Astronomical survey projects

2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey ( 2dF )

2dF QSO Redshift Survey ( 2QZ )

The official home page of the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ), an Anglo-Australian collaboration surveying 740 square degrees of high-galactic lattiude sky. It will contain more than 25 000 z<3 QSOs, making it far the largest QSO survey in existence. This web page describes the survey objectives, current status and will be the primary site for public access to the data when the survey is complete.

Aladin Sky Atlas

Aladin is an interactive sky atlas, developed at CDS (Strasbourg, France), allowing the user to visualize digitized images of any part of the sky, to superimpose entries from astronomical catalogs or personal user data files, and to interactively access related data and information from the Simbad, NED, and Vizier databases for all known objects in the field.
The set of sky images consists of the STScI Digital Sky Survey (DSS-I and DSS-II), as well as an ensemble of higher resolution images (ESO-R and SERC plates) digitized at the MAMA facility in Paris.

All-sky Low Energy Gamma Ray Observatory ( ALEGRO )

ALLEGRO is a proposed MidEx class instrument providing all-sky monitoring of low-energy gamma-rays at unprecedented sensitivity. Unlike previous hard X-ray experiments, there is no time-averaging, data-selection, or triggering on-board: ALLEGRO transmits all events, time-tagged to 1/8th ms and with full energy information. This produces a database of uniformly high resolution in both energy and time, permitting non-triggered, unbiased detection of transient and pulsed events.

Andromeda Galaxy and Amplified Pixels Experiment ( AGAPE )

AGAPE (Andromeda Galaxy and Amplified Pixels Experiment) is a French collaboration between CNRS (IN2P3 and INSU) and CEA (DSM/DAPNIA) laboratories.
The project is a search for microlensing on unresolved stars of the Andromeda M31 galaxy by MACHOs (baryonic dark matter candidates) of the halo of the Milky Way as well as of the halo of M31.

APM Galaxy Survey

The APM Galaxy Survey contains over 2 million galaxies with Bj < 20.5 in the South Galactic Cap. This page provides a summary of the survey and some pretty pictures.

APM POSS and UKST Sky Catalogues ( APMCAT )

WWW access to machine based catalagues produced from Cambridge APM (Automatic Plate Measuring) Machine scans of UKST, POSS1 and POSS2 plates. The catalogues consist of both blue and red plate catalogues (i.e. O and E for POSS1 and B and R for UKST and POSS2). The catalogues are complete for mod(b)>30 degrees in the Northern Hemisphere and partially complete in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere.

APS Catalog of POSS I ( Univ. Minnesota )

The APS Catalog of the POSS I contains millions of entries for stars and galaxies, and the corresponding Image Database contains their pixels and more. The data behind the Object Catalog and Image Database are generated from digitized Palomar Observatory Sky Survey plates. Object Catalog entries include calibrated magnitudes in two colors, positions to 0.2 arcseconds, confidence measures on neural network image classifications, colors, and various other useful parameters.

ATNF Parkes 21cm Multibeam Survey

The Parkes 64-m telescope is commencing an HI Southern Sky and Zone of Avoidance survey in 1996. The survey will cover redshifts up to 0.04, and be sensitive to objects with HI mass between 10^6 and 10^10 solar masses, depending on distance. This will be the first extensive "blind" survey of the 21cm extragalactic sky.

Balloon-borne Observations Of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation ANd Geophysics ( BOOMERanG )

BOOMERANG is an instrument designed to measure anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.

Big Ear Radio Observatory ( Ohio State University )

Big Ear is a Kraus-type radio telescope which covers an area larger than three football fields. The telescope is famous for discovering some of the most distant known objects in the universe, and the longest-running SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) project.

Caltech Millimeter Array ( Owens Valley Radio Observatory )

Canadian Galactic Plane Survey ( CGPS )

The CGPS is an international effort to map the interstellar matter in a large swath of our own Milky Way Galaxy at high resolution (atomic hydrogen and radio continuum emission).

Carlsberg Meridian Telescope ( CMT )

The Carlsberg Meridian Telescope (formerly the Carlsberg Automatic Meridian Circle) is located on La Palma and is dedicated to carrying out high-precision optical astrometry.

