MDW Data Releases

Overview

The MDW hydrogen-alpha (Hα) Sky Survey is a full-sky imaging survey in the narrowband Hα wavelength (656.3nm), with a foundational goal to generate a deep, high-resolution Hα picture of the night sky. The survey operates using custom-modified Astro-Physics 130mm f/6.3 refractors (with a 0.72x Quad Telecompressor Corrector), an FLI ProLine 16803 CCD camera, and a 3nm Astrodon Hα filter.

The survey was founded by three New England-based friends and astrophotographers - David Mittelman, Dennis di Cicco, and Sean Walker (MDW), with support from the Michele and David Mittelman Family Foundation. Click here to learn more about the survey and its origins.

The survey is carried out remotely between the Mittelman Observatory in New Mexico, and the ObsTech Observatorio El Sauce in Chile's Río Hurtado Valley.

Field Information

The survey consists of 4120 fields spanning the entire sky, where each field spans approximately 3.6 × 3.6 degrees. The detailed status and position of each field can be found in the map below, and under Data Release 0 → Images. Each field is exposed for a total of 4 hours over 12 20-minute exposures, with 4k resolution, and a pixel scale of 3.17 arcsec/pix.

Survey All-Sky Map and Progression

Acknowledgement

Funding for the MDW Survey Project has been provided by the Michele and David Mittelman Family Foundation. David R. Mittelman, Dennis di Cicco, and Sean Walker are founding members of the survey and made possible the acquisition and reduction of the data. The Columbia University Astronomy Department is responsible for the final data reduction, calibration, and dissemination of the survey data.