ACS High-Latitude Survey Workshop Announcement

	MEETING ANNOUNCMENT
	===================

The ACS High-Latitude Survey Workshop
  Space Telescope Science Institute	
        Baltimore, Maryland
	 March 22-23, 2001

Motivation:

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) will be installed on HST later this year. In anticipation of that, STScI is in the early stages of defining the goals and observing strategy for a major high-Galactic-latitude survey. As was the case for the Hubble Deep Field, such a survey would serve a wide variety of needs for both Galactic and extragalactic research. The scope being considered is roughly 300 orbits of director's discretionary time, to be invested during the first two cycles of the ACS life. Following the HDF precedent, the data would be non-proprietary, and calibrated data and source catalogs would be released shortly after the observations.

Early community involvement in this survey is important. First, It will help ensure that the HST observations are aimed at important science goals, and can meet the diverse needs of a variety of projects. Second, it will help to coordinate the efforts of HST and other facilities so that observations at different wavelengths and with different observing techniques can be targeted at the same areas. Third, it will guide important strategy decisions for the ACS observations. Finally, knowing the plans for the STScI survey will help other teams plan their own proposals for ACS and formulate plans for supporting observations and archival research.

To solicit community advice and involvement, STScI will hold a workshop on "ACS High-Latitude Surveys" at STScI March 22-23, 2001. This forum will allow interested astronomers to present their views on the most important science goals, on supporting observations (existing or suggested) and on strategy issues such as where to point.

Tentative Program:

March 22:

 Overview 
 Science issues -- motivation & background
 ACS technical issues/scheduling issues
 ACS GTO program/parallel program

 Science "requirements" (bands, area, depth,...) for different topics
	- galaxies
	- AGN
	- lensing
	- supernovae
	- stars and Galactic structure
	- ...

March 23:

 Complementary surveys 
 Where to point and why?
 Discussion session
 Closing remarks

Please indicate in your registration whether or not you wish to speak at the workshop. In a short workshop, it will not be possible to schedule formal talks for every participant. In choosing speakers and topics we will try to ensure broad coverage of the diverse science and strategy issues surrounding the survey, while leaving ample time for open discussion. If there is sufficient demand, space will be made available for posters.

This is intended to be a small, focused workshop, with participation limited to about 50 participants.