The Survey
Stripe 82 is a 2.5 degree wide stripe along the Celestial Equator in the Southern Galactic Cap (-50º < R.A. < 60º, -1.25º < Dec- < 1.25º) with a total area of 275 square degrees in all the five Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) bands. It has been imaged by the SDSS multiple times between 1998 and 2004 as part of the Legacy Survey in 82 runs (94 to 5052) under photometric conditions with generally good seeing and low sky background. Additional coverage of Stripe 82 has been obtained as part of the SDSS Supernovae Survey between 2005 and 2007, resulting in observations from additional 222 runs (5566 to 7202).
In our reduction of this dataset, we prioritize the preservation of the characteristics of the background (sky + diffuse light) in the individual images by using a non-aggressive sky subtraction strategy. Incoporating such a strategy in the coaddition of these images has allowed us to reach two magnitudes deeper than the regular SDSS. It is the collection of these deeper and high quality coadded images that make up the IAC Stripe82 Legacy Project.
The coadded dataset reaches a mean surface brightness limit of µ[3σ, 10 x 10 arcsec2] = 27.9, 29.1, 28.6, 28.1 and 26.7 mag arcsec-2 for the u, g, r, i and z bands respectively. The effective surface brightness limit (50% completeness for exponential light distribution) lies at <µe(r)> ~ 25.5 mag arcsec-². For point sources we reach 50% completeness limits (3σ level) of 24.2, 25.2, 24.7, 24.3, 23.0 mag for the u, g, r, i and z bands respectively. Details on the reduction process and first science cases such as the discovery of stellar streams around NGC0426 and NGC0936 has been published in Fliri & Trujillo (2016).
Data release
The release includes the coadded images, corresponding exposure time maps and sky-rectified versions of the coadditions (latest update by Román & Trujillo 2018). Additionally, we provide extended Point Spread Functions (PSFs) representative of each filter. Furthermore, the release includes object catalogues for point and extended sources with stars and galaxies confidently separated up to g~23 magnitudes. The IAC Stripe 82 data products can be accessed through the data section.