OBSERVATIONS OF THE HUBBLE DEEP FIELD WITH THE INFRARED SPACE-OBSERVATORY .1. DATA REDUCTION, MAPS AND SKY COVERAGE

We present deep imaging at 6.7 and 15 mu m from the CAM instrument on the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), centred on the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). These are the deepest integrations published to date at these wavelengths in any region of sky. We discuss the observational strateg y and the data reduction. The observed source density appears to appro ach the CAM confusion limit at 15 mu m, and fluctuations in the 6.7-mu m sky background may be identifiable with similar spatial fluctuation s in the HDF galaxy counts. ISO appears to be detecting comparable fie ld galaxy populations to the HDF, and our data yield strong evidence t hat future infrared missions (such as SIRTF, FIRST and WIRE) as well a s SCUBA and millimetre arrays will easily detect field galaxies out to comparably high redshifts.