Deep Lens Survey

The Deep Lens Survey is an ultra-deep multi-band optical imaging survey of five 4 square degree fields in the sky. The data were taken over about 100 nights on NOAO's Blanco and Mayall 4-meter telescopes. Publicly available data products include deep images, catalogs, and transient events.

The main science goal is weak gravitational lensing, in which subtle correlations of the shapes of distant galaxies reveal the intervening mass distribution. We use the multiwavelength photometry to derive photometric redshifts (approximate distances) to the galaxies. Because distance corresponds to lookback time, the combination of these two techniques unveils the growth of massive structures over cosmic time.

At the same time, this rich dataset is useful for many other purposes. We encourage you to explore it.

The Deep Lens Survey has received major funding from Lucent Technologies and from the National Science Foundation (grant 0441072).

Please acknowledge the Deep Lens Survey and NOAO when using the data for a publication. You may cite the DLS overview paper.