The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey: Technical Summary
astro-ph
/ Authors
Joshua A. Frieman, B. Bassett, A. Becker, C. Choi, D. Cinabro, F. DeJongh, D. L. Depoy, B. Dilday, M. Doi, P. M. Garnavich
and 91 more authors
C. J. Hogan, J. Holtzman, M. Im, S. Jha, R. Kessler, K. Konishi, H. Lampeitl, J. Marriner, J. L. Marshall, D. McGinnis, G. Miknaitis, R. C. Nichol, J. L. Prieto, A. G. Riess, M. W. Richmond, R. Romani, M. Sako, D. P. Schneider, M. Smith, N. Takanashi, K. Tokita, K. van der Heyden, N. Yasuda, C. Zheng
/ Abstract
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) has embarked on a multi-year project to identify and measure light curves for intermediate-redshift (0.05 < z < 0.35) Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) using repeated five-band (ugriz) imaging over an area of 300 sq. deg. The survey region is a stripe 2.5 degrees wide centered on the celestial equator in the Southern Galactic Cap that has been imaged numerous times in earlier years, enabling construction of a deep reference image for discovery of new objects. Supernova imaging observations are being acquired between 1 September and 30 November of 2005-7. During the first two seasons, each region was imaged on average every five nights. Spectroscopic follow-up observations to determine supernova type and redshift are carried out on a large number of telescopes. In its first two three-month seasons, the survey has discovered and measured light curves for 327 spectroscopically confirmed SNe Ia, 30 probable SNe Ia, 14 confirmed SNe Ib/c, 32 confirmed SNe II, plus a large number of photometrically identified SNe Ia, 94 of which have host-galaxy spectra taken so far. This paper provides an overview of the project and briefly describes the observations completed during the first two seasons of operation.