The Burrell Schmidt Deep Virgo Survey

Over the course of 7 observing seasons spanning the years 2004-2011, we used CWRU Astronomy's Burrell Schmidt telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory to conduct a deep, wide-field imaging survey of the nearby Virgo Cluster of galaxies. The survey footprint covers 16.7 square degrees in the Washington M filter and 15.3 square degrees in a modified Johnson B filter ("Bdsp"), with 11.1 square degrees covered in both filters. The data is transformed into standard Johnson B and V magnitudes, and we achieve a limiting 3-sigma surface brightness of mu(B)=29.5 and mu(V)=28.5 mags/arcsec².

Team Members:

PI: Chris Mihos, Department of Astronomy, Case Western Reserve University
Co-I's:

Paul Harding, CWRU
John Feldmeier, Youngstown State
Craig Rudick, University of Kentucky
Steven Janowiecki, ICRAR, University of Western Australia
Heather Morrison, CWRU
Colin Slater, University of Washington
Aaron Watkins, CWRU

Data Download

The calibrated, masked/median-binned (9x9) surface brightness maps are available here:

B-band surface brightness map (3.5Mb gzipped fits file, 1500x2250 pixels, 13.05"/pix)
V-band surface brightness map (3.8Mb gzipped fits file, 1500x2250 pixels, 13.05"/pix)

Full resolution survey mosaics are available here.

Full Bdsp mosaic (337 Mb gzipped fits file, 13500x20250 pixels, 1.45"/pix)
Full Washington M mosaic (372 Mb gzipped fits file, 13500x20250 pixels, 1.45"/pix)

The photometric solution for the images (already applied to the masked/median-binned images) is given by:

m_B = -2.5log(I_B) - 0.125(B-V) + 28.973
m_V = -2.5log(I_M) - 0.246(B-V) + 28.606

Note (1/2/20): Prior to this note, the photometric solution given on this page and written into the image header contained a sign error in the color term. This does not affect the data (or any published results), since the proper calibration was always being applied. It was simply a typo on this page and in what was written to the image headers. If you downloaded the data prior to this date, you should re-download the images so that you have versions with the correct solution written in the header.

If you use the imaging data in your research, please cite the main survey paper (Mihos et al 2017), and please also let us know how you're using the data. Thanks.

(From Mihos et al 2017)

Survey Publications

Publications led by team members:

The Burrell Schmidt Deep Virgo Survey: Tidal Debris, Galaxy Halos, and Diffuse Intracluster Light in the Virgo Cluster, Mihos et al 2017, The Astrophysical Journal, 834, 16.
Galaxies at the Extremes: Ultra-diffuse Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, Mihos et al 2015, The Astrophysical Journal, 809, L21.
Stellar Populations in the Outer Halo of the Massive Elliptical M49, Mihos et al 2013, The Astrophysical Journal, 764, L20.
Optical Colors of Intracluster Light in the Virgo Cluster Core, Rudick et al 2010, The Astrophysical Journal, 720, 569.
Diffuse Tidal Structures in the Halos of Virgo Ellipticals, Janowiecki et al 2010, The Astrophysical Journal, 715, 972.
Removing Internal Reflections from Deep Imaging Data Sets, Slater et al 2009, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 121, 1267.
The Connection Between Diffuse Light and Intracluster Planetary Nebulae in the Virgo Cluster, Mihos et al 2009, The Astrophysical Journal, 698, 1879.
Diffuse Light in the Virgo Cluster, Mihos et al 2005, The Astrophysical Journal, 631, L41.

Other publications using BSDVS data:

The build-up of the cD halo of M 87: evidence for accretion in the last Gyr, Longobardi et al 2015, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 579, L3.
The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. VIII. The Spatial Distribution of Globular Clusters in the Virgo Cluster, Durrell et al 2014, The Astrophysical Journal, 794, 103.
Exploring the Unusually High Black-hole-to-bulge Mass Ratios in NGC 4342 and NGC 4291: The Asynchronous Growth of Bulges and Black Holes, Bogdan et al 2012, The Astrophysical Journal, 753, 140.

Acknowledgements

Financial support for the survey has been provided by The National Science Foundation, Research Corporation, and the Department of Astronomy and College of Arts and Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.