Equatorial coordinates have been determined for 61 variables in the northern globular cluster M 53 and for 12 variables in the southern globular cluster NGC 2808 with accuracy sufficient for reliable identifications. A number of errors have been revealed in publications on variable starts in M 53.
Equatorial coordinates of variable stars in the globular cluster M3 (NGC 5272) and its nearest surroundings, mainly measured on a plate taken with The Zeiss-1000 telescope, are presented. Positions in a homogeneous system are presented for the first time for objects from the Catalogue of variable stars in globular clusters as well as for GCVS and NSV catalogue stars.
A table of constellation boundaries was rearranged to permit the rapid identification of the constellation to which a position refers. A software program is provided to precess positions at another equinox to those at 1875.0.
The amateur observer Lennart Dahlmark has published a useful series of IBVS notes listing a number of candidate variable stars, most of which were new. Although adequate charts and reliable semi-accurate positions were supplied, no other identifications were usually given. If the stars are to be recovered for further study and linkage within other surveys (IRAS, etc.), then precise positions must be determined to make identification unambiguous within crowded galactic fields.
Identification of metal-poor stars among field stars is extremely useful for studying the structure and evolution of the Galaxy and of external galaxies. We search for metal-poor stars using the artificial neural network (ANN) and extend its usage to determine absolute magnitudes. We have constructed a library of 167 medium-resolution stellar spectra (R~1200) covering the stellar temperature range of 4200 to 8000K, logg range of 0.5 to 5.0, and [Fe/H] range of -3.0 to dex. This empirical spectral library was used to train ANNs, yielding an accuracy of 0.3dex in [Fe/H], 200K in temperature, and 0.3dex in logg. We found that the independent calibrations of near-solar metallicity stars and metal-poor stars decreases the errors in Teff and logg by nearly a factor of two.
Detailed identification of radio sources within the Abell radii in 26 rich galactic clusters of the FIRST catalog with optical objects of the APM and DSS surveys had been carried out. Of the 326 radio sources in the cluster fields, 99 are identified, 40 have probable identifications, and 187 are unidentified. Among last sources, 20 are definitely located in the clusters and 34 are cluster members with high probability. Thus, 30-40% of the FIRST radio sources could be identified using APM and DSS data, and there were two sources in each cluster on the average.
Many studies have shown that RR Lyrae variable stars (RRL) are powerful stellar tracers of Galactic halo structure and satellite galaxies. The Dark Energy Survey (DES), with its deep and wide coverage (g~23.5 mag in a single exposure; over 5000 deg^2^) provides a rich opportunity to search for substructures out to the edge of the Milky Way halo. However, the sparse and unevenly sampled multiband light curves from the DES wide-field survey (a median of four observations in each of grizY over the first three years) pose a challenge for traditional techniques used to detect RRL. We present an empirically motivated and computationally efficient template-fitting method to identify these variable stars using three years of DES data. When tested on DES light curves of previously classified objects in SDSS stripe 82, our algorithm recovers 89% of RRL periods to within 1% of their true value with 85% purity and 76% completeness. Using this method, we identify 5783 RRL candidates, ~28% of which are previously undiscovered. This method will be useful for identifying RRL in other sparse multiband data sets.
Excess numbers of X-ray sources around bright Seyfert galaxies have been demonstrated with significances of association up to 7.4-sigma (Radecke, 1997A&A...319...18R). The optical identification of these sources is shown here to be predominantly blue stellar objects (BSO's) of which some are already catalogued as quasars. Excluding the two brightest Seyferts, a subset of 24 with apparent magnitudes between 8.04<=B_T_^o,i^<=12.90mag. show a minimum excess of >46 bright X-ray sources. These excess X-ray sources are generally distributed between 10'<r<40' and 12 of the Seyferts show conspicuous pairs of X-ray sources across their active nuclei. Additional pairing and alignment of sources is seen for the remaining Seyferts. Among the paired X-ray sources, 53 have been identified as BSO's. Some double and multiple BSO's have been identified which are candidates for groups and associations of quasars. Some groups are well aligned and some centered on small blue galaxies. Four previously known BL Lac objects fall close enough to the Seyferts in this sample to confirm, at a significance level of 1-2x10^-9^, a previously reported association of BL Lac objects with bright, low redshift galaxies.
The catalog provides identifications in a variety of astronomical catalogs of 1555 metal-deficient stars from the MDSP catalog of metal-deficient F-M stars classified spectroscopically (Bartkevicius 1980) and from its first supplement, MDSPS1 (Bartkevicius 1984, Cat. <III/125>).
Results from a continuing program for identification of sources from the RC catalog (from observations with the RATAN-600 radio telescope) with the APM (Automatic Plate Measuring) Northern Sky Catalogs available via the Internet are presented. The coordinate accuracy for the optical objects is better than 1".