The Messenger Telescopes and Instrumentation

ESO Public Surveys at VISTA: Lessons learned from Cycle 1 Surveys and the start of Cycle 2

No. 168 (June 2017), 15–20

Authors
  • Arnaboldi, Magda [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
  • Delmotte, Nausicaa [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
  • Gadotti, Dimitri [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
  • Hilker, Michael [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
  • Hussain, Gaitee [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
  • Mascetti, Laura [TERMA GmbH, Europahaus, Darmstadt, Germany]
  • Micol, Alberto [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
  • Petr-Gotzens, Monika [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
  • Rejkuba, Marina [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
  • Retzlaff, Jörg [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
  • Ivison, Robert [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
  • Leibundgut, Bruno [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
  • Romaniello, Martino [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
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Section
Telescopes and Instrumentation
Abstract

The ESO Public Surveys on VISTA serve the science goals of the survey teams while increasing the legacy value of ESO programmes, thanks to their homogeneity and the breadth of their sky coverage in multiple bands. These projects address a variety of research areas: from the detection of planets via microlensing, to stars, the Milky Way and Local Group galaxies, to extragalactic astronomy, galaxy evolution, the high-redshift Universe and cosmology. In 2015, as the first generation of imaging surveys was nearing completion, a second call for Public Surveys was opened to define a coherent scientific programme for VISTA until the commissioning of the wide-field multi-fibre spectrograph, 4MOST, in 2020. This article presents the status of the Cycle 1 surveys as well as an overview of the seven new programmes in Cycle 2, including their science goals, coverage on the sky and observing strategies. We conclude with a forward look at the Cycle 2 data releases and the timelines for their release.

DOI
Bibcode
2017Msngr.168...15A
Dates
Created: 2017-06-01/2017-06-30
Length
6 pages
Rights
Copyright European Southern Observatory

Cite this article:

Arnaboldi, M., Delmotte, N., Gadotti, D., Hilker, M., Hussain, G., Mascetti, L., Micol, A., Petr-Gotzens, M., Rejkuba, M., Retzlaff, J., Ivison, R., Leibundgut, B., Romaniello, M.; ESO Public Surveys at VISTA: Lessons learned from Cycle 1 Surveys and the start of Cycle 2. The Messenger 168 (June 2017): 15–20. https://doi.org/10.18727/0722-6691/5020