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:
u | v | g | r | i | z | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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 |