The Hubble Deep Field South: Background

The Hubble Deep Field South (HDFS) is a Director's Discretionary program on HST in Cycle 7 to image, similarly to the Hubble Deep Field (North), a typical field at high galactic latitude in four wavelength passbands as deeply as reasonably possible. In order to optimize observing in the time available, a field in the southern continuous viewing zone (CVZ) was selected and images will taken for several consecutive days.

In addition to the WFPC2 field, HDFS will include a STIS field containing a QSO at z=2.25 identified by Hewett and Boyle.

The exact observing strategy is still under discussion. Comments and suggestions are most welcome, and can be sent to any member of the HDF-S working group.

For WFPC-2, our planned observing strategy is the same as for HDF-North:

30 Orbits F814W
30 Orbits F606W
30 Orbits F450W
60 Orbits F300W

For STIS, the time will be divided between UV spectroscopy and imaging, with the exact selection of bandpasses and gratings still to be finalized.

For NICMOS, the time will probably be divided between imaging (F110W and F160W) and grism spectroscopy.

Flanking fields with WFPC2 are also under consideration.

A Test for HDFS

A test observation (PID 7633) is scheduled for late october. The program will consist of:

- 2 primary orbits with STIS/MAMA/G230L and STIS/CCD/G430L to get a low-res spectrum of the QSO

- 1 primary orbits with STIS/50CCD to image the QSO field

- 3 parallel orbits with WFPC2/F606W and the NIC3/F160W with ORIENT 50.5D (mid-range for desired ORIENT over October 1998 CVZ period)

Harry Ferguson ferguson@stsci.edu and Massimo Stiavelli mstiavel@stsci.edu