Beyond 31 mag/arcsec^2: the low surface brightness frontier with the largest optical telescopes

Understand

The detection of optical surface brightness structures in the sky with magnitudes fainter than 30 mag/arcsec^2 (3sigma in 10x10 arcsec boxes; r-band) has remained elusive in current photometric deep surveys.

• Here we show how present-day 10 meter class telescopes can provide broadband imaging 1.5-2 mag deeper than most previous results within a reasonable amount of time (i.e.
• <10h on source integration).
• In particular, we illustrate the ability of the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC) telescope to produce imaging with a limiting surface brightness of 31.5 mag/arcsec^2 (3sigma in 10x10 arcsec boxes; r-band) using 8.1 hours on source.