The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: spectra and redshifts

2001 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2,167 citations

Abstract

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) is designed to measure redshifts for approximately 250 000 galaxies. This paper describes the survey design, the spectroscopic observations, the redshift measurements and the survey data base. The 2dFGRS uses the 2dF multifibre spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope, which is capable of observing 400 objects simultaneously over a 2° diameter field. The source catalogue for the survey is a revised and extended version of the APM galaxy catalogue, and the targets are galaxies with extinction-corrected magnitudes brighter than bJ = 19.45. The main survey regions are two declination strips, one in the southern Galactic hemisphere spanning 8O° × 15° around the SGP, and the other in the northern Galactic hemisphere spanning 75° × 10° along the celestial equator; in addition, there are 99 fields spread over the southern Galactic capp The survey covers 2000 deg2 and has a median depth of z- = 0.11. Adaptive tiling is used to give a highly uniform sampling rate of 93 per cent over the whole survey region. Redshifts are measured from spectra covering 3600-8000 Å at a two-pixel resolution of 9.0 Å and a median S/N of 13 pixel-1. All redshift identifications are visually checked and assigned a quality parameter Q in the range 1-5; Q ≥ 3 redshifts are 98.4 per cent reliable and have an rms uncertainty of 85 km s-1. The overall redshift completeness for Q ≥ 3 redshifts is 91.8 per cent, but this varies with magnitude from 99 per cent for the brightest galaxies to 90 per cent for objects at the survey limit.

Keywords

PhysicsRedshiftAstrophysicsGalaxyRedshift surveyAstronomy

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Publication Info

Year
2001
Type
article
Volume
328
Issue
4
Pages
1039-1063
Citations
2167
Access
Closed

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Matthew Colless, Gavin Dalton, S. Maddox et al. (2001). The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: spectra and redshifts. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , 328 (4) , 1039-1063. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04902.x

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DOI
10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04902.x