Pre-FLAMES Survey: Observations of Selected Stellar Fields

TL;DR

This paper introduces calibrated images and stellar catalogs from the Pre-FLAMES survey, aimed at supporting target selection for follow-up observations with the VLT's FLAMES instrument, using data from 160 stellar fields.

Contribution

It provides the first fully calibrated images and catalogs from the Pre-FLAMES survey, establishing data sets and reduction techniques for future FLAMES observations.

Findings

Assessment of observing strategy and data quality

Definition of reduction procedures for input catalogs

Public availability of data and catalogs

Abstract

This paper presents the first set of fully calibrated images and associated stellar catalogs of the Pre-FLAMES survey being carried out by the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS) project. The primary goal of this survey is to provide the ESO community with data sets from which suitable target lists can be extracted for follow-up observations with the new VLT facility FLAMES. For this purpose 160 stellar fields have been selected for observations in B, V and I using the 8kx8k Wide Field Imager (WFI) at the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope at La Silla. These data have been used to assess the observing strategy adopted and to define suitable reduction techniques and procedures for the preparation of input catalogs for FLAMES. The images and catalogs presented here are publicly available and can be requested from the URL address ``http://www.eso.org/eis''.