The Arecibo L-Band Feed Array Zone of Avoidance ( ALFA ZOA ) Deep Survey is the deepest and most sensitive blind H i survey undertaken in the ZOA .
ALFA ZOA Deep will cover about 300 square degrees of sky behind the Galactic plane in both the inner ( 30 ^ { \circ } \leq l \leq 75 ^ { \circ } ;b \leq| 2 ^ { \circ } | ) and outer ( 175 ^ { \circ } \leq l \leq 207 ^ { \circ } ; -2 ^ { \circ } \leq b \leq + 1 ^ { \circ } ) Galaxy , using the Arecibo Radio Telescope .
First results from the survey have found 61 galaxies within a 15 square degree area centered on l = 192 ^ { \circ } and b = -2 ^ { \circ } .
The survey reached its expected sensitivity of rms = 1 mJy at 9 km s ^ { -1 } channel resolution , and is shown to be complete above integrated flux , F _ { HI } = 0.5 Jy km s ^ { -1 } .
The positional accuracy of the survey is 28 ^ { \prime \prime } and detections are found out to a recessional velocity of nearly 19,000 km s ^ { -1 } .
The survey confirms the extent of the Orion and Abell 539 clusters behind the plane of the Milky Way and discovers expansive voids , at 10,000 km s ^ { -1 } and 18,000 km s ^ { -1 } .
26 detections ( 43 % ) have a counterpart in the literature , but only two of these have known redshift .
Counterparts are 20 % less common beyond v _ { hel } = 10,000 km s ^ { -1 } and 33 % less common at extinctions higher than A _ { B } = 3.5 mag .
ALFA ZOA Deep survey is able to probe large scale structure beyond redshifts that even the most modern wide-angle surveys have been able to detect in the Zone of Avoidance at any wavelength .