Summary of Programme

We propose to make a large area, 100 sq. deg. survey of the sky for variability on time scales between less than an hour and a year, down to 25th magnitude. Our main scientific interests are in the evolution of specific galactic populations, the structure of the galactic halo, and the statistics of optical transients related to undetectable gamma-ray bursts. The data obtained through our real-time analysis of the proposed observations will also be useful for many other projects, such as a search for faint supernovae or Kuiper and main belt asteroids. Our proposed reobservations of fields after one or two years will also make our data useful for deep proper-motion studies.

The Faint Sky Variability Survey home page gives more information.