The OmegaWhite Survey for Short-Period Variable Stars I: Overview and First Results

Understand

We present the goals, strategy and first results of the OmegaWhite survey: a wide-field high-cadence $g$-band synoptic survey which aims to unveil the Galactic population of short-period variable stars (with periods $<$ 80 min), including ultracompact binary star systems and stellar pulsators.

• The ultimate goal of OmegaWhite is to cover 400 square degrees along the Galactic Plane reaching a depth of $g = $ 21.5 mag (10$\sigma$), using OmegaCam on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST).
• The fields are selected to overlap with surveys such as the Galactic Bulge Survey (GBS) and the VST Photometric H$\alpha$ Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane (VPHAS+) for multi-band colour information.
• Each field is observed using 38 exposures of 39 s each, with a median cadence of $\sim$2.7 min for a total duration of two hours.