Catalog of Infrared Observations ( CIO )

The Catalog of Infrared Observations is a database of over 200,000 published infrared observations of more than 10,000 individual astronomical sources over the wavelength range from 1 to 1000 microns. The catalog is available for downloading via ftp.

Consortium for European Research on Extragalactic Surveys ( CERES )

CERES is a research network funded by the European Union through its Training and Mobility of Researchers (TMR) programme. The coordinator is Ian Browne at Jodrell Bank.

Darwin ( Space IR Interferometry Mission )

Darwin is a proposal for a European infrared interferometer in space. Its first aim is to detect Earth-like planets around nearby stars, and then to search for a signature of life, ozone in an atmosphere. It could also be used as a general-purpose infrared observatory.
Darwin was proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA) for a Cornerstone Mission in its Horizon 2000 Plus plan. In October 1995, ESA decided to study such an infrared interferometer as an option for its Interferometer Cornerstone. The Darwin and Edison teams have combined to promote the selection by ESA of this option. The Darwin advocacy team members are also members of the International Working Group on Space Interferometry , a pressure group for this type of mission. Final selection on cost, science and technology grounds will be made around 2000, for a launch in the period 2009 - 2017.

DEep Near Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky ( DENIS - Leiden )

DENIS will be a complete deep near infrared survey of the southern sky, with the objective to provide full coverage in 2 near infrared bands (J at 1.25 micron and K at 2.2 micron) and one optical band (I at 0.8 micron), using a ground-based telescope and digital array detectors. The products of this survey will be databases of calibrated images, extended sources, and small objects. In addition catalogs of small and extended sources will be produced. We expect the survey to be completed within five years; restricted access to the databases is possible during the second half of the survey. The production of catalogs (to be distributed) will take a few additional years.

DEep Near Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky: Point Source Database ( DENIS )

DENIS is a deep astronomical survey of the Southern Sky in two near-infrared bands (J at 1.25 µ and K at 2.16 µ) and one optical band (I at 0.8 µ) simultaneously, conducted by a European consortium, using a one meter telescope (ESO, La Silla). The survey started in 1996 and is expected to be completed in 2000.
The Centre de Données Astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS) is implementing the final point source databases and is providing access of the processed and calibrated data to the worldwide community.

Digital Sky Survey ( DSS )

The Digitized Sky Survey comprises a set of all-sky photographic surveys in E, V, J, R, and N bands conducted with the Palomar and UK Schmidt telescopes. The Catalogs and Surveys Branch (CASB) is digitizing the photographic plates to support HST observing programs but also as a service to the astronomical community.
Images of any part of the sky may be extracted from the DSS, in either FITS or GIF format.

Digitized Palomar Observatory Sky ( DPOSS )

DPOSS is a program to photograph and catalog the entire Northern Sky.

DIRECT Project ( Determining the distances to nearby galaxies )

We undertook a long term project, DIRECT, to obtain the direct distances to two important galaxies in the cosmological distance ladder -- M31 and M33, using detached eclipsing binaries (DEBs) and Cepheids.

EROS Experiment

In this (still experimental) server you may find general informations as well as the latest publications/preprints from the EROS collaboration. Our main topic is the search for microlensing amplification of the luminosities of LMC/SMC stars.

ESO Imaging Survey ( EIS )

During 1997-1998 ESO carries out a deep, multicolor imaging survey using EMMI on the NTT.

Eso Nearby Abell Cluster Survey ( ENACS )

ENACS is a database (Redshifts, positions, magnitudes) for more than 100 Nearby Abell Clusters

ESO Slice Project: A Galaxy Redshift Survey in the South Galactic Pole Region ( ESP )

Official Page of the ESO Slice Project. People can already get useful information. The final data will be available directly from this page.

European Large Area ISO Survey ( ELAIS )

ELAIS is a European collaborative venture to survey around thirteen square degrees of the sky using the Infrared Space Observatory. It is the largest single open time project of the ISO mission and will produce maps and source lists at 7, 15,90 and 175 microns

Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters ( VLA FIRST )

FIRST -- Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm -- is a project designed to produce the radio equivalent of the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey over 10,000 square degrees of the North Galactic Cap. Using the NRAO Very Large Array (VLA) and an automated mapping pipeline, we produce images with 1.8" pixels, a typical rms of 150 Jy, and a resolution of 5" . At the 0.75 mJy source detection threshold, there are ~110 sources per square degree, ~35% of which have resolved structure on scales from 2-30" .

