The Mount Stromlo Abell Cluster Supernova Search

We have initiated a 3 year project to find supernovae in a well-defined sample of high-density southern Abell clusters with redshifts z ≤ 0.08. These observations will provide a volume-limited sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to more than a magnitude below their peak brightness and will enable us to (1) measure the luminosity function of SNe, (2) further explore the correlation of light-curve shape with the absolute luminosity of SNe Ia to better understand SNe Ia as distance indicators, (3) measure SN rates, (4) measure the bulk motion of the Local Group using SNe Ia, and (5) directly compare SN Ia distances with brightest cluster galaxy distances. We use the MACHO wide-field two-color imager on the 1.3 m telescope at Mount Stromlo to routinely monitor ∼12 clusters per week. We describe our technique for target selection and scheduling search observations, and for finding and identifying SN candidates. We also describe the results from the first year of our program, including the detection of 19 SNe, several RR Lyrae variables, and hundreds of asteroids.