Cosmology at low redshifts

Département de Physique, de Génie Physique et d'Optique, Université Laval, Canada G1K 7P4

Corresponding author: borra@phy.ulaval.ca

Received: 4 November 2002
Accepted: 13 February 2003

Abstract

It is argued that it is far more cost effective to carry out some projects with medium-sized dedicated zenith telescopes rather than large steerable telescopes, freeing the later to carry out projects that truly need them. I show that the large number of objects observed with a surveying 4-m zenith telescope allows one to carry out cosmological projects at low redshifts. Examining two case studies, I show first that a variability survey would obtain light curves for several thousands of type Ia supernovae per year up to and easily discriminate among competing cosmological models. Finally, I discuss a second case study, consisting of a spectrophotometric survey carried out with interference filters, showing its power to discriminate among cosmological models and to study the large-scale distribution of galaxies in the Universe.