FIRBACK Survey ( IAS, Orsay )

FIRBACK is a cosmological survey which used the Infrared Space Observatory to study the Cosmic Far Infrared Background, and distant galaxies.
The final products will include:

• maps and galaxy catalogs of 3 fields of 4 square degree at 175 microns (using ISOPHOT)
• maps of some interesting sources at 90 microns (using ISOPHOT)
• maps and galaxy catalogs of 1 fields of 1 square degree at 15 microns (using ISOCAM)
• maps and catalogs at various other wavelengths, from optical to radio.

Hipparcos

Hipparcos space astrometry mission: Professionals, amateurs, and educators in astronomer should be interested in the (updated) Hipparcos astrometry mission www page, maintained by ESA. The monumental Hipparcos and Tycho star catalogues, with stellar positions, distances, and proper motions, double star data, and photometry (including thousands of light curves) was completed in June 1997. The 17-volume publication (including 6 ASCII CD-ROMs) can be ordered via the www page; the main catalogues can also be searched on-line, by object or sky region, with hyperlinks to the principal annexes. An "Educational Page" offers some ideas for observational projects for amateurs or for student projects, with the facility to search for the periods of variable stars interactively.

Hubble Deep Field ( HDF )

The Hubble Deep Field (HDF) is a Director's Discretionary program on HST in Cycle 5 to image a typical field at high galactic latitude in four wavelength passbands as deeply as reasonably possible. In order to optimize observing in the time available, a field in the northern continuous viewing zone (CVZ) was selected and images were taken for 10 consecutive days, or approximately 150 orbits. Shorter 1-orbit images were also obtained of the fields immediately adjacent to the primary HDF in order to facilitate spectroscopic follow-up by ground-based telescopes. The observations were carried out from 18-30 December 1995, and the data are available to the community for study.

INTEGRAL Science Data Centre

The INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) is a medium size mission of the European Space Agency dedicated to gamma-ray astronomy. The INTEGRAL Science Data Center (ISDC) located in Geneva is the link between the astronomical community at large and the INTEGRAL spacecraft.

IRAS PSC Redshift Survey

The IRAS Point Source Catalog redshift survey is a survey of (almost) all of the 15,000 galaxies brighter than 0.6 Jansky at 60 microns, over 83% of the whole sky. The survey is virtually complete as of Jan 1995, and results on large-scale structure should appear in the next few months.

ISO-HDF

The ISO-HDF project has mapped the Hubble Deep Field at 6.7 and 15 microns, using the ISOCAM camera on the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). Data and analysis products are made available to the community via this WWW page.

ISOGAL

ISOGAL is a 7 and 15 micron survey of the inner Galactic disk performed with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) camera, ISOCAM, mostly with 6" pixels.
The ISOGAL sources are systematically cross-identified with the KJI sources of the DENIS survey.

Las Campanas Redshift Survey ( LCRS )

Las Campanas Redshift Survey data and publications

MACHO project

The MACHO project is searching for dark matter in the form of Massive Compact Halo Objects (MACHOs) using gravitational microlensing. We search for these events by monitoring over 10 million stars every night in the LMC and Galactic bulge, using the dedicated 50-inch telescope at Mt. Stromlo.

Medium Deep Survey ( MDS )

The Medium Deep Survey (MDS) is an international project that uses the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in Pure parallel mode to study the nature of faint galaxies in the deepest regions of the universe. The released MDS database contains model fits for about 64000 objects in 185 WFPC2 fields, observed in most cases using the F814W(I), F606W(V) and for few in F450W(B) photometric filters. Some fields overlap each other, and duplicate observations of the same object has not yet been cross-identified.

