SFACT — A New, Deep Narrow-Band Survey for Emission-Line Galaxies

We describe the properties of a new narrow-band imaging survey called Star Formation Across Cosmic Time (SFACT), which is designed to detect emission-line galaxies (ELGs) at a broad range of redshifts. The survey utilizes the WIYN 3.5 m telescope and the One-Degree Imager camera, and currently employs three narrow-band filters, with additional filters planned. Because of the depth achievable with WIYN, the survey is able to detect star-forming galaxies and AGN/QSOs via several different emission lines (e.g., H-alpha, [O III], H-beta, [O II], Mg II, Ly-alpha) at the same time through each of our filters. Spectral confirmation of ELG candidates is obtained with WIYN and the Hydra multi-fiber instrument. The resultant catalog of detected ELGs samples the universe in redshift windows from z = 0 to z = 1.0 for star-forming galaxies with our current suite of filters, and to z = 5.2 for QSOs. We will describe SFACT in detail, and present some preliminary results from our early survey fields.