Hawaii Two-0 Observing Plan
Hawaii Two-0 Survey Footprint
The 10 deg2 footprint for each of the H20 fields comprised of seven HSC pointings arranged in a flower petal pattern.
Note: In October 2023, EDF-N was expanded to 20 deg2 by the Euclid Board.

Limiting Magnitudes / Exposure Times for Final Survey
g | r | i | z | Y | JH☆ | ch1† | ch2† | |
Limiting mag | 27.5 | 27.5 | 27 | 26.5 | 26 | 26 | 24.8 | 24.7 |
HSC exposure time | 1.1h | 2.5h | 4.1h | 4.8h | 9h | — | — | — |
☆ From Euclid Deep (operations start in 2021). WFIRST will also cover this area at 26 mag 10σ (operations start mid-2020s).
† From the Euclid/WFIRST Spitzer Legacy Survey (ADS)
Following an assessment of progress through the first four semesters of our LCP, we have decided it would be prudent to descope the LCP by forgoing the HSC Y-band observations. This descope brings the total number of HSC nights down from 30N to 18N. Considering the 6 nights of successful data collection through the LCP, and an equivalent of 6 nights of archival data, we have a strong chance of reaching 100% completion of a four band (griz) imaging program for the H20 LCP.
The HSC griz imaging in conjunction with the SLS 3.4+4.5 micron imaging will be sufficient for identifying massive galaxies at z~3-6.5, and thus does not significantly degrade our original science plan. The Y-band data will eventually be obtained by Euclid, along with JH-band observations, that will allow us to identify massive galaxies out to redshifts z~14 (if they exist!).
High-z Dropout Selection
To confirm the ability of the Hawaii Two-0 (20 sq. deg.) survey (as designed) to robustly identify high-redshift galaxies (z≳4) using our H20 dropout selection technique, we used the UH+SSP HSC data in the COSMOS (2 sq. deg.) field to select high redshift galaxy candidates. See High-Redshift Dropout Galaxies Section of the Science Page for more details.
H20 Predictions
Dropout Band | Redshift | Expected Sources in H20 20 sq. deg |
---|---|---|
g | 4 | ~720,000 |
r | 5 | ~40,000 |
i | 6 | ~3000 |
z | 7 | ~500 |
Photo-z selected sources
Redshift | Expected Sources in H20 20 sq. deg |
2 | ~3,000,000 |
3 | ~2,000,000 |

Note that r-band dropouts are sources that “just begin to appear” in the r-band, are clearly absent in the g-band, and robustly detected in the i-band. The above figure clearly illustrates the potential for H20 observations to detect high-redshift dropout galaxies.
Exposure Time Calculations for
DEIMOS Spectroscopy
Density of High-Redshift Dropout Targets in a DEIMOS FOV
In each DEIMOS mask (16’x4′, yellow box), we expect to collect spectra for:
60+ g-band droupouts
40 r-band droupouts
10 i-band droupouts
For comparison, we indicate the smaller LRIS FOV (6’x7.8′, red dashed box).
Expected Magnitude Distributions for the gri-band Dropouts



DEIMOS Instrument Configuration & Exposure Times
The optimal configuration for our DEIMOS spectroscopy is the 600ZD grating with the OG550 order blocking filter (green dot-dashed line below). This configuration maximizes efficiency over the wavelength range where we expect to dectect Ly-α emission in the gri-band dropout galaxies at z = 4, 5, & 6. The galaxy templates were generated using FSPS assuming a 10^10 Msun galaxy with a delayed-exponential SFH with τ = 2 Gyr and age of 1 Gyr. The signal to noise estimates are based on an exposure time of 3.5hrs with a 1 arcsec slit, 1 arcsec seeing, and an airmass of 1.3.