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- Ancillary Targets
- Transient Universe in Stripe 82
- Host Galaxies of SDSS-II SNe
- BCGs in
Stripe 82 - High-Quality LRG spectra
- Reddened
Quasars - No Quasar Left Behind
- Variability-Selected Quasars
- K-band Selected Quasars
- Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs
- Low-Mass Binary Stars
- White Dwarfs and Hot Subdwarfs
- Distant Halo
Giants - Bright
Galaxies - High-Energy Blazars in Optical
- An X-Ray View Star Formation
- Remarkable X-Ray Sources
- Star-Forming Radio Galaxies
- Galaxies Near QSO Sight Lines
- Luminous Blue Galaxies
- BAL Quasar Variability
- Variable QSO Absorption
- Double-Lobed Radio QSOs
- High-Redshift Quasars
- High-z QSOs in SDSS/UKIDSS
- BOSS Targeting
- Algorithms
Galaxies Near SDSS Quasar Sight Lines
Summary
Spectra of galaxies in the SDSS Data Release 7 imaging area (7,650 deg2) which are close on the sky to known quasars, meaning that they lie along the quasar's line-of-sight
Finding Targets
An object whose ANCILLARY_TARGET1 value includes one or more of
the bitmasks in the following table was targeted for spectroscopy as part of this ancillary
target program. See SDSS-III bitmasks to learn how
to use these values to identify objects in this ancillary target program.
| Program (bit name) |
Bit | Target Description | Target density (deg–2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| GAL_NEAR_QSO | 62 | A galaxy that lies between 0.006' and 1' of the line-of-sight for a spectroscopically-confirmed quasar | 0.3 |
Description
Obtaining accurate redshifts of galaxies that are projected on the sky near to the lines-of-sight to quasars allows for detailed studies of the properties of galaxies that are associated with intervening quasar absorption systems. Such systems could not be studied with the SDSS-I/-II spectrograph due to fiber collisions, but new the BOSS spectrograph makes it possible to spectroscopically observe objects at close separations.
Primary contact
| Benjamin Weiner |
|---|
| University of Arizona |
| bjw -at- as.arizona.edu |
Other contacts
Christy Tremonti, Jeremy Tinker, Jill Bechtold, Patrick Petitjean, Tim Heckman, Brice Ménard
Target selection details
Galaxy targets are selected by a ugr color cut to lie in a redshift range (z > 0.35), where the 2800 Å MgII line is detectable in SDSS spectra. The sample of spectroscopically-confirmed quasars used for target selection in this program was selected to have model magnitudes g < 19.2 and redshift 0.7 < z < 2.1 from the SDSS DR7 quasar catalog (catalog in Schneider et al. 2010a and source paper in Schneider et al. 2010b). Galaxies were chosen that lie between 0.006' and 1' of a quasar with existing SDSS spectroscopy. To photometrically select galaxies in the target redshift range (z > 0.35), galaxies were selected with model magnitudes 17.5 < i < 19.9, Ag < 0.3, and [(g-r) > 1.65 OR (u-g) < 1.14(g-r)-0.4].
The sample is weighted to have similar numbers of galaxies at separations b < 0.5' and 0.5' < b < 1'. This sample of approximately 3,000 galaxies will help answer questions such as: is absorption is correlated with galaxy type?; What is the covering fraction of absorption as a function of galaxy radius?; and what is the size of velocity offsets?
REFERENCES
Schneider, D.P. et al. 2010a, catalog, bibliographic code:
2010yCat.7260....0S
Schneider, D.P. et al. 2010b, AJ, 139, 2360,
doi:10.1088/0004-6256/139/6/2360