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T. M. Girard, D. I. Dinescu, W. F. van Altena (Yale Univ.), I. Platais (Johns Hopkins), C. E. Lopez (Univ. de San Juan, Argentina), D. G. Monet (USNO - Flagstaff)
We present the third installment of the Yale/San Juan Southern Proper Motion Catalog, SPM 3.0. Absolute proper motions, positions, and photographic B,V photometry are given for over 11 million objects, down to a magnitude of V=17.5. The Catalog covers an irregular area of 3700 square degrees, between the declinations of -20 and -45 degrees, and excluding the Galactic plane. All observations were made with the 50-cm double astrograph of Cesco Observatory in El Leoncito, Argentina. The Catalog is based on full-plate scans using the USNO Precision Measuring Machine (PMM) and its image detection and centering software. Almost all SPM fields for which second-epoch plates are available have been included, excepting those in the Galactic plane. The proper-motion precision, for well-measured stars, is estimated to be 4.0 mas/yr. Unlike previous releases of the SPM Catalog, the proper motions are on the International Celestial Reference System by way of Hipparcos Catalog stars, and have an estimated systematic uncertainty of 0.4 mas/yr.
The recently begun SPM CCD survey program is described, also. These observations will provide second-epoch astrometry, as well as improved photometry, for the remainder of the original Southern Proper Motion survey, and for future versions of the SPM Catalog.
This work has been supported by a series of grants from the National Science Foundation, including the current grant, AST-0098548.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #4
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.