Multiwavelength Milky Way

Images of the Milky Way galaxy in the light of several spectral lines and continuum bands, spanning the electromagnetic spectrum from radio to high-energy gamma-ray, are presented. The display is interactive, allowing zooming and panning of the images, each of which covers the entire sky within ten degrees of the Galactic plane. Explanatory text and links to the data sources and references are included. The Multiwavelength Milky Way site is an educational service of the Astrophysics Data Facility at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Nearby Field Galaxy Survey ( NFGS )

The Nearby Field Galaxy Survey (NFGS) is a collaborative effort to construct a photometric and spectrophotometric reference atlas and catalog of the observable properties of ~200 nearby field galaxies. The galaxies span a wide range in luminosity and color, and are of all morphological types. This survey is designed to be a benchmark for interpreting the spectra and imagery of distant galaxies. (A U.S. mirror is located at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~jansen/nfgs/).

NRAO VLA Sky Survey ( NVSS )

The NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) is mapping the sky north of -40 deg declination at 1.4 GHz. The principal data products are (1) 4 deg X 4 deg continuum maps " cubes" with three planes containing Stokes I, Q, and U images, (2) source lists, and (3) processed (u,v) data sets. The maps have 45 arcsec FWHM resolution and nearly uniform rms noise, about 0.45 mJy/beam = 0.14 K (Stokes I) and 0.29 mJy/beam (Stokes Q and U). The rms uncertainties in right ascension and declination vary from 0.3 arcsec for strong (S > 30 mJy) point sources to 5 arcsec for the faintest (S ~ 2.5 mJy) detectable sources.

Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment ( OGLE - Warsaw University )

The OGLE project is a long term microlensing survey with main target being the search for dark matter in the Galaxy and possibly also in the Magellanic Clouds. The second phase of the project is realized on a dedicated 1.3m Warsaw telescope located in Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. Every night up to 30 million stars are measured in the Galactic Bulge, LMC and SMC.

Postage Stamp Server for NVSS Radio Sky Survey ( NVSS Postage Stamp Server )

This Web page allows the user to obtain "postage stamp" FITS images of selected, small fields from the NRAO/VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). Either 1950 or 2000 positions are supported as are a number of projective geometries. This survey is being done with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array telescope at a wavelength of 20 cm (1.4 GHz) and is producing images of the sky north of declination -40 deg with a resolution of 45". Both total intensity and linear polarization is being imaged. This project began in September 1993 and the main body of observations will be finished in the Summer of 1996. Results are being made available as they are produced.

Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork ( PLANET )

The PLANET collaboration is a worldwide network of astronomers with access to Dutch, South African, and Australian telescopes. The primary goal of PLANET is the study of microlensing anomalies (departures from an achromatic point-source, point-lens light curve) through multi-band, rapidly-sampled photometry. An ultimate goal is to place constraints on the number and distribution of planets around other stars.

Radio Surveys of the Southern and Northern Sky

This page attempts to list some of the survey work at radio wavelengths in both the southern and northern hemispheres. Links to the data from these surveys are included, where available.

ROSAT All Sky Survey ( RASS at MPE )

The ROSAT All-Sky X-ray Survey was obtained during 1990/1991 using the ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) in combination with the ROSAT X-ray Telescope (XRT).

Royal Observatory, Edinburgh ( ROE )

This site offers information about the extensive activities of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, a PPARC establishment responsible for building common-user IR and sub-mm instrumentation and managing telescope sites and data archive resources, as well as the UK Schmidt Telescope and the SuperCOSMOS measuring machine. The ROE site also has links to, or acts as the home page for:

• Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh;
• latest research e-prints;
• the Crawford library;
• the ROE Visitor Centre;
• the UKIRT data archive;
• Public Understanding of Science;
• ROE Photolabs;
• Teacher Research Inititive

and much more information besides.

SDSS Science Archive ( JHU/SDSS )

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is a project to survey a 10000 square degree area on the Northern sky over a 5 year period. A dedicated 2.5m telescope is specially designed to take wide field (3x3 degree) images using a 5x6 mosaic of 2048x2048 CCD's, in five wavelength bands, operating in scanning mode. The total raw data will exceed 40 TB. A processed subset, of about 1 TB in size, will consist of 1 million spectra, positions and image parameters for over 100 million objects, plus a mini-image centered on each object in every color. The data will be made available to the public after the completion of the survey.

SERENDIP

The UC Berkeley SETI Program, SERENDIP (Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations) is an ongoing scientific research effort aimed at detecting radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. The project is the world's only " piggyback" SETI system, operating alongside simultaneously conducted conventional radio astronomy observations. SERENDIP is currently piggybacking on the 1,000-foot dish at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the largest radio telescope in the world.

