Description
We combine Gaia DR1, PS1, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and 2MASS astrometry to measure proper motions for 350 million sources across three-fourths of the sky down to a magnitude of m_r_~20. Using positions of galaxies from PS1, we build a common reference frame for the multi-epoch PS1, single-epoch SDSS and 2MASS data, and calibrate the data in small angular patches to this frame. As the Gaia DR1 excludes resolved galaxy images, we choose a different approach to calibrate its positions to this reference frame: we exploit the fact that the proper motions of stars in these patches are linear. By simultaneously fitting the positions of stars at different epochs of-Gaia DR1, PS1, SDSS, and 2MASS-we construct an extensive catalog of proper motions dubbed GPS1. GPS1 has a characteristic systematic error of less than 0.3mas/yr and a typical precision of 1.5-2.0mas/yr. The proper motions have been validated using galaxies, open clusters, distant giant stars, and QSOs. In comparison with other published faint proper motion catalogs, GPS1's systematic error (<0.3mas/yr) should be nearly an order of magnitude better than that of PPMXL and UCAC4 (>2.0mas/yr). Similarly, its precision (~1.5mas/yr) is a four-fold improvement relative to PPMXL and UCAC4 (~6.0mas/yr). For QSOs, the precision of GPS1 is found to be worse (~2.0-3.0mas/yr), possibly due to their particular differential chromatic refraction.
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