The VLA FIRST Survey
![[Amusing Picture]](first/bandw.jpg)
Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters
FIRST --
Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm
-- is a project
designed to produce the radio equivalent of the Palomar Observatory Sky
Survey over 10,000 square degrees of the North and South Galactic Caps.
Using the
NRAO Very Large
Array (VLA) and an automated mapping pipeline, we produce
images
with 1.8" pixels, a typical rms of
0.15 mJy, and a resolution of 5". At the 1 mJy source detection
threshold, there are ~90 sources per square degree, ~35% of which have
resolved structure on scales from 2-30". 30% of the sources have counterparts
in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Richard L. White, rlw@stsci.edu
2025 September 16