SETI Australia Centre ( UWS )

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Australia Center supports SETI-related high school and university science education, SETI research and public outreach programs from the University of Western Sydney Macarthur. Its research project, Southern SERENDIP, is an eight million channel spectrum analyzer piggy-backing onto conventional radio astronomy observations for the next five years at the Parkes 64 metre radio telescope in NSW,Australia.

SETI Institute Home Page ( SETI )

The SETI Institute (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) serves as an institutional home for scientific and educational projects relevant to the nature, distribution, and prevalence of life in the universe. The largest research effort is Project Phoenix, the privately-funded continuation of the Targeted Search portion of NASA's High Resolution Microwave Survey. Two other projects of interest are the Life in the Universe (LITU) Curriculum Project and the Flight Opportunities for Science Teacher EnRichment (FOSTER) Project. LITU develops supplementary science curriculum material for grades 3 through 9. FOSTER allows science teachers to experience the excitement of research on NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO).

SETI@home ( SETI at home )

SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes batches of radio telescope data, for signals which may be transimtted by intelligent extra terrestrial life.

SHARC Survey Home Page

The SHARC survey is a large survey for high-redshift x-ray-luminous clusters of galaxies. Our home page has lists of cluster candidates, links to papers about the survey, and much more information.

SkyView

SkyView is a facility available over the net which allows users to retrieve data from public all-sky surveys conveniently. The user enters the position and size of the region desired, and the surveys wanted and the data is extracted and formatted for the user. Documentation available through anonymous ftp.

Sloan Digital Sky Survey ( SDSS at Fermilab )

1. In the pi steradians of the available North Galactic Pole (b > 30 degrees), we shall conduct surveys in the following manner: Obtain a photometric survey, in four or five filters to 23rd magnitude (R), 5 sigma, for stellar objects; obtain redshifts for all galaxies down to 19th magnitude (B); obtain redshifts for all QSOs down to 20th magnitude (B).
2. In the available South Galactic Pole region there will be a deeper survey in a strip 2 degrees (dec) by 50 degrees, in order to: obtain a photometric survey, in four or five filters to 25th magnitude (R), 5 sigma, for stellar objects; obtain redshifts for all galaxies down to 20th magnitude (B); obtain redshifts for all QSOs down to 21st magnitude (B).
3. In the additional available sky covering the Galactic disk, a deep photometric survey will be conducted on a best effort basis to 23rd magnitude (R), 5 sigma.

The following resources are similar (same sort-key, different text):

Sloan Digital Sky Survey ( SDSS )

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey's goal is to probe the large-scale structure of the universe by systematically mapping in detail one fourth of the sky. The survey will produce a catalog of roughly 100 million objects, with redshifts to more than a million galaxies and quasars.

Space Telescope Science Institute ( STScI )

STScI is responsible for the scientific operations of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). STScI is operated by Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under contract to NASA.

Stardial:an autonomous astronomical camera on the World Wide Web ( Stardial )

Stardial delivers images of the night sky nearly in real-time to the world wide web. It is used primarily for educational purposes. Its archive consists of images taken at 15 minute (sidereal) intervals since July 1996. The survey covers from 0 to -8 degrees declination to 12th magnitude. Highlights and possible classroom assignments are described.

SuperCOSMOS

SuperCOSMOS is the Royal Observatory Edinburgh's advanced photographic plate digitising machine. It succeeds COSMOS which was in operation at the ROE until December 1993, and is 10 times more powerful than its predecessor.

Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey ( SUMSS )

SUMSS is a deep radio survey of the entire sky south of declination -30 degrees, made using the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope, operating at 843MHz and recording right-circular polarization.
SUMSS matches (approximately) the resolution and depth of the NRAO-VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). The principal data products are mosaics which cover a 4x4 degree square on the sky. The centres of the mosaics mirror the NVSS centres in the north. The resolution is 45" x 45"/sin(dec), and the rms noise limit varies from 1.3 to 2mJy/beam (lower toward the south celestial pole).
The survey began in March 1997 and will take eight years to complete. SUMSS is suported by funding from the Australian Research Council.
The primary reference for a description of the survey is: Bock, D., Large, M. and Sadler, E.

