J/AJ/152/25 The UV-bright Quasar Survey (UVQS) DR1 (Monroe+, 2016)
The UV-bright quasar survey (UVQS): DR1.
Monroe T.R., Xavier Prochaska J., Tejos N., Worseck G., Hennawi J.F.,
Schmidt T., Tumlinson J., Shen Y.
<Astron. J., 152, 25-25 (2016)>
=2016AJ....152...25M 2016AJ....152...25M (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: QSOs ; Active gal. nuclei ; Redshifts
Keywords: intergalactic medium - quasars: general
Abstract:
We present the first data release (DR1) from our UV-bright Quasar
Survey for new z∼1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) across the sky. Using
simple GALEX UV and WISE near-IR color selection criteria, we
generated a list of 1450 primary candidates with FUV<18.5mag. We
obtained discovery spectra, primarily on 3m-class telescopes, for 1040
of these candidates and confirmed 86% as AGNs, with redshifts
generally at z>0.5. Including a small set of observed secondary
candidates, we report the discovery of 217 AGNs with FUV<18mag that
previously had no reported spectroscopic redshift. These are excellent
potential targets for UV spectroscopy before the end of the Hubble
Space Telescope mission. The main data products are publicly available
through the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.
Description:
We have performed an all-sky survey for z∼1, FUV-bright quasars
selected from GALEX and WISE photometry. We generated a list of 1450
primary candidates (Table1). In several of the observing runs,
conditions were unexpectedly favorable and we exhausted the primary
candidates at certain right ascension ranges. To fill the remaining
observing time, we generated a secondary candidate list. This
secondary set of candidates is provided in Table2.
We proceeded to obtain discovery-quality longslit spectra (i.e.,
low-dispersion, large wavelength coverage, modest signal-to-noise
ratio (S/N) of our UV-bright Quasar Survey (UVQS) candidates in one
calendar year. Our principal facilities were: (i) the dual Kast
spectrometer on the 3m Shane telescope at the Lick Observatory; (ii)
the Boller & Chivens (BCS) spectrometer on the Irenee du Pont 100''
telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory; and (iii) the Calar Alto
Faint Object Spectrograph on the CAHA 2.2m telescope at the Calar Alto
Observatory (CAHA). We acquired an additional ∼20 spectra on larger
aperture telescopes (Keck/ESI, MMT/MBC, Magellan/MagE) during twilight
or under poor observing conditions. Typical exposure times were
limited to ≲200s, with adjustments for fainter sources or sub-optimal
observing conditions. Table3 provides a list of the observed
candidates.
There are 93 sources with a good quality spectrum for which we cannot
recover a secure redshift. The majority of these have been previously
cataloged as blazars (or BL Lac objects). Table6 lists the sample of
these unknowns.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 67 1450 UV-bright Quasar Survey (UVQS) DR1 primary
candidates
table2.dat 67 2010 UVQS DR1 secondary candidates
table3.dat 49 1259 UVQS DR1 observations
table4.dat 40 1055 UVQS DR1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs)
table5.dat 58 66 UVQS DR1 Galactic sources
table6.dat 53 89 UVQS DR1 unknown sources
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See also:
VII/273 : The Half Million Quasars (HMQ) catalogue (Flesch, 2015)
II/328 : AllWISE Data Release (Cutri+ 2013)
VII/260 : The SDSS-DR7 quasar catalog (Schneider+, 2010)
https://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/uvqs/ : UVSQ Website
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table[12].dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 5 A5 --- --- [UVQSJ]
6- 23 A18 --- UVQS Quasar identifier (JHHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.s format)
25- 33 F9.5 deg RAdeg Right Ascension in decimal degrees (J2000)
35- 43 F9.5 deg DEdeg Declination in decimal degrees (J2000)
45- 49 F5.2 mag W1mag [4.7/18.3] WISE W1 band (3.4µm) magnitude
51- 55 F5.2 mag W2mag [3.8/17] WISE W2 band (4.6µm) magnitude
57- 61 F5.2 mag FUV [12.5/18.5] GALEX FUV band magnitude
63- 67 F5.2 mag NUV [12.3/18.9] GALEX NUV band magnitude
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: table3.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 5 A5 --- --- [UVQSJ]
6- 23 A18 --- UVQS Quasar identifier (JHHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.s format)
25- 32 A8 --- obs Observatory code (LCO, Lick, Magellan, CAHA,
MMT, or Keck) (1)
34- 38 A5 --- Inst Instrument code (BCS, Kast, MagE, CAFOS, MBC,
or ESI) (2)
40- 42 A3 month Obs.M Month of the observation
44- 47 I4 yr Obs.Y [2014/2015] Year of the observation
49 I1 --- Qual [0/5] Spectral quality code (from 0=too poor for
analysis to 5=excellent)
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Note (1): Observatory codes are defined as below:
LCO = Las Campanas Observatory;
Lick = Lick Observatory;
Magellan = Magellan telescopes;
CAHA = Calar Alto Observatory;
MMT = MMT Observatory;
Keck = W. M. Keck Observatory.
