Optical and near IR astrometric surveys

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.

Ground-based photographic

Ground-based CCD surveys

Space-based projects

Links to some of the above mentioned projects

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