GRAPES, Grism Spectroscopy of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: Description and Data Reduction

We present deep unbiased spectroscopy of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) carried out using the slitless grism spectroscopy mode of the Advance Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The GRIsm ACS Program for Extragalactic Science (GRAPES) achieves continuum detection as faint as z_AB=27.2 using 40 orbits (9.2x10^4 seconds) on HST. The data were taken at four orientation angles to correct for the overlap of spectra. GRAPES data provide a unique, uninterrupted, low resolution (R=100) spectral coverage from 5500A to 10500A, and allow us to detect high redshift galaxies at 4 < z < 7 whether they have Lyman-alpha lines or just show the Lyman Break, as well as find low luminosity AGNs in an unbiased fashion. This paper describes in detail the observations and the data reduction, and examines the quality of the extracted spectra. Subsequent papers will deal with the analysis of the data. The extracted and calibrated GRAPES spectra will be available from MAST at STScI.