The Amateur Sky Survey ( TASS )

The TASS project has constructed low-cost drift-scan cameras and distributed them to sites around the world. The goal is to monitor bright objects across a large section of the sky.

Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) Image Gallery

Gallery of three-color near-IR JHK_s composite Atlas Images of interesting and beautiful objects from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS).

Two Micron All-Sky Survey ( 2MASS )

Infrared detector technology has made such huge advances in the past decade that the only existing near-infrared sky survey, which was carried out at Caltech nearly 25 years ago, no longer serves as a useful context within which to interpret observations or select sources for study. The University of Massachusetts is therefore leading a new project, called the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), which will canvas the entire sky for stars and galaxies as much as 50,000 times fainter than the stars seen in the last survey.

UK Schmidt Telescope ( UKST )

The initial task of the UKST was to construct a photographic survey of the entire southern sky. The telescope still takes some 700 plates a year - about half for current surveys and the remainder taken at the request of research astronomers around the world. To date the UKST has taken over 17,000 plates, the plates are stored in the Plate Library at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh (ROE) and represent a huge source of data for the astronomical community. Some 300 active research programmes make use of UKST plate material. Many plates are copied in the ROE Photolabs and sold as Sky Atlases or Teaching Packages. In addition to its photographic role the UKST also has a multi-object fibre spectroscopy system known as FLAIR. e-mail ukstu@roe.ac.uk

UTR-2 catalogue

The very-low frequency sky survey of discrete sources has been obtained in the Institute of Radio Astronomy of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences (Kharkov, Ukraine) with the UTR-2 radio telescope at a number of the lowest frequencies used in contemporary radio astronomy within the range from 10 to 25 MHz.

Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy ( VISTA )

Preliminary web site for the project of a 4m Wide Field Survey telescope for the Southern Hemisphere.

VLT Survey Telescope ( VST )

The VST project is a cooperation between the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory (OAC) for the study, design and construction of a wide field alt-az telescope of 2.6 m aperture, specialized for high quality astronomical imaging to be installed and operated on Cerro Paranal, next to ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT).

Vulcan Camera Project

The Vulcan Camera Project, sponsored by NASA Ames Research Center, is designed to detect transits of large extrasolar planets using differential photometry. Vulcan uses a 15cm aperture refactor at Lick Observatory to image a wide field in which ~6000 stars are monitored for two months, in a search for the ~1% transit signal expect from a 51 Pegasi-type planet. Vulcan is a ground-based test-bed for the proposed Kepler Mission to detect Earth-sized exoplanets.

Wide-Field Astronomy ( The New Era of )

The New Era of Wide-Field Astronomy : A Conference to be held in Preston (England), 21 - 24 August 2000.
We are at the beginning of a new era in wide-field astronomy, with major new surveys now in production, and with new telescopes and instruments, both ground- and space-based, scheduled to be in production in the next few years. This conference aims to review the present and future of this exciting new era of wide-field astronomy, and to discuss the optimum exploitation of the remarkable range of new facilities. The conference will cover all aspects of the new era - cosmology and both extragalactic and galactic astronomy, from X-ray to radio.

Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper ( WHAM )

The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper will produce a survey of H-Alpha emission from the interstellar medium (ISM) over the entire northern sky. The instrument combines a 24-inch telescope and a high-resolution, 6-inch Fabry-Perot spectrometer to achieve 8-12 km/s velocity resolution in one-degree beams on the sky. By utilizing CCD technology, we hope to attain a sensitivity level of 0.01 Rayleighs. This survey, the first of ionized hydrogen in our galaxy, will be used to explore the spatial and kinematic structure of the warm ionized component of the ISM. WHAM is currently at Pine Bluff Observatory but will move to Kitt Peak, Arizona in the Fall of 1996 for the survey, which should take about 2 years.

XMM Survey Science Centre ( XMM SSC )

The XMM Survey Science Centre (SSC) has responsibilities within the XMM project in three main areas:

• the follow-up/identification programme for the XMM serendipitous X-ray sky survey
• the development of science analysis software for XMM
• the "pipe-line processing" of all XMM observations.