What criteria guided the target selection for the original 1995 Hubble Deep Field (HDF)?
High galactic latitude, freedom from bright foreground emissions, and continuous viewing zones.
The selection of the original Hubble Deep Field target region was highly methodical, driven by three key astronomical requirements. First, the region needed to be at a high galactic latitude to minimize obscuring dust and overwhelming light originating from the plane of our own Milky Way galaxy. Second, astronomers required a spot free from bright foreground stars or excessive emissions across various wavelengths so that the faint background galaxies would not be washed out or obscured. Third, the location had to fall within Hubble’s continuous viewing zones, which permitted the uninterrupted observation periods necessary for accumulating deep exposure time. These conditions ensured that the telescope could peer deepest into space without interference from local galactic sources.
