Division I / Commission 8 / Working Group Astrographic Catalogue and Carte Du Ciel Plates

Abstract

Various experiments have definitely demonstrated that one-micron accuracy (0.″06) on the definition of stellar images on CdC plates cannot be claimed, as it was speculated back in 1999. More realistically, a 2-3 micron accuracy is achievable, getting worse toward the survey magnitude limit, with an average magnitude error of 0.3. The level of astrometric accuracy corresponds to a 0.″2 - 0.″3 error in position at Epoch 1900, which, once used as first Epoch for proper motion determination in combination with modern epoch observations, can produce errors at the level of 2-5 mas/yr, thereby allowing to detect stellar motions larger than 0.″01/yr, which at a distance of 500 pc from the Sun correspond to ~25-60 km/s tangential velocity. Therefore, the AC/CdC heritage collection can be regarded as a highly valuable first-epoch material, e.g., for the realization of a Tycho-2 extension to fainter magnitudes (~15 photographic), especially in selected areas where radial velocity data are available, for the exploration of stellar kinematics beyond our solar neighborhood.