The Faint Sky Variability Survey I: An Overview

The Faint Sky Variability Survey is aimed at finding variable objects in the brightness range between 17th and 25th magnitude on timescales between tens of minutes and years with photometric precisions ranging from 3 millimagnitudes for the brightest to 0.2 magnitudes for the faintest objects. An area of at least 50 square degrees, located at mid-galactic latitudes, will be covered using the Wide Field Camera on the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma. The survey started in November 1998 as part of the INT Wide Field Survey program. Here we describe the main goals of the Faint Sky Variability Survey, the methods used in extracting the relevant information and the future prospects of the survey