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SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey (SMSS)

Survey Progress | Seeing Statistics

Approximately 75% of SkyMapper's observing time will be initially dedicated to the Southern Sky Survey, a comprehensive digital survey of the entire southern sky.

SkyMapper Shallow Survey

The Shallow Survey was undertaken mostly in the first year of operations and continues during full moon periods. Each visit measures objects from 9 to 17 mag in all six bands. It provides the overall calibration of the Southern Sky Survey and allows the survey to be tied to the Hipparcos and Tycho catalogs (and other photometric systems established in the southern hemisphere, such as APASS). The Main Survey will be calibrated from Shallow Survey observations of spectrophotometric standards.

SkyMapper Main Survey

Most of SkyMapper's observing time is now dedicated to the Main Survey. This has an expected depth (in AB mags) for a signal-to-noise ratio of 5 in 2.5" seeing, of:

 uvgriz
Single epoch 19.5 19.5 21.0 21.0 20.0 19.0
Saturation 10.0 10.5 13.0 13.0 11.0 10.5
Exp. time (s) 100 100 100 100 100 100
Final depth 20.5 20.5 21.7 21.7 20.7 19.7
 
The survey scheduler aims to finish a field mostly within one moon period. A first visit in dark conditions establishes a colour sequence with all six bands observed in the space of 20 minutes. Further visits in subsequent nights under dark or grey sky conditions add exposure pairs in g- and r-band, while in grey or bright conditions pairs in i- and z-band are added. A second colour sequence in dark conditions finishes the set. Further pairs in i- and z-band are also observed during astronomical twilight. These twilight observations may be separated by many months from the night-time visits.

Survey Progress^ Back to top

SkyMapper Shallow Survey

SkyMapper Main Survey

Seeing Statistics^ Back to top

SkyMapper Shallow Survey

SkyMapper Main Survey