MCELS Details

Taking advantage of the wide field of view available on the UM/CTIO Curtis Schmidt telescope coupled to the sensitivity and large area of the newly available STIS 2K CCD, we are imaging the the central degrees of the LMC and of the central degrees of the SMC, covering most of the gaseous extent of both galaxies. This instrument provides 2.035'' pixel1, giving 3'' resolution with a field of view of degrees. A grid of multiple, overlapping fields is being used to provide uniform coverage of the Clouds with minimal CCD artifacts.

In order to isolate the emission lines, we are using custom-made 4-inch narrow-band interference filters (corrected for the fast beam of the Curtis Schmidt) of H (=6563, =30Å), [S II] (=6724, =50Å), and [O III] (=5007, =40Å). Images in two ``continuum-band'' filters (at =6850, =95Å and =5130, =155Å) are also obtained to allow subtraction of the stellar background, leaving only emission-line objects. We plan to reach a limiting surface brightness in all three emission lines of approximately ergs cm s arcsec, a surface brightness roughly equivalent to the diffuse H background measured in the LMC by Kennicutt et al. (1995).

© Copyright Astronomical Society of Australia 1997