Survey
The DES collaboration plans to complete a 5000 square degree survey in the southern sky spread out over 5 years. The survey is planned to reach a depth of 24th magnitude in i band over the entire area. The survey area was chosen to overlap with the survey area of the South Pole Telescope because its technique of finding clusters through the SZ effect compliments the optical techniques employed by DES. Within the 5000 square degree area there are 5 smaller patches totaling 30 square degrees which will use longer exposure times to search for Supernova.
First light was achieved on 12 September 2012; after a testing period, scientific observations are expected to begin in December, 2012.
Read more about this topic: The Dark Energy Survey
Famous quotes containing the word survey:
“By contrast with history, evolution is an unconscious process. Another, and perhaps a better way of putting it would be to say that evolution is a natural process, history a human one.... Insofar as we treat man as a part of nature—for instance in a biological survey of evolution—we are precisely not treating him as a historical being. As a historically developing being, he is set over against nature, both as a knower and as a doer.”
—Owen Barfield (b. 1898)
“In a famous Middletown study of Muncie, Indiana, in 1924, mothers were asked to rank the qualities they most desire in their children. At the top of the list were conformity and strict obedience. More than fifty years later, when the Middletown survey was replicated, mothers placed autonomy and independence first. The healthiest parenting probably promotes a balance of these qualities in children.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)
“When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.”
—Isaac Watts (1674–1748)