[Previous] | [ 7] | [Next]
D. J. Mink, W. R. Brown, M. J. Kurtz (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory)
Recent large catalogs, such as the US Naval Observatory's 526,280,881 star A2.0 and 1,036,366,767 star B1.0 Catalogs, the 998,402,801 star Guide Star Catalog II, and the 155,569,249 star (so far) 2 Micron All Sky Survey Point Source Catalog, have revolutionized our ability to do astrometry with CCD images. The recently published FITS World Coordinate System standard has provided a standard way of parameterizing that astrometry, and the WCSTools and SExtractor software packages allow the automation of the ``plate-fitting'' process. New instruments for ground-based observing, such as multi-fiber spectrographs, need very accurate positions for objects even fainter than those in these large catalogs. As part of a survey to be conducted with one of these new spectrographs, we have amassed 1728 15 by 30 arcminute CCD images of a portion of the northern sky. After matching 200 to 400 point sources per image to the various catalogs and fitting world coordinate systems to them, we present statistics as to how well each catalog matches our portion of the sky.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: dmink@cfa.harvard.edu
[Previous] | [ 7] | [Next]
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #4
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.