The Astronomical Journal (Jan 2024)
The DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP). II. Observational Strategy and Design
- Chadwick A. Trujillo,
- Cesar Fuentes,
- David W. Gerdes,
- Larissa Markwardt,
- Scott S. Sheppard,
- Ryder Strauss,
- Colin Orion Chandler,
- William J. Oldroyd,
- David E. Trilling,
- Hsing Wen Lin,
- Fred C. Adams,
- Pedro H. Bernardinelli,
- Matthew J. Holman,
- Mario Jurić,
- Andrew McNeill,
- Michael Mommert,
- Kevin J. Napier,
- Matthew J. Payne,
- Darin Ragozzine,
- Andrew S. Rivkin,
- Hilke Schlichting,
- Hayden Smotherman
Affiliations
- Chadwick A. Trujillo
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]
- Cesar Fuentes
- ORCiD
- Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile , Camino del Observatorio 1515, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
- David W. Gerdes
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 481109, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 481109, USA
- Larissa Markwardt
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 481109, USA
- Scott S. Sheppard
- ORCiD
- Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science , Washington, DC 20015, USA
- Ryder Strauss
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]
- Colin Orion Chandler
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]; DiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, USA; LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- William J. Oldroyd
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]
- David E. Trilling
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]
- Hsing Wen Lin
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 481109, USA
- Fred C. Adams
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 481109, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 481109, USA
- Pedro H. Bernardinelli
- ORCiD
- DiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, USA
- Matthew J. Holman
- ORCiD
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics , 60 Garden Street, MS 51, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Mario Jurić
- ORCiD
- DiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, USA
- Andrew McNeill
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Physics, Lehigh University , 16 Memorial Drive East, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
- Michael Mommert
- ORCiD
- School of Computer Science, University of St. Gallen , Rosenbergstrasse 30, CH-9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland
- Kevin J. Napier
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 481109, USA
- Matthew J. Payne
- ORCiD
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics , 60 Garden Street, MS 51, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Darin Ragozzine
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University , Provo, UT 84602, USA
- Andrew S. Rivkin
- ORCiD
- Applied Physics Lab, Johns Hopkins University , 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, USA
- Hilke Schlichting
- ORCiD
- Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, University of California Los Angeles , 595 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Hayden Smotherman
- ORCiD
- DiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad1523
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 167,
no. 3
p. 133
Abstract
We present the DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP) survey strategy, including observing cadence for orbit determination, exposure times, field pointings and filter choices. The overall goal of the survey is to discover and characterize the orbits of a few thousand Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Blanco 4 m telescope. The experiment is designed to collect a very deep series of exposures totaling a few hours on sky for each of several 2.7 square degree DECam fields-of-view to achieve approximate depths of magnitude 26.2 using a wide V R filter that encompasses both the V and R bandpasses. In the first year, several nights were combined to achieve a sky area of about 34 square degrees. In subsequent years, the fields have been re-visited to allow TNOs to be tracked for orbit determination. When complete, DEEP will be the largest survey of the outer solar system ever undertaken in terms of newly discovered object numbers, and the most prolific at producing multiyear orbital information for the population of minor planets beyond Neptune at 30 au.
Keywords
