Welcome to Local Volume Mapper (LVM)!
The LVM is an ongoing optical, integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopic survey that targets the Milky Way, LMC, SMC, and other Local Volume galaxies.
- For an overview of the whole LVM survey, see About LVM
- An outline of our survey strategy and survey footprint is provided under: LVM Targeting and Observing Strategy
- To dig into data, please see: LVM Data Access, LVMvis, as well as our LVM Tutorials
- For technical details, the following pages have more information about the LVM Data Reduction Pipeline (DRP), Data Analysis Pipeline (DAP), Caveats, and Technical Papers
LVM Data in Data Release 20
The LVM began survey operations in November 2023. All targets were observed with the LVM Instrument, located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.
In Data Release 20 (DR20), LVM is releasing reduced integral field unit (IFU) spectra, along with emission line fits and stellar continuum parameters, for a variety of targets. This includes: Galactic HII regions (the Rosette Nebula, the Trifid Nebula, and the Flame and Horsehead Nebulae in Orion), 1 Galactic Planetary Nebula (Helix Nebula) and 2 Local Volume galaxies (M33 and NGC 4945).
Specifics on the targets are available on our LVM Targeting and Observing Strategy page, and details on accessing the data are available on our LVM Data Access page. This data can also be explored in our interactive data exploration tool LVMvis.