The NOT slice of the z=2 universe: Homepage

Because of cosmological surface brightness dimming at high redshifts, a search for Lyman alpha emitters is much more efficient at z=2 than at z=3, but the price to be paid is that the Lyman alpha line moves into the UV.

The high combined UV efficiency of the Alfosc instrument on the Nordic Optical Telescope (the NOT), and the mostly excellent seeing conditions achieved with the NOT, makes this an excellent survey telescope for UV selected objects.

Despite its relatively modest size (in an era dominated by 8-10m telescopes), the combination of good seeing, high UV throughput and cosmological surface brightness dimming, makes the NOT a proven competitive survey telescope at z=2 (e.g. Fynbo et.al. 2002) and a large survey is now underway with the aim to map out several 3D slizes of the z=2 universe.

This is the homepage of ``The NOT slice of the z=2 universe'' project. The imaging part of the project started in October 2001, and the first spectroscopic followup run was completed on Keck/LRIS in July 2002. The NOT data will be made available to the Nordic community via this page. If you are a Nordic astronomer and wish to contribute to this project, or wish access to the raw data for your own project, then please contact
Palle Møller - (email: pmoller[at]eso.org) or
Johan Fynbo - (email: jfynbo[at]ifa.au.dk).