Astronomy & Astrophysics

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 379, Number 2, November IV 2001
Page(s)		740 - 754
Section		Instruments, observational techniques and data processing
DOI		10.1051/0004-6361:20011341

A&A 379, 740-754 (2001)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011341

ESO imaging survey

Deep public survey: Multi-color optical data for the Chandra Deep Field South

S. Arnouts¹, B. Vandame¹, C. Benoist², M. A. T. Groenewegen¹, L. da Costa¹, M. Schirmer³, R. P. Mignani¹, R. Slijkhuis¹, E. Hatziminaoglou¹, R. Hook¹, R. Madejsky^{1, 4}, C. Rité⁵ and A. Wicenec¹

¹ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching b. München, Germany
² Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, BP 229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France
³ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748 Garching b. München, Germany
⁴ Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Campus Universitário, Feira de Santana, BA, Brazil
⁵ Observatório Nacional, Rua Gen. José Cristino 77, Rio de Janerio, Brasil

(Received 5 March 2001 / Accepted 17 September 2001 )

Abstract
This paper presents multi-passband optical data obtained from observations of the Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S), located at $\alpha \sim 3^{\rm h} 32^{\rm m}$ , $\delta \sim -27^\circ 48^{\prime}$ . The observations were conducted at the ESO/MPG 2.2 m telescope at La Silla using the $8{\rm k}\times8{\rm k}$ Wide-Field Imager (WFI). This data set, taken over a period of one year, represents the first field to be completed by the ongoing Deep Public Survey (DPS) being carried out as a part of the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS) project. This paper describes the optical observations, the techniques employed for un-supervised pipeline processing and the general characteristics of the final data set. Image processing has been performed using multi-resolution image decomposition techniques adapted to the EIS pipeline. The automatic processing steps include standard de-bias and flat-field, automatic removal of satellite tracks, de-fringing/sky-subtraction, image stacking/mosaicking and astrometry. Stacking of dithered images is carried out using pixel-based astrometry which enables the efficient removal of cosmic rays and image defects, yielding remarkably clean final images. The final astrometric calibration is based on a pre-release of the GSC-II catalog and has an estimated intrinsic accuracy of $\la$ 0.10 arcsec, with all passbands sharing the same solution. The paper includes data taken in six different filters (U'UBVRI). The data cover an area of about 0.25 square degrees reaching 5 $\sigma$ limiting magnitudes of U'_AB=26.0, U_AB=25.7, B_AB=26.4, V_AB=25.4, R_AB=25.5 and I_AB= 24.7 mag, as measured within a $2 \times FWHM$ aperture. The optical data covers an area of ~0.1 square degrees for which moderately deep observations in two near-infrared bands are also available, reaching $5\sigma$ limiting magnitudes of $J_\sim23.4$ and $K_\sim22.6$ . The current optical/infrared data also fully encompass the region of the deep X-ray observations recently completed by the Chandra telescope. The optical data presented here, as well as the infrared data released earlier, are publicly available world-wide in the form of fully calibrated pixel and associated weight maps and source lists extracted in each passband. These data can be requested through the URL "http://www.eso.org/eis.

Key words: catalogs -- surveys -- stars: general -- galaxies: general

Offprint request: S. Arnouts, sarnouts@eso.org

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