The QUEST RR Lyrae Survey. I. The First Catalog

Abstract

With the 1 m Schmidt telescope of the Llano del Hato Observatory and the QUEST CCD camera, 380 deg 2 of the sky have been surveyed for RR Lyrae variables in a band 2 .3 wide in declination (centered at = À1) and covering right ascensions from 4C1 to 6C1 and from 8C0 to 17C0. The bright limit (due to CCD saturation) and the faint limit are V $13.5 and $19.7, respectively, which correspond to $4 and $60 kpc from the Sun. We present a catalog of the positions, amplitudes, mean magnitudes, periods, and light curves of the 498 RR Lyrae variables that have been identified in this region of the sky. The majority of these stars (86%) are new discoveries. The completeness of the survey has been estimated from simulations that model the periods and light curves of real RR Lyrae variables and take into account the pattern of epochs of observation. While the completeness of the survey varies with apparent magnitude and with position, almost everywhere in the surveyed region it is quite high (>80%) for the type ab RR Lyrae variables and between 30% and 90% for the lowamplitude type c variables.

A comprehensive view of the Virgo stellar stream

“…In this latest data set most stars come from the QUEST survey (Vivas et al 2004) but we also took spectra of 3 of the RRLS discovered by Ivezić et al (2000) (and followed up by Wu et al 2005), with SDSS data just beyond the northern limit of QUEST (listed in all relevant tables using the prefix W). As we explain below, the radial velocity measurements of the sample RRLS that was observed by Duffau et al (2006) have been revised.…”

A Synoptic Multiwavelength Analysis of a Large Quasar Sample

“…The low-Q i variable quasars presumably fall below the cutoff due to insufficient sampling of their light curves. Of the six high-Q i variable stars, one (QUEST J121727.5À014036.5) is a previously unstudied variable star (SDSS J121727.4À014036.9) and requires additional observation, one (QUEST J143500.2À 004605.8) is the SU UMa-type dwarf nova OU Vir ( Downes et al 2001) caught in outburst during the 2000 observing season, and four are RR Lyrae stars, cataloged during the QUEST RR Lyrae Survey (Vivas et al 2004). The RR Lyrae stars in question happened to be sampled during the 1999 observing season such that their full intraepoch range in magnitude was not observed, causing the objects to appear to vary in mean magnitude between the 1999 and subsequent observing seasons.…”

“…Typical seeing at the site was about 2B8, and a limiting magnitude of r ¼ 19:06 was reached. The filter set and observing cadence were chosen to optimize between multiple variability-driven projects, including a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) search and a recently published RR Lyrae catalog (Vivas et al 2004). The synoptic study of $10 5 light curves with several observations per lunation for several lunations per year for several years will serve as a testbed for algorithms and selection techniques for upcoming massive synoptic surveys (e.g., the Large-Aperture Synoptic Survey Telescope [LSST], and Joint Dark Energy Mission [JDEM ], and Pan-STARRS).…”

Color and Variability Characteristics of Point Sources in the Faint Sky Variability Survey

“…Recently, wide-field temporal surveys have begun to catch up, going to deeper limits and becoming increasingly more common, such as the Bright Sky Variability Survey ( BSVS; Everett et al 2002), QUEST ( Vivas et al 2004), SuperMACHO ( Becker et al 2005), and the Faint Sky Variability Survey ( FSVS; Groot et al 2003), with a variety of different science goals and target populations, probing new areas in astrophysics. A survey like the FSVS with variability sampling over hours to years samples a large range of dynamical phenomena, including mass transfer events, pulsations, and stellar activity with amplitudes $0.01 and larger.…”