The William Herschel Deep Field (WHDF)

The original Herschel Deep Field data

The William Herschel Deep Field is a 7x7 arcmin square patch of sky centred near 00^h20^m +00° which has been imaged from the ground in a variety of optical and near-IR bands.

Here are the papers describing the data in detail:

Galaxy number counts - V. Ultra-deep counts: The Herschel and Hubble Deep Fields Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. (2001), 323, 795-830. (also on-line)

Galaxy number counts - VI: An H-band Survey of the Herschel Deep Field Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. (2006), 370, 1257-1273. (also on-line)

The exact centre of the B-band image is:

00^h19^m59.5^s +00°04'20" (B1950)
00^h22^m33.3^s +00°20'57" (J2000)

Band	Exposure (hours)	Magnitude Limit (3 sigma)	Telescope	Data files
U	34	26.8	WHT	.fits (B1950 coords)
B	28	27.9	WHT	.fits (B1950 coords)
R	8	26.3	WHT	.fits (J2000 coords)
I	5	25.6	WHT	.fits (B1950 coords)
H	14	22.8	Calar Alto	.fits (J2000 coords)
K	1	20.5	UKIRT/Calar Alto	.fits (B1950 coords)
K deep^*	30	22.8	UKIRT	n/a
g	0.5	27.1	Gemini N GMOS 5.4'x5.6'	.fits (J2000 coords)
r	0.5	26.8	Gemini N GMOS 5.4'x5.6'	.fits (J2000 coords)
i	0.5	26.3	Gemini N GMOS 5.4'x5.6'	.fits (J2000 coords)
F814W	0.5??	26.3??	HST ACS 6.8'x6.8'	.fits (J2000 coords)

^*2 arcmin diameter sub-area

Files with U,B,R,I,H,K colour information
(J2000 USNO astrometry)

Whole galaxy sample to R<26.3, R-limited list, total magnitude colours.

Whole galaxy sample to R<26.3, R-limited list, fixed aperture colours.

Here are some images. Click on the icon for a full size blow-up of the picture:

	A true colour image composed from the U, B and R frames. Here is a high resolution (1968x1920) 9Mb tiff version for publicity purposes.
	As above, but with RA & Dec (1950.0) axes

The following six images show the individual bands, also with 1950 axes:

U-band		B-band	R-band
I-band		H-band	K-band
	HST F814 image

Here is a text file with the J2000 coordinates (fitted to USNO catalogue) of the R-selected sample (includes stars). There is now an image of the R-band with J2000 axes.

True colour Gemini image This is a true colour (gri) version of the Gemini field (rotated to have North at the top).

The extended Herschel Deep Field data

The extended field has UBRIZ and H coverage to at least 16'x16', centred on the original coordinates. It is not as deep, however.

You can interactively make plots of the WHDF extended data with the plotter.

R-selected image lists: total colours; aperture colours

Photometry Comparisons:

Band	Exposure (hours)	Magnitude Limit (3 sigma)	Telescope	Area	Data files
U	3.5	24.6	CTIO	31'x32'	.fits
B	0.5	25.9	WHT Prime	16'x16'	.fits
R	5	25.9	WHT Prime	16'x16'	.fits
I	1.3	24.2	WHT Prime	16'x16'	.fits
I	1.9	24.5	KPNO 4m	38'x38'	.fits
Z	4.5	~22.5	WHT Prime	16'x16'	.fits
Z	2	??	WHT Prime	16'x16'	not reduced yet
H	4	~22.5	Calar Alto	15'x15'	.fits

Here is the 16'x16' 5hr R-band image centred on the WHDF. J2000 axes are marked.

Here is the 16'x16' 1.3hr I-band image centred on the WHDF.

Here is the 16'x16' 4.5hr Z-band image centred on the WHDF (marked with a red box)

Here are true colour images of the extended WHDF:

BRI image.
RIH image.
SDSS Stripe 82 gri. MOSCA target lists:
These lists are for an ~11x11 arcmin area:
Mask 1
Mask 2
Mask 3
Mask 4

Spectroscopy on the Herschel Deep Field

Here is an ascii table of redshifts available on the extended WHDF field. These come from two runs of our own runs with LDSS2 on the Magellan 6.5m, and from FORS data taken by Bohm & Ziegler (2007, ApJ 668, 846). See also Fritz, Bohm & Ziegler (2009).

MOSCA spectra page - from Calar Alto, August 2008.

Radio/submm observations of the Herschel Deep Field

Optical snapshots of EVLA detections

Optical snapshots of Laboca detections

Last updated July 25th 2019 09:39:53. - nigel.metcalfe@durham.ac.uk