The Third US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC3)

The third US Naval Observatory (USNO) CCD Astrograph Catalog, UCAC3 was released at the IAU General Assembly on 2009 August 10. It is the first all-sky release in this series and contains just over 100 million objects, about 95 million of them with proper motions, covering about R = 8 to 16 magnitudes. Current epoch positions are obtained from the observations with the 20 cm aperture USNO Astrographs red lens, equipped with a 4k by 4k CCD. Proper motions are derived by combining these observations with over 140 ground- and space-based catalogs, including Hipparcos/Tycho and the AC2000.2, as well as unpublished measures of over 5000 plates from other astrographs. For most of the faint stars in the Southern Hemisphere the Yale/San Juan first epoch plates from the SPM program (YSJ1) form the basis for proper motions. These data are supplemented by all-sky Schmidt plate survey astrometry and photometry obtained from the SuperCOSMOS project, as well as 2MASS near-IR photometry. Major differences of UCAC3 data as compared to UCAC2 include a completely new raw data reduction with improved control over systematic errors in positions, significantly improved photometry, slightly deeper limiting magnitude, coverage of the north pole region, greater completeness by inclusion of double stars and weak detections. This of course leads to a catalog which is not as clean as UCAC2 and problem areas are outlined for the user in this paper. The positional accuracy of stars in UCAC3 is about 15 to 100 mas per coordinate, depending on magnitude, while the errors in proper motions range from 1 to 10 mas/yr depending on magnitude and observing history, with a significant improvement over UCAC2 achieved due to the re-reduced SPM data and inclusion of more astrograph plate data unavailable at the time of UCAC2.

The Fourth US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC4)

The fourth United States Naval Observatory (USNO) CCD Astrograph Catalog, UCAC4 was released in August 2012 (double-sided DVD and CDS data center Vizier catalog I/322). It is the final release in this series and contains over 113 million objects; over 105 million of them with proper motions. UCAC4 is an updated version of UCAC3 with about the same number of stars also covering all-sky. Bugs were fixed, Schmidt plate survey data were avoided, and precise 5-band photometry were added. Astrograph observations have been supplemented for bright stars by FK6, Hipparcos and Tycho-2 data to compile a UCAC4 star catalog complete to about magnitude R = 16. Epoch 1998 to 2004 positions are obtained from observations with the 20 cm aperture USNO Astrographs red lens, equipped with a 4k by 4k CCD. Mean positions and proper motions are derived by combining these observations with over 140 ground- and space-based catalogs, including Hipparcos/Tycho and the AC2000.2, as well as unpublished measures of over 5000 plates from other astrographs. For most of the faint stars the first epoch plates from the Southern Proper Motion (SPM) and the Northern Proper Motion (NPM) programs form the basis for proper motions. These data are supplemented by 2MASS near-IR photometry for about 110 million stars and 5-band (B,V,g,r,i) APASS data for over 51 million stars. Thus the published UCAC4, as were UCAC3 and UCAC2, is a compiled catalog with the UCAC observational program being a major component. The positional accuracy of stars in UCAC4 at mean epoch is about 15 to 100 mas per coordinate, depending on magnitude, while the formal errors in proper motions range from about 1 to 10 mas/yr depending on magnitude and observing history. Systematic errors in proper motions are estimated to be about 1 to 4 mas/yr.

Speckle Interferometry at the U.S. Naval Observatory. XXIII

The results of 3,989 intensified CCD observations of double stars, made with the 26-inch refractor of the U.S. Naval Observatory, are presented. Each observation of a system represents a combination of over two thousand short-exposure images. These observations are averaged into 1,911 mean relative positions and range in separation from 0.289 to 128.638, with a median separation of 8.669. Four orbits are improved. This is the 23rd in this series of papers and covers the period 4 January 2017 through 13 September 2017.

Infrared-excess white dwarfs in the Gaia 100 pc sample

We analyse the 100pc Gaia white dwarf volume-limited sample by means of VOSA (Virtual Observatory SED Analyser) with the aim of identifying candidates for displaying infrared excesses. Our search focuses on the study of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of 3,733 white dwarfs with reliable infrared photometry and GBP-GRP colours below 0.8 mag, a sample which seems to be nearly representative of the overall white dwarf population. Our search results in 77 selected candidates, 52 of which are new identifications. For each target we apply a two-component SED fitting implemented in VOSA to derive the effective temperatures of both the white dwarf and the object causing the excess. We calculate a fraction of infrared-excess white dwarfs due to the presence of a circumstellar disk of 1.6+-0.2%, a value which increases to 2.6+-0.3% if we take into account incompleteness issues. Our results are in agreement with the drop in the percentage of infrared excess detections for cool (<8,000K) and hot (>20,000K) white dwarfs obtained in previous analyses. The fraction of white dwarfs with brown dwarf companions we derive is ~0.1-0.2%.

Radio-Optical Reference Frame Link Using the US Naval Observatory Astrograph and Deep CCD Imaging

Between 1997 and 2004 several observing runs were conducted mainly with the CTIO 0.9 m to image ICRF counterparts (mostly QSOs) in order to determine accurate optical positions. Contemporary to these deep CCD images the same fields were observed with the US Naval Observatory (USNO) astrograph in the same bandpass. They provide accurate positions on the Hipparcos/Tycho-2 system for stars in the 10 to 16 magnitude range used as reference stars for the deep CCD imaging data. Here we present final optical position results of 413 sources based on reference stars obtained by dedicated astrograph observations which were reduced following 2 different procedures. These optical positions are compared to radio VLBI positions. The current optical system is not perfectly aligned to the ICRF radio system with rigid body rotation angles of 3 to 5 mas (= 3 sigma level) found between them for all 3 axes. Furthermore, statistically, the optical minus radio position differences are found to exceed the total, combined, known errors in the observations. Systematic errors in the optical reference star positions as well as physical offsets between the centers of optical and radio emissions are both identified as likely causes. A detrimental, astrophysical, random noise (DARN) component is postulated to be on about the 10 mas level. If confirmed by future observations, this could severely limit the Gaia to ICRF reference frame alignment accuracy to an error of about 0.5 mas per coordinate axis with the current number of sources envisioned to provide the link. A list of 36 ICRF sources without the detection of an optical counterpart to a limiting magnitude of about R=22 is provided as well.