Wide-field narrow-band and broad-band imaging with large ground-based
telescopes have considerable promise. Narrow-band and
broad-spectral-band studies of the sky areas already earmarked for
multi-wave observation is one useful approach. It is already been
successful in the Hubble Deep Fields. Such imaging photometry has
already turned up distant galaxies, especially at z = 5.7 and
z = 6.6 (airglow windows for narrow-band studies). We know of
several groups planning to search for
Ly
emitters at the
highest redshifts available to CCD detectors
(
9200 Å;
z =
6.6). A more ambitious plan would be to utilize IR detectors at the
best (OH-band-free) sky windows in J band
(
12, 000
Å; z = 9). Exploration of the interval
6.6 
z
9 should
bring us to the edge of the re-ionization epoch where the first stars
and quasars began to ionize (again) the halos around collections of
dark matter and baryons. A schematic cartoon
(Pentericci et al.
2002b)
is shown by
Loeb & Barkana
(2001).
Is it realistic? We'll hope that
very distant galaxy images and spectra will tell us about very early
star formation at the end of the long "dark age". At this time it is
uncertain as to whether the first luminous and ionizing objects were
star-forming galaxies! But something or some process began
star-formation through the darkness and led to the formation of young
stars and young galaxies. We may soon barely detect these faint
"first galaxies" with our telescopes and intellects.
Acknowledgments
I thank Curt Manning, Steve Dawson, Arjun Dey, Mark Dickinson, Ikuru Iwata, Emily Landes, Scott Chapman, and Dan Stern for help with the science, and with this manuscript . I acknowledge the support from NSF Grant AST-0097163.