The Wide Field Survey on the Isaac Newton Telescope

In this paper we report on the INT Wide Field Survey, which is based on the Wide Field Camera (WFC) on the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) on La Palma. The WFC comprises four 4k x2k thinned EEV CCDs and offers the equivalent of a 33 x 33 arcmin field, sampled at 0.33 arcsec/pixel, thereby providing a powerful tool for executing high resolution, deep, optical imaging surveys. In order to optimize the scientific return of the WFC, a large scale public access wide field survey (WFS) program was initiated in 1998, to run for a duration of up to five years. A novel hybrid strategy, emphasizing the multi-use quality of the data, was employed in selecting the science to be undertaken, The programs currently comprising the WFS are a survey covering 100 square degrees to a depth of m(R) = 24 in up to six passbands (UBg'r'i'z). Smaller encapsulated programs provide: deeper surveys to m(R) = 26 over selected areas for the study of galaxy clustering and deep Galactic studies; multi-epoch observations of several regions for variability and proper motion studies; and short timescale repeat observations for an intermediate-redshift supernova program. The survey data are provided on-line in a pipeline-processed form via a WWW access site, shortly after they are obtained. We discuss some of the scientific goals of the survey as well as the data processing pipeline and data products. In addition we briefly discuss a complimentary survey being done in the infrared using the Cambridge Infrared Survey Instrument (CIRSI).