have been retained in the final catalogs. Comparing the galaxy number counts from our images with those of deeper R-band surveys, we estimate that our observations are 50% complete at R=24.5. These limits in depth are sufficient to identify a substantial fraction of the infrared sources which will be detected by Spitzer.
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