CFHT Legacy Survey: Lessons Learned from the Six Years Observational Project

Details CFHT Legacy Survey: Lessons Learned from the Six Years Observational Project CFHT Legacy Survey: Lessons Learned from the Six Years Observational Project

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21422004c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #214, #220.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.727

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Back in 2003, Canada and France joined a large fraction ( 50%) of their dark and grey telescope time for a large project, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS), a major undertaking for both scientific communities with more than 500 nights spread over six years devoted to the survey using the wide field imager MegaPrime equipped with MegaCam, a 36 CCDs 1 degree x 1 degree field of view 340 Mpix camera. The communities proposed a broad spectrum of scientific topics, of which three driving ones emerged: 1) the SuperNova Legacy Survey (SNLS) to study type Ia supernovae to determine the dark energy parameters (4 sq. degree in 4 independent fields spread across the sky to have two fields visible throughout a given night at any time of the year, with tight time constrained observations), 2) the Wide survey (4 fields for a total of 186 sq. degrees) to study the large scale structures and matter distribution in the universe through weak lensing and galaxy distribution, and 3) A very wide shallow survey covering a large fraction (410 sq. degrees) of the ecliptic plane inside a band of +/-2 degrees to provide an unprecedented sample of the solar system population beyond Neptune. The last CFHTLS exposure was acquired on Feb. 3, 2009, and the scientific output of the CFHTLS data set already speaks for itself. This presentation will focus on what happened behind the scenes, covering the challenges, difficulties, and successes encountered over the length of the survey: dealing with multiple time constrained programs within the survey, competing with Principle Investigators time, challenging winter conditions slowing down the progress of the survey, instrumental failures, and the various management aspects, oversighting, and reviewing processes over the lifetime of the survey.

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