VI/114 Plate Centers of POSS-II (Read, 2004)
Plate Centers of the second epoch Palomar Oschin Schmidt Sky Survey (POSS2)
Read M.
<Royal Obs. Edinburgh>
=2005yCat.6114....0R 2005yCat.6114....0R
ADC_Keywords: Surveys; Plate data
Description:
The catalog contains the coordinate of the plate centers forming the
Second Epoch Palomar Oschin Schmidt Sky Survey (POSS-II), observed
between 1985 and 2000, and covering the Northern sky. The survey was
operated by the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) with
funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National
Geographic Society, the Sloan Foundation, the Samuel Oschin
Foundation, and the Eastman Kodak Corporation.
The file "poss2.dat" was actually created from a merge of the
UKST Plate Catalogue (Royal Obs. Edinburgh) and the POSS2
Photographic Survey Plate Logs (Naval Observatory)
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
poss2.dat 97 3589 List of plates observed for POSS2
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See also:
VI/25 : POSS Plate Data (Palomar Obs. 1960)
VI/30 : Plates of the ESO Sky Survey (Holmberg+ 1974-)
http://www.roe.ac.uk/ifa/wfau/ukstu/pltcat.html : UKST Plate Catalogue
https://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astrometry/optical-IR-prod/icas/icas-supprt-data
: Plate Log of Photographic Survey at Naval Observatory
Byte-by-byte Description of file: poss2.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 4 I04 --- Field Survey Field number
7- 12 A6 --- Plate Plate identification
14- 24 F11.6 yr ObsY Observation date (UT) (mid-exposure) (1)
26- 30 F5.2 h ObsH ? UT Observation hour (included in ObsY) (2)
32- 39 F8.6 rad RArad Center in B1950 (right ascension)
41- 49 F9.6 rad DErad Center in B1950 (declination)
51- 58 F8.6 rad RAJrad ? Center in J2000 (right ascension) (2)
60- 68 F9.6 rad DEJrad ? Center in J2000 (declination) (2)
70- 74 A5 --- Emuls Plate emulsion
76- 82 A7 --- Filter Filter used with the exposure
84- 86 I3 min Exp ? Exposure time (2)
88- 91 A4 "h:m" HA Hour angle of the observation (mid-exposure)
92 A1 --- HAs [EW] Hour angle side
94- 97 A4 --- Grade Plate grade (from ROE log) (3)
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Note (1): Date/Time expressed in Julian Year (where J2000.0 = JD2451545.0)
Note the date is less accurate for the last 24 additional plates.
From an analysis of the asteroids found on several plates, the time
given corresponds to start of exposure rather than mid-exposure.
Note (2): For 24 additional plates (at the end of the file)
the values are missing.
Note (3): The first letter is generally a quality grade (A,B,C) indicating
the overall quality of the plate. Subsequent letters indicate specific
defects:
I = image size larger than 40 microns
T = detectable image elongation on most images
U = underexposure (relative to exposure time)
E = emulsion blemish(es)
P = processing marks
F = fogged plate or high chemical fog
D = overexposed plate (high central density)
S = marks caused by electrostatic discharge
H = haze haloes
M = multiple images (often caused by poor guiding in cloudy conditions)
X = any blemish not listed above
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Acknowledgements:
Heinz Andernach (catalog A968 in his collection)
Mike Read (Royal Obs. Edinburgh)
(End) Heinz Andernach, Francois Ochsenbein [CDS] 21-Jul-2005