Considerations for a Multi-beam Multi-purpose Survey with FAST
  Having achieved 'first-light' right before the opening ceremony on September
25, 2016, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is
being busily commissioned. Its innovative design requires ~1000 points to be
measured and driven instead of just the two axes of motion, e.g. Azimuth and
Elevation for most of the conventional antennae, to realize pointing and
tracking. We have devised a survey plan to utilized the full sensitivity of
FAST, while minimizing the complexities in operation the system. The 19-beam L
band focal plan array will be rotated to specific angles and taking continuous
data streams while the surface shape and the focal cabin stay fixed. Such a
survey will cover the northern sky in about 220 full days. Our aim is to obtain
data for pulsar search, HI (neutral hydrogen) galaxies, HI imaging, and radio
transients, simultaneously, through multiple backends. These data sets could be
a significant contribution to all related fields in radio astronomy and remain
relevant for decades.
