UCAC and URAT: Optical Astrometric Catalog Observing Programs
Abstract
The third USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC3) all-sky catalog was released in August 2009. The final release, UCAC4, is in preparation and will include corrections and improvements to positions and proper motions, as well as publication of intermediate data. Properties of UCAC products are presented. The USNO Robotic Astrometric Telescope (URAT) project uses the optics of the UCAC telescope with a new, wide-field camera to cover 28 square degrees per exposure. A new all-sky survey to R approximately 18 mag will begin in 2011 from Arizona and be continued from Chile. Neutral density spots on the single bandpass filter allow observations of bright stars. URAT will be able to directly link Hipparcos stars and extragalactic sources of the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF). Multiple sky overlaps per year will give mean positions, proper motions and parallaxes from these CCD observations. An accuracy level of 10 mas is expected for high signal-to-noise stellar observations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 21, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA549323
Entities
People
- Norbert Zacharias
- Ralph Gaume
Organizations
- United States Naval Observatory