This program is under development. The following poster paper has been presented at the 189th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in January 1997.

A New Astrometric Survey of the Southern Hemisphere

Gauss, F. S., Zacharais, N., Rafferty, T.J., Germain, M. E.,
Holdenried, E.R., Pohlman, J.W., and Zacharias, M.I.,

U.S. Naval Observatory

Abstract. With the advent of space-based star catalogs of unprecedented accuracy and the measurement of the Palomar Schmidt Survey plates, there is a pressing need for a new high-quality catalog covering the stars in the intermediate magnitudes. Testing with the USNO 8-inch CCD astrograph, equipped with a new, 5-element lens and a small CCD camera have shown that accuracies of 20mas or better can be obtained in a reasonable time using a two-fold overlap method. A grating allows stars as bright as 6th magnitude to be observed at the same time as the faintest stars. A program is planned to start within a year in the Southern Hemisphere using this telescope and a new 4K CCD camera. The goal is to produce an astrometric catalog of all stars down to 15th magnitude in a period of two years.

USNO CCD Astrometric Catalog - South

(UCAC-S)

Project Plan

Projected Accuracy

USNO 8-inch CCD Astrograph

Picture of the telescope

Description of optics and camera

Camera Picture

Characteristics and Data of UCAC-S

Sky coverage

Computer control

Catalog Properties

Applications