UCAC4 is a compiled, all-sky star catalog covering mainly the 8 to 16 magnitude range in a single bandpass between V and R. Positional errors are about 15 to 20 mas for stars in the 10 to 14 mag range. Proper motions have been derived for most of the about 113 million stars utilizing about 140 other star catalogs with significant epoch difference to the UCAC CCD observations. These data are supplemented by 2MASS photometric data for about 110 million stars and 5-band (B,V,g,r,i) photometry from the APASS (AAVSO Photometric All-Sky Survey) for over 50 million stars. UCAC4 also contains error estimates and various flags. All bright stars not observed with the astrograph have been added to UCAC4 from a set of Hipparcos and Tycho-2 stars. Thus UCAC4 should be complete from the brightest stars to about R=16, with the source of data indicated in flags. UCAC4 also provides a link to the original Hipparcos star number with additional data such as parallax found on a separate data file included in this release. The proper motions of bright stars are based on about 140 catalogs, including Hipparcos and Tycho, as well as all catalogs used for the Tycho-2 proper motion construction. Proper motions of faint stars are based on re-reductions of early epoch SPM data (-90 to about -20 deg Dec) and NPM (PMM scans of early epoch blue plates) for the remainder of the sky. These early epoch SPM data have also been combined with late epoch SPM data to arrive at proper motions partly independent from UCAC4 (Girard et al. 2011AJ....142...15G, Cat. I/320). The NPM data used in UCAC4 are not published. No Schmidt plate data are used in UCAC4. The unpublished plate measure data obtained by StarScan from the AGK2, the Hamburg Zone Astrograph, the USNO Black Birch Astrograph, and the Lick Astrograph have contributed to considerable improvement in proper motions for stars mainly in the 10 to 14 mag range (down to the UCAC limit for Lick data); however, these data do not cover all sky. Recources permitting, USNO plans to release the individual CCD observations (RA,Dec at epoch of each CCD observations) in the future. Please contact nz@usno.navy.mil if you are interested in obtaining this set of about 50 GB data. We will likely request that interested users provide an external disk drive for the data release.
UCAC3 is a compiled, all-sky star catalog covering mainly the 8 to 16 magnitude range in a single bandpass between V and R. Positional errors are about 15 to 20 mas for stars in the 10 to 14 mag range. It is supplemented by proper motions and SuperCosmos and 2MASS photometric data, as well as various flags. The proper motions of bright stars are based on about 140 catalogs, including Hipparcos and Tycho, as well as all catalogs used for the Tycho-2 proper motion construction. Proper motions of faint stars are based on a re-reduction of early epoch SPM data (-90 to -10 deg Dec) plus Schmidt plate data from the SuperCosmos project (down weighted due to systematic errors of order 100 mas). The proper motions of faint stars (R >= 13.5) therefore should be used with caution. The unpublished plate measure data from the AGK2, the Hamburg Zone Astrograph, the USNO Black Birch Astrograph, and the Lick Astrograph have considerably contributed to improve proper motions for stars mainly in the 10 to 14 mag range (down to the UCAC3 limit for Lick data); however, these data do not cover all sky. UCAC3 features a number of major differences with respect to UCAC2: - complete sky coverage - re-reduction of the pixel data with better modeling - double stars are resolved to the limit of the data - significantly improved photometry from CCD data - slightly deeper limiting magnitude with larger number of stars/area - reduced systematic errors of CCD observations - the addition of several new catalogs for improved proper motions - photometry in the B, R, and I bands from the SuperCosmos project - minor planet observations have been sorted out - identification of more high proper motion stars - match with 2MASS extended sources and LEDA galaxies Additional details will be published in the upcoming release paper (Zacharias et al. 2009) and in several technical papers describing details of the reduction procedures and results. For the latest updates see http://www.usno.navy.mil/usno/astrometry . Requests for the data DVD should be sent to ucac3@usno.navy.mil; technical questions can be addressed to nz@usno.navy.mil .
New astrometric reductions of the US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC) all-sky observations were performed from first principles using the TGAS stars in the 8 to 11 magnitude range as reference star catalog. Significant improvements in the astrometric solutions were obtained and the UCAC5 catalog of mean positions at a mean epoch near 2001 was generated. By combining UCAC5 with Gaia DR1 data new proper motions on the Gaia coordinate system for over 107 million stars were obtained with typical accuracies of 1 to 2mas/yr (R=11 to 15mag), and about 5mas/yr at 16th mag. Proper motions of most TGAS stars are improved over their Gaia data and the precision level of TGAS proper motions is extended to many millions more, fainter stars. External comparisons were made using stellar cluster fields and extragalactic sources. The TGAS data allow us to derive the limiting precision of the UCAC x, y data, which is significantly better than 1/100 pixel.
We use data from the U.S. Naval Observatory fourth CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC4) in combination with photometry from the AAVSO Photometric All-Sky Survey and Two Micron All-Sky Survey to identify stars within 25pc of the Sun. A sample of nearby stars with accurate trigonometric parallaxes from the Research Consortium On Nearby Stars is used to generate a set of 16 new photometric color-M_K_ relations that provide distance estimates with uncertainties of 15%. This work expands the available suites of well-calibrated photometric distance relations that can be used to identify nearby stellar systems. The distance relations are used with quality cuts to extract an initial sample of stars from the UCAC4 estimated to be within 25pc. Color, proper motion, and existing literature sources are then used to obtain a clean sample of red dwarfs, while limiting the amount of contamination from background giants, resulting in a sample of 1761 candidate nearby stars within 25pc. Of these, 339 are new discoveries with no previously known published parallax or distance estimate, primarily with proper motions less than 0.2arcsec/yr. Five stars are estimated to be within 10pc, with the nearest, TYC 3980 1081 1, with V=10.50 estimated to be at 5.9pc. That several hundred new stars have been revealed so close to the Sun illustrates once again that there is considerable work yet to be done to map the solar neighborhood and that additional nearby stars are likely still to be discovered.
