VII/203 Las Campanas Redshift Survey (Shectman+ 1996)
The Las Campanas Redshift Survey
Shectman S.A., Landy S.D., Oemler A., Tucker D.L., Lin H., Kirshner R.P.,
Schechter P.L.
<Astrophys. J. 470, 172 (1996)>
=1996ApJ...470..172S 1996ApJ...470..172S
ADC_Keywords: Redshifts ; Galaxy catalogs ; QSOs
Keywords: cosmology: observations - galaxies: clusters: general -
galaxies: distances and redshifts - surveys
Abstract:
The Las Campanas Redshift Survey (LCRS) consists of 26,418 redshifts
of galaxies selected from a CCD-based catalog obtained in the R band.
The survey covers over 700deg^2 in six strips, each 1.5x80deg, three
each in the north and south Galactic caps. The median redshift in the
survey is about 30,000km/s. Essential features of the galaxy selection
and redshift measurement methods are described and tabulated here.
These details are important for subsequent analysis of the LCRS data.
Two-dimensional representations of the redshift distributions reveal
many repetitions of voids, on the scale of about 5000km/s, sharply
bounded by large walls of galaxies as seen in nearby surveys.
Statistical investigations of the mean galaxy properties and of
clustering on the large scale are reported elsewhere. These include
studies of the luminosity function, power spectrum in two and three
dimensions, correlation function, pairwise velocity distribution,
identification of large-scale structures, and a group catalog.
Description:
In referencing individual galaxies within the LCRS, it is recommended
that investigators adhere to the IAU-registered LCRS naming
convention, as listed in the online "dictionary of nomenclature of
celestial objects" (http://astro.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/Dic), which is:
LCRS BHHMMSS.s-DDMMSS, in which the coordinates are equinox 1950.0, RA
is truncated (* not rounded *) to a tenth of a second, and DEC is
truncated (* not rounded *) to a whole arcsecond.
See also: See also the LCRS home pages at:
http://qold.astro.utoronto.ca/~lin/lcrs.html : Las Campanas Redshift Survey
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
fields.dat 123 327 LCRS spectroscopic fields (Table 2)
catalog.dat 98 94959 Redshift catalog (Table 3)
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: fields.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 8 A8 --- Field Field designation (1)
10- 11 I2 h RA1h First boundary field right ascension (1950.0)
13- 14 I2 min RA1m First boundary field right ascension (1950.0)
16- 20 F5.2 s RA1s First boundary field right ascension (1950.0)
22- 23 I2 h RA2h Second boundary field right ascension (1950.0)
25- 26 I2 min RA2m Second boundary field right ascension (1950.0)
28- 32 F5.2 s RA2s Second boundary field right ascension (1950.0)
34 A1 --- DE1- First boundary field declination sign
35- 36 I2 deg DE1d First boundary field declination (1950.0)
38- 39 I2 arcmin DE1m First boundary field declination (1950.0)
41- 44 F4.1 arcsec DE1s First boundary field declination (1950.0)
46 A1 --- DE2- Second boundary field declination sign
47- 48 I2 deg DE2d Second boundary field declination (1950.0)
50- 51 I2 arcmin DE2m Second boundary field declination (1950.0)
53- 56 F4.1 arcsec DE2s Second boundary field declination (1950.0)
58- 62 F5.2 mag m1 Lower limit magnitude (2)
64- 68 F5.2 mag m2 Higher limit magnitude (2)
70- 74 F5.2 mag mcen Faint central magnitude limit at m2 (2)
76- 78 I3 --- Nfib Designates whether data was obtained with
the 50- or 112-object spectrograph system
80- 82 I3 --- Ngal Number of galaxies, within the geometric and
photometric limits of the field, which
have redshifts.
84- 87 F4.2 --- f Sampling fraction (3)
89- 98 A10 "DD-MM-YYYY" Night Spectroscopic observations date
100-102 I3 --- Frame Spectroscopic exposure number
104-123 A20 --- plate Spectroscopic plate designation
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Note (1): Field name from RA (HHMM), Dec (+DD) and a letter suffix
"W", "E", or "M" which means west, east, or middle,
Note (2): Photometric selection limits. Note the catalogs always contain
objects outside the photometric limits. Isophotal magnitude m and
central magnitudmc of each galaxy must meet the photometric
selection criteria m1 ≤ m < m2 and mc < mcen - 0.5(m2-m)
Note (3): Fraction of objects (galaxies plus stars) with velocities,
among those objects meeting the photometric selection limits.
