last update: 2009 July 06, Norbert Zacharias, Terry Girard
Currently important survey projects and near future programs are listed if they have relevance to wide-field astrometry and densification of the reference frame. Summarized are mainly all-sky surveys as well as those covering a large fraction of the sky or are important for astrometric calibrations.
Each of the following sections contains a summary table, followed by a brief description of each project and literature references.
Hipparcos Mission and Catalogue
Tycho-2 Catalogue
ACR = Astrometric Calibration Regions (near equator, NOFS, R.Stone)
Mosaic at KPNO
Mosaic at CTIO
DAS = Deep Astrometric Standards (KPNO, CTIO 4m, Platais et al)
PM2000 = Bordeaux zone positions and proper motions
SDSS = Sloan Digital Sky Survey
CMC, CTM = Carlsberg Merician Circle catalogs
CMC14 = latest, 14th catalog in this series
CMASF = similar southern program San Fernando, Argentina
UCAC = USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog program
NOMAD = Naval Observatory Merged Astrometric Dataset = current best pick all-sky, all-magnitudes from Hipparcos, Tycho-2, UCAC, Yellow-Sky (SPM,NPM), USNO-B1, supplemented with 2MASS photometry
SkyMapper = new 1.3m telescope at Siding Springs, Australia program
PanSTARRS = 1.8m telescope(s) program from Hawaii, operational
URAT = USNO Robotic Astrometric Telescope (follow-up of UCAC, first light in fall 2009)
VST = VLT Survey Telescope, project main page in Italy
OmegaCam = camera details for VST at ESO
LSST = Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
2MASS = 2-micron All Sky Survey (near IR, 1 epoch, very accurate)
VISTA = Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (ESO)
VISTA = survey and data reductions (Cambridge, UK)
Gaia = next generation ESA astrometric space mission
SIM = Space Interferometry Mission, SIM-LITE Astrometric Observatory