This paper presents 442 new proper motion stellar systems in the southern sky between declinations -90{deg} and -47{deg} with 0.40"/yr>{mu}>=0.18"/yr. These systems constitute a 25.3% increase in new systems for the same region of the sky covered by previous SuperCOSMOS RECONS (SCR) searches that used Schmidt plates as the primary source of discovery. Among the new systems are 25 multiples, plus an additional 7 new common proper motion (CPM) companions to previously known primaries. All stars have been discovered using the third U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC3). A comparison of the UCAC3 proper motions to those from the Hipparcos, Tycho-2, Southern Proper Motion (SPM4), and SuperCOSMOS efforts is presented and shows that UCAC3 provides similar values and precision to the first three surveys.
We present 474 new proper motion stellar systems (500 objects) in the southern sky having no previously known components, with 0.40"/yr>{mu}>=0.18"/yr between declinations -47{deg} and 0{deg}. In this second paper utilizing the U.S. Naval Observatory third CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC3) we complete our sweep of the southern sky for objects in the proper motion range targeted by this survey with R magnitudes ranging from 9.80 to 19.61. The new systems contribute a ~16% increase in the number of new stellar systems for the same region of sky reported in previous SuperCOSMOS Research Consortium On Nearby Stars (RECONS) surveys. Among the newly discovered stellar systems are 16 multiples, plus an additional ten components that are new common proper motion companions to previously known objects. A comparison of UCAC3 proper motions to those from Hipparcos, Tycho-2, Southern Proper Motion, and SuperCOSMOS indicates that all proper motions are consistent to ~10mas/yr, with the exception of SuperCOSMOS. Distance estimates are derived for all stellar systems having SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey B_J_, R_59F_, and I_IVN_ plate magnitudes and Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) infrared photometry. We find five new red dwarf systems estimated to be within 25pc. These discoveries support results from previous proper motion surveys suggesting that more nearby stellar systems are to be found, particularly in the fainter, slower moving samples. In this second paper utilizing the UCAC3 we complete our sweep of the southern sky for objects in the proper motion range targeted by this survey with R magnitudes ranging from 9.80 to 19.61.
The U.S. Naval Observatory is in the process of making new reductions of the Astrographic Catalogue (AC) using a modern reference system, the ACRS, which represents the system of the FK5. The data from the Uccle Zone, whose plates are centered between declinations +34 and +35 degrees (eq. 1900), have been analyzed for scale, rotation, tilt, coma, magnitude equation, radial distortion and distortions introduced by the use of reseaux in the Carte du Ciel program. The result is a positional catalog of over 117,000 stars on eq. J2000.0, epoch of observation. Additionally, all stars have been matched with the Tycho Input Catalog (revised); those numbers have been added for additional identification purposes.
This paper presents new deep and wide narrow-band surveys undertaken with United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT), Subaru and the Very Large Telescope (VLT), a unique combined effort to select large, robust samples of H{alpha} star-forming galaxies at z = 0.40, 0.84, 1.47 and 2.23 (corresponding to look-back times of 4.2, 7.0, 9.2 and 10.6Gyr) in a uniform manner over ~2deg^2^ in the Cosmological Evolution Survey and Ultra Deep Survey fields. The deep multi-epoch H{alpha} surveys reach a matched 3{sigma} flux limit of ~3M_{sun}_/yr out to z=2.2 for the first time, while the wide area and the coverage over two independent fields allow us to greatly overcome cosmic variance and assemble by far the largest samples of H{alpha} emitters. Catalogues are presented for a total of 1742, 637, 515 and 807 H{alpha} emitters, robustly selected at z = 0.40, 0.84, 1.47 and 2.23, respectively, and used to determine the H{alpha} luminosity function and its evolution.
The UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey (GPS) is one of the five near infrared Public Legacy Surveys that are being undertaken by the UKIDSS consortium, using the Wide Field Camera on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope. It is surveying 1868 deg^2^ of the northern and equatorial Galactic plane at Galactic latitudes -5{deg}<b<5{deg} in the J, H and K filters and a ~300 deg^2^ area of the Taurus-Auriga-Perseus molecular cloud complex in these three filters and the 2.12{mu}m (1-0)S(1)H_2_ filter. It will provide data on ~ 3x10^9^ sources. The survey use the Wide Field Camera (WFCAM, see Casali et al. 2007A&A...467..777C) on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT). The typical 90% completeness limits in uncrowded fields are K=18.0, H=18.75, J=19.5, with uncertainties of about 0.2mag.
The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) is a large-scale near-IR survey which aim is to cover 7500 square degrees of the Northern sky. The survey is carried out using the Wide Field Camera (WFCAM), with a field of view of 0.21 square degrees, mounted on the 3.8m United Kingdom Infra-red Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii. The Large Area Survey (LAS) covers an area of 4000 square degrees in high Galactic latitudes (extragalactic) in the four bands Y(1.0um) J(1.2um) H(1.6um) and K(2.2um) to a depth of K = 18.4. Details of the survey can be found in the in the paper by Lawrence et al. (2007MNRAS.379.1599L)
