We have conducted a variability survey of the Local Group galaxy M33, using g', r', and i' observations from 27 nights spanning 17 months, made with the MegaPrime/MegaCam instrument on the 3.6m CFHT telescope (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope). We identify more than 36000 variable sources with g', r', i'<~24, out of approximately two million point sources in a 1-deg^2^ field of view. This increases the number of known variables in this galaxy by more than a factor of 20. In this paper, we provide a brief description of the data and a general overview of the variable star population which includes more than 1300 candidate variable blue and red supergiant stars, more than 2000 Cepheids, and more than 19000 long-period variable asymptotic giant branch and red giant branch stars.
We present a catalog of photometrically variable stars discovered within two 21.3'x21.3' fields centered on the Cygnus OB2 association (Cyg OB2). There have hitherto been no deep optical variability studies of Cyg OB2, despite it being replete with early-type massive stars, likely due to the high and variable extinction (up to A_V_~20) that permeates much of the region. Here, we provide results of the first variability study with this combination of spatial coverage (~0.5deg) and photometric depth (R~21mag). We find 121 stars to be variable in both R and I bands, 115 of them newly discovered. Of the 121 variables, we identify 27 eclipsing binaries and eclipsing-binary candidates, 52 pulsating variables, and 20 potential Herbig Ae/Be stars. Confirming both the status and the cluster membership of the Herbig Ae/Be stars would address the uncertainty regarding the age and star formation history of Cyg OB2. We match our catalog to known variables and binaries in the region, Two Micron All Sky Survey near-IR data, and Chandra X-ray observations to find counterparts to new variables in other wavelengths.
The existing CCD/Transit Instrument (CTI-I) survey database was searched for variable stars with 12<V<18.5. This magnitude range corresponds to the saturation limit and the practical faint limit of the original survey (1987-1992). The CTI-I imaged a strip of the sky with a narrow spread of declination over all right ascensions. The resulting survey area covers a large range of both Galactic latitude and longitude, and includes approximately 50deg^2^. Numerous challenges created by the automated photometry pipeline and associated solutions to these problems implemented during the variable suspect selection process are described. The final list contains 1807 stars. Details and the photometry of each are provided to facilitate selection for follow-up observations and subsequent analysis. Known variable stars listed in the General Catalog of Variable Stars are identified, and follow-up observations at the US Air Force Academy Observatory of selected brighter suspects (V<15) previously not identified as variable are also described.
Based on the data obtained from the Spitzer/Galactic Legacy Infrared Midplane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIPMSE) Legacy Program and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) project, we derive the extinction in the four IRAC bands, [3.6], [4.5], [5.8], and [8.0]um, relative to the 2MASS Ks band (at 2.16um) for 131 GLIPMSE fields along the Galactic plane within |l|<=65{deg}, using red giants and red clump giants as tracers. As a whole, the mean extinction in the IRAC bands (normalized to the 2MASS Ks band), A_[3.6]_/A_Ks_~0.63+/-0.01, A_[4.5]_/A_Ks_~0.57+/-0.03, A_[5.8]/A_Ks_~0.49+/-0.03, A_[8.0]_/A_Ks_~0.55+/-0.03, exhibits little variation with wavelength (i.e., the extinction is somewhat flat or gray). As far as individual sightline is concerned, however, the wavelength dependence of the mid-infrared interstellar extinction A_{lambda}_/A_Ks_ varies from one sightline to another, suggesting that there may not exist a "universal" IR extinction law.
We performed a deep wide-field (6.76 square-degrees) near-infrared survey with the VISTA telescope that covers the entire extent of the Carina nebula complex. Complementing the VISTA near-infrared catalog with Spitzer IRAC mid-infrared photometry improves the situation of the background contamination considerably. We find that a (J-H) versus (Ks-[4.5]) color-color diagram is well suited to tracing the population of YSO-candidates (cYSOs) by their infrared excess. We identify 8781 sources with strong infrared excess, which we consider as cYSOs. This sample is used to investigate the spatial distribution of the cYSOs with a nearest-neighbor analysis. The surface density distribution of cYSOs agrees well with the shape of the clouds as seen in our Herschel far-infrared survey. The strong decline in the surface density of excess sources outside the area of the clouds supports the hypothesis that our excess-selected sample consists predominantly of cYSOs with a low level of background contamination.
We present the VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey (VEGAS), which is designed to obtain deep multiband photometry in g, r, i, of about one hundred nearby galaxies down to 27.3, 26.8, and 26mag/arcsec^2^ respectively, using the ESO facility VST/OmegaCAM. The goals of the survey are 1) to map the light distribution up to ten effective radii, r_e_; 2) to trace color gradients and surface brightness fluctuation gradients out to a few r_e_ for stellar population characterization; and 3) to obtain a full census of the satellite systems (globular clusters and dwarf galaxies) out to 20% of the galaxy virial radius. The external regions of galaxies retain signatures of the formation and evolution mechanisms that shaped them, and the study of nearby objects enables a detailed analysis of their morphology and interaction features. To clarify the complex variety of formation mechanisms of early-type galaxies (ETGs), wide and deep photometry is the primary observational step, which at the moment has been pursued with only a few dedicated programs. The VEGAS survey has been designated to provide these data for a volume-limited sample with exceptional image quality. In this commissioning photometric paper we illustrate the capabilities of the survey using g- and i-band VST/OmegaCAM images of the nearby galaxy NGC 4472 and of smaller ETGs in the surrounding field. Our surface brightness profiles reach rather faint levels and agree excellently well with previous literature. Genuine new results concern the detection of an intracluster light tail in NGC 4472 and of various substructures at increasing scales. We have also produced extended (g-i) color profiles. The VST/OmegaCAM data that we acquire in the context of the VEGAS survey provide a detailed view of substructures in the optical emission from extended galaxies, which can be as faint as a hundred times below the sky level.
