Reddening Independent Quasar Selection from a Wide Field Optical and Near-IR Imaging Survey

Sabbey, C. N.; Sharp, R. G.; Vivas, A. K.; Hodgkin, S. T.; Coppi, P. S.; McMahon, R. G.

Reddening Independent Quasar Selection from a Wide Field Optical and Near-IR Imaging Survey

Authors

Description

We present preliminary results from a wide field near-IR imaging survey that uses the Cambridge InfraRed Survey Instrument (CIRSI) on the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT). CIRSI is a JH-band mosaic imager that contains 4 Rockwell 1024$^{2}$ HgCdTe detectors (the largest IR camera in existence), allowing us to survey approximately 4 deg^2 per night to H ~ 19. Combining CIRSI observations with the deep optical imaging from the INT Wide Field Survey, we demonstrate a reddening independent quasar selection technique based on the (g - z) / (z - H) color diagram.
To appear in Proceedings of the New Era of Wide Field Astronomy conference, Preston, England, August 2000