J/AJ/127/1158 QUEST RR Lyrae Survey first catalog (Vivas+, 2004)
The QUEST RR Lyrae survey. I. The first catalog.
Vivas A.K., Zinn R., Abad C., Andrews P., Bailyn C., Baltay C.,
Bongiovanni A., Briceno C., Bruzual G., Coppi P., Della Prugna F.,
Ellman N., Ferrin I., Gebhard M., Girard T., Hernandez J., Herrera D.,
Honeycutt R., Magris G., Mufson S., Musser J., Naranjo O., Rabinowitz D.,
Rengstorf A., Rosenzweig P., Sanchez Ge., Sanchez Gu., Schaefer B.,
Schenner H., Snyder J.A., Sofia S., Stock J., Van Altena W., Vicente B.,
Vieira K.
<Astron. J., 127, 1158-1175 (2004)>
=2004AJ....127.1158V 2004AJ....127.1158V
ADC_Keywords: Surveys ; Stars, variable ; Photometry
Keywords: Galaxy: halo - stars: variables: other - survey
Abstract:
With the 1m Schmidt telescope of the Llano del Hato Observatory and
the QUEST CCD camera, 380°2 of the sky have been surveyed for RR
Lyrae variables in a band 23 wide in declination (centered at
DE=-1°) and covering right ascensions from 4.1h to 6.1h and from
8.0h to 17.0h. The bright limit (due to CCD saturation) and the faint
limit are V∼13.5 and ∼19.7, respectively, which correspond to ∼4kpc
and ∼60kpc from the Sun. We present a catalog of the positions,
amplitudes, mean magnitudes, periods, and light curves of the 498 RR
Lyrae variables that have been identified in this region of the sky.
The majority of these stars (86%) are new discoveries. The
completeness of the survey has been estimated from simulations that
model the periods and light curves of real RR Lyrae variables and take
into account the pattern of epochs of observation. While the
completeness of the survey varies with apparent magnitude and with
position, almost everywhere in the surveyed region it is quite high
(>80%) for the type ab RR Lyrae variables and between 30% and 90% for
the low-amplitude type c variables.
Description:
The survey was carried out with the QUEST camera, which is a 16-chip
CCD mosaic detector installed at the 1m (clear aperture) Schmidt
telescope at Llano del Hato Observatory in Venezuela, located at 3610m
elevation, close to the equator (8.47° north) and under very dark
skies. This camera has been built by the QUEST collaboration, which
includes Yale University, Indiana University, Centro de
Investigaciones de Astronomia (CIDA), and Universidad de Los Andes.
The main goal of QUEST is to perform a large-scale survey of quasars,
but its impressive capabilities can be used for other kinds of
surveys.
This survey uses drift-scan observations of the same region of the sky
taken with the QUEST camera over a 2.3yr period, from 1998 December
to 2001 April. The observations were designed for different scientific
purposes, and thus the time spacing and filter set used varies. There
were four different sequences of filters, UBUV, RBRV, RBIV, and
RHαIV.
File Summary:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
table2.dat 119 498 RR Lyrae Stars
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table2.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 3 I3 --- [VZA2004] RR Lyrae identification number
5- 6 I2 h RAh Hour of right Ascension (J2000)
8- 9 I2 min RAm Minute of right ascension (J2000)
11- 15 F5.2 s RAs Second of right ascension (J2000)
17 A1 --- DE- Sign of the declination (J2000)
18- 19 I2 deg DEd Degree of declination (J2000)
21- 22 I2 arcmin DEm Arcminute of declination (J2000)
24- 27 F4.1 arcsec DEs Arcsecond of declination (J2000)
29- 30 I2 --- o_Vmag Number of Vmag observations
32- 35 F4.2 mag Amp The V-band amplitude
37- 44 F8.6 d Per Period
46- 53 F8.6 d Per2 ? Second possible period (see text)
55- 66 F12.4 d HJD Heliocentric Julian Date of observation
at maximum light
68- 69 A2 --- Type Type of RR Lyrae star
71- 75 F5.2 mag Vmag Mean V-band magnitude
77- 80 F4.2 mag e_Vmag The 1 σ error in Vmag
82-119 A38 --- Name Other name(s) given in SIMBAD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Greg Schwarz [AAS], Patricia Vannier [CDS] 02-Jul-2004