Selection and Characterization of Interesting Grism Spectra

Abstract

Observations with the ACS Wide Field Camera and G800L grism can produce thousands of spectra within a single WFC field producing a potentially rich treasure trove of information. However, the data are complicated to deal with. Here we describe algorithms to find and characterize spectra of emission line galaxies and supernovae using tools we have developed in conjunction with off the shelf software.

8 pages, 5 figures, to appear in "2005 HST Calibration Workshop", STScI 2005, A. Koekemoer, P. GoodFrooij, & L Dressel, eds. Note - the first supernova discvovered with the techniques given here, SN2005mr, was recently announced (IAUC #8651)