The Aao/Ukst Supercosmos H-alpha Survey (SHS)

• Main Authors: Parker, Q. A, Phillipps, S, Pierce, M. J, Hartley, M, Hambly, N. C, Read, M. A, MacGillivray, H. T, Tritton, S. B, Cass, C. P, Cannon, R. D, Cohen, M, Drew, J. E, Frew, D. J, Hopewell, E, Mader, S, Malin, D. F, Masheder, M. R. W, Morgan, D. H, Morris, R. A. H, Russeil, D, Russell, K. S, Walker, R. N. F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 24-06-2005
• Subjects: Physics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; Physics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics; Physics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Physics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena; Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Physics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0506599

Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.362:689-710,2005 The UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST) of the Anglo-Australian Observatory completed
a narrow-band H-alpha plus [NII] 6548, 6584A survey of the Southern Galactic
Plane and Magellanic Clouds in late 2003. The survey, which was the last UKST
wide-field photographic survey, and the only one undertaken in a narrow band,
is now an on-line digital data product of the Wide-Field Astronomy Unit of the
Royal Observatory Edinburgh (ROE). The survey utilised a high specification,
monolithic H-alpha interference band-pass filter of exceptional quality. In
conjunction with the fine grained Tech-Pan film as a detector it has produced a
survey with a powerful combination of area coverage (4000 square degrees),
resolution (~1 arcsecond) and sensitivity (<=5 Rayleighs), reaching a depth for
continuum point sources of R~20.5. The main survey consists of 233 individual
fields on a grid of centres separated by 4 degrees at declinations below +2
degrees and covers a swathe approximately 20 degrees wide about the Southern
Galactic Plane. The original survey films were scanned by the SuperCOSMOS
measuring machine at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh to provide the on-line
digital atlas called the SuperCOSMOS H-alpha Survey (SHS). We present the
background to the survey, the key survey characteristics, details and examples
of the data product, calibration process, comparison with other surveys and a
brief description of its potential for scientific exploitation.