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Session 35 -- Digitizing the Sky Part I

Oral presentation, Tuesday, 31, 1994, 8:30-12:30

[35.05] The FIRST VLA Survey: the First Year

In November, 1992, NRAO authorized a high resolution survey (B configuration) of the north Galactic cap (10,000 sq. degrees) at 20 cm wavelength. The survey will produce 65,000 Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm (FIRST) over the next 8 years, which when coadded, will be sensitive to point sources at a threshold of 1 mJy. The angular resolution of 5 arcsec will ensure positions accurate to 1 arcsec (90% confidence) for even the faintest sources detected. The initial observing run of 120 hours occurred in April, 1993. During that time ~350 sq. degrees were surveyed. This data has all been reduced and is being archived at STScI. This summer another observing run of ~500 hours is planned, with addition runs during each of the next 5 B configurations. The data will be analyzed with 4 Sparc processors, adequate for reducing the data from one run before the subsequent run begins. We will present data verifying the accuracy of positions and flux densities derived from survey images. A catalog of sources successfully replicates the known log N - log S of radio sources between 2 - 100 mJy.

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