Note (2): Instrument codes are defined as below:
BCS = Boller & Chivens spectrometer on the Irenee du Pont 100
inch telescope.
Kast = dual Kast spectrometer on the 3m Shane telescope.
MagE = Magellan Echellette Spectrograph.
CAFOS = Calar Alto Faint Object Spectrograph on the CAHA 2.2m telescope.
MBC = MMT Blue Channel.
ESI = Echellette Spectrograph and Imager.
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: table4.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 5 A5 --- --- [UVQSJ]
6- 23 A18 --- UVQS AGN identifier (JHHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.s format)
25- 29 F5.3 --- z [0.002/1.86] Spectroscopic redshift
31- 36 F6.3 --- e_z [0.003/93.6] The 1σ uncertainty in z (1)
38 I1 --- q_z [3/5] Quality code in z (3, 4, or 5) (2)
40 A1 --- New [NY] New source? (Y=yes or N=no) (3)
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Note (1): Redshift uncertainty was derived from a template fit to the spectrum.
We report a minimum redshift error of 0.003 from systematic uncertainties.
Note (2): Quality code scheme defined as below:
(0 = No constraint);
3 = Confident;
5 = Excellent.
Note (3): Source is greater than 10 arcseconds offset any quasar in the Million
Quasar (MILLIQUAS) catalog (v4.5; see Flesch 2015, Cat. VII/273) with a
published spectroscopic redshift?
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: table5.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 5 A5 --- --- [UVQSJ]
6- 23 A18 --- UVQS Galactic source name (JHHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.s) (1)
25- 32 F8.4 deg GLON Galactic longitude (l)
34- 41 F8.4 deg GLAT Galactic latitude (b)
43- 47 F5.2 mag W1mag WISE W1 band (3.4µm) magnitude
49- 53 F5.2 mag W2mag WISE W2 band (4.6µm) magnitude
55- 58 F4.2 mag E(B-V) Reddening estimate (2)
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Note (1): UVQS DR1 sources with recessional velocity vr<500km/s.
Note (2): Based on the Schlegel et al. (1998ApJ...500..525S 1998ApJ...500..525S) extinction maps.
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: table6.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 5 A5 --- --- [UVQSJ]
6- 23 A18 --- UVQS Unknown source name (JHHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.s format)
25- 32 F8.4 deg GLON [7.9/358.4] Galactic longitude (l)
34- 41 F8.4 deg GLAT [-83.6/83.3] Galactic latitude (b)
43- 47 F5.2 mag FUV [13.8/18.5] GALEX FUV band magnitude
49- 53 F5.2 mag NUV [13.4/18.4] GALEX NUV band magnitude
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Prepared by [AAS]; Sylvain Guehenneux [CDS] 19-Sep-2016