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: catalog.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 8 A8 --- Field Field designation
10- 15 F6.1 --- p Photometric catalog object number
17- 21 F5.2 mag mag Isophotal magnitude
23- 32 A10 --- Scan Designation of drift scan used to obtain object
photometry
34- 38 F5.2 mag mc Central magnitude
40- 41 I2 h RAh Right Ascension (1950.0)
43- 44 I2 min RAm Right Ascension (1950.0)
46- 50 F5.2 s RAs [0,60] Right Ascension (may be 60.00) epoch 1950.0
52 A1 --- DE- Declination sign
53- 54 I2 deg DEd Declination (1950.0)
56- 57 I2 arcmin DEm Declination (1950.0)
59- 62 F4.1 arcsec DEs [0,60] Declination (may be 60.0) epoch 1950.0
64- 66 A3 --- s ? Spectroscopic fiber designation (1)
68- 69 A2 --- type ? Spectrum type (1) (2)
71- 75 I5 km/s cz ? Heliocentric velocity (1)
77- 80 I4 km/s e_cz ? rms uncertainty on cz
82- 86 F5.3 --- sf ? Product of sampling fraction, apparent magnitude
completeness, and central surface brightness
completeness factors (1) (3)
88- 92 F5.3 --- gsf ? Same as sf but sampling fraction is computed
only in a 1000"-radius neighborhood of the
galaxy (1) (4)
94- 98 I5 km/s cz55 ? Instrumental constraints prevent two object
fibers from approaching closer than 55"
on the sky (1) (5)
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Note (1): Columns "s" to "cz55" are blank if not applicable
to a particular object
Note (2): Spectrum type:
* c, e, b: galaxy
- c: velocity from cross-correlation only
- e: velocity from emission-line fitting only
- b: velocity from both c and e
* *: star
* ?: spectrum failed to yield redshift
* nh, tc, bl: same as no spectrum attempted
(intended spectrum not observed)
* QS: QSO
* PN: planetary nebula
Note (3): See Lin et al. (1996ApJ...464...60L 1996ApJ...464...60L) for more information;
sf = f * F * G in the notation of that paper.
Objects should be weighted by 1/sf in statistical analyses. Only those
galaxies meeting the photometric selection limits have an entry.
Note (4): This attempts to account for any variable geometric sampling
effects, e.g. the reduced spectroscopic success at field corners
(Shectman et al. 1995, in Wide-Field Spectroscopy and the Distant
Universe, proceedings of the 35th Herstmonceux Conference (July 1994),
eds. S. J. Maddox & A. Aragon-Salamanca (Singapore: World Scientific),
p. 98.). Experience with the galaxy power spectrum (Lin et al.,
1996ApJ...471..617L 1996ApJ...471..617L) shows that using gsf instead of sf makes little
difference, but it does not hurt to check this for your own analyses.
Note (5): For an object without a redshift, cz55 is the velocity of its
closest neighbor within 55", if one exists, that has a velocity. Only
objects within the photometric limits have an entry. To assess the
significance of this selection effect for your particular analysis,
you can try assigning fake velocities as described in Lin et al.
(1996ApJ...471..617L 1996ApJ...471..617L).
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Nomenclature note:
In referencing individual galaxies within the LCRS, it is recommended
that investigators adhere to the IAU-registered LCRS naming
convention, as listed in the online "Dictionary of Nomenclature of
Celestial Objects" (http://cds.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/Dic), which is:
LCRS BHHMMSS.s-DDMMSS
in which the coordinates are equinox 1950.0, RA is truncated
(*** not rounded ***) to a tenth of a second, and Dec is truncated
(*** not rounded ***) to a whole arcsecond.
History:
* 22-Oct-1996: AAS CD-ROM series, Volume 7, Lee Brotzman [ADS]
* 03-Feb-1997: merged fields, Patricia Bauer, [CDS]
* 18-Apr-2010: following a remark by H. Andernach: some fields
were apparently missing in the merged catalog; the missing
fields were added, and 4 duplicate records were removed
(F. Ochsenbein)
(End) Patricia Bauer, [CDS] 03-Feb-1997