The Blanco DECam Galactic Bulge Survey: Completing the Southern Bulge
Abstract
We propose to complete our survey of the Southern Galactic bulge and the core of the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal galaxy using the Dark Energy Camera on the Blanco telescope. Our goal in 2014A is to complete the Southern bulge, mapping the the bulge/disk interface from -10° < l < -5° and +5° < l < +10°. With its 3 square degree field of view, DECam will provide SDSS ugriz photometry spanning the entirety of the bulge and inner disk, enabling a study of age and metallicity gradients in the main stellar population, The unprecedented quality of data in bluer filters makes possible the mapping of the ``X- shaped bulge'' and other substructure or streams as a function of metallicity. We will also map the core of the Sgr dwarf spheroidal galaxy and its overlap with the bulge. The use of proper motion separation will strengthen our population definition with time. The u filter allows us to map and study the hot blue horizontal branch in the bulge, and allows derivation of reddening, metallicity, and photometric distance for the population using demonstrated methods first developed for SDSS. A team experienced in both the construction of large area surveys and with supercomputing access and experience, will produce a photometric/astrometric dataset that will be made available to the community.
- Publication:
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NOAO Proposal
- Pub Date:
- February 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014noao.prop..480R