We present the second public data release of the VISTA EXtension to Auxiliary Surveys (VEXAS DR2), where we classify objects into stars, galaxies and quasars based on an ensemble of machine learning algorithms. The aim of VEXAS is to build the widest multi-wavelength catalogue, providing reference magnitudes, colours and morphological information for a large number of scientific uses. We apply an ensemble of thirty-two different machine learning models, based on three different algorithms and on different magnitude sets, training samples and classification problems (two or three classes) on the three VEXAS Data Release 1 (DR1) optical+infrared (IR) tables. The tables were created in DR1 cross-matching VISTA near-infrared data with Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer far-infrared data and with optical magnitudes from the Dark Energy Survey (VEXAS-DESW), the Sky Mapper Survey (VEXAS-SMW), and the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System Survey (VEXAS-PSW). We assemble a large table of spectroscopically confirmed objects (VEXAS-SPEC-GOOD, 415 628 unique objects), based on the combination of six different spectroscopic surveys that we use for training. We develop feature imputation to classify also objects for which magnitudes in one or more bands are missing. We classify in total 90106 objects in the Southern Hemisphere. Among these, ~62.9x10^6^ (~52.6x10^6^) are classified as 'high confidence' ('secure') stars, ~920000 (~750000) as 'high confidence' ('secure') quasars and ~34.8 (~34.1) millions as 'high confidence' ('secure') galaxies, with pclass>=0.7 (pclass>=0.9). The DR2 tables update the DR1 with the addition of imputed magnitudes and membership probabilities to each of the three classes. The density of high-confidence extragalactic objects varies strongly with the survey depth: at pclass>0.7; there are 111/deg^2^ quasars in the VEXAS-DESW footprint and 103/deg^2^ in the VEXAS-PSW footprint, while only 10.7/deg^2^ in the VEXASSM footprint. Improved depth in the midIR and coverage in the optical and nearIR are needed for the SM footprint that is not already covered by DESW and PSW.
We report on the results of an I-band time-series photometric survey of NGC 2547 using the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope with Wide Field Imager, achieving better than 1 per cent photometric precision per data point over 14~<I~<18. Candidate cluster members were selected from a V versus V-I colour-magnitude diagram over 12.5<V<24 (covering masses from 0.9M_{sun}_ down to below the brown dwarf limit), finding 800 candidates, of which we expect ~330 to be real cluster members, taking into account contamination from the field (which is most severe at the extremes of our mass range). Searching for periodic variations in these gave 176 detections over the mass range 0.1~<M/M_{sun}_<0.9.
The VIKING survey with VISTA (ESO programme ID 179.A-2004) is a wide area (eventually 1500 sq.degrees), intermediate-depth (5-sigma detection limit J=21 on Vega system) near-infrared imaging survey, in the five broadband filters Z, Y, J, H, Ks. The planned sky coverage is at high galactic latitudes, and includes two main stripes 70x10{deg}^2^ each: one in the South Galactic cap near Dec~-30{deg}, and one near Dec~0{deg} in the North galactic cap; in addition, there are two smaller outrigger patches called GAMA09 and CFHLS-W1. Science goals include z>6.5 quasars, extreme brown dwarfs, and multiwavelength coverage and identifications for a range of other imaging surveys, notably VST-KIDS and Herschel-ATLAS. This first public data release of data taken between the 12th of November 2009 and the 13th of February 2011 includes 151 tiles with complete coverage in all five VIKING filters (55 in GAMA09/12/14, 91 in SGP and 5 in CFHLS-W1) i.e. 226 square degrees, and includes approximately 14,773,385 total sources (including low-reliability single-band detections) and the imaging and source lists total 314.4GB. The coverage in each of the five sub-areas is not completely contiguous but any inter-tile gaps are relatively small. More details can be found in the accompanying documentation: viking_cat_dr1.pdf
The VIKING survey with VISTA (ESO programme ID 179.A-2004) is a wide area (eventually 1500 sq.degrees), intermediate-depth (5-sigma detection limit J=21 on Vega system) near-infrared imaging survey, in the five broadband filters Z, Y, J, H, Ks. The planned sky coverage is at high galactic latitudes, and includes two main stripes 70x10{deg}^2^ each: one in the South Galactic cap near Dec~-30{deg}, and one near Dec~0{deg} in the North galactic cap; in addition, there are two smaller outrigger patches called GAMA09 and CFHLS-W1. Science goals include z>6.5 quasars, extreme brown dwarfs, and multiwavelength coverage and identifications for a range of other imaging surveys, notably VST-KIDS and Herschel-ATLAS. This second public data release of VIKING data covers all of the highest quality data taken between the start of the survey (12th of November 2009) and the end of Period 92 (30th September 2013). This release supersedes the first release (VIKING and VIKING CAT published 28.06.2013 and 16.12.2013 respectively) as it includes improved CASU processing (V1.3) that gives better tile grouting and zero point corrections This release contains 396 tiles with coverage in all five VIKING filters, 379 of which have a deep co-add in J, and an additional 81 with at least two filters where the second OB has not been executed yet or one filter in an OB was poor quality. These 477 fields cover a total of ~690 square degrees and the resulting catalogues include a total of 46,270,162 sources (including low-reliability single-band detections). The imaging and catalogues (both single-band and band-merged) total 839.3GB. The coverage in each of the five sub-areas is not completely contiguous but any inter-tile gaps are relatively small. More details can be found in the accompanying documentation: viking_cat_dr2.pdf