An Optical-UV-IR Survey of the North Celestial Cap: I. The Catalogue

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive optical-UV-IR merged catalogue for the North Celestial Cap region, combining data from multiple surveys to provide a valuable resource for astronomical research.

Contribution

The study creates the first detailed, multi-wavelength catalogue for the poorly covered North Celestial Cap region, integrating optical, UV, and IR data with high astrometric and photometric accuracy.

Findings

Catalogue contains ~1.6 million sources observed in all three optical bands.

Over 1.4 million sources have WISE IR counterparts.

Astrometric accuracy is better than 0.2 arcsec, photometry accurate to ~0.15 mag.

Abstract

We describe the final product of the North Celestial Cap Survey (NCC Survey, NCCS) - the optical-UV-IR merged catalogue for the region within 10 deg of the North Celestial Pole. The NCC region at DEC > 80 deg is poorly covered by modern CCD-based surveys. The optical part of the survey was observed in V, R and I with the Wise Observatory telescopes and was merged with GALEX UV and WISE IR data, producing the catalogue. More than four million objects were observed in at least one optical band. The final catalogue contains ~1.6 million sources observed in all three optical bands, of which some 1.4 million have WISE counterparts and ~300,000 have GALEX counterparts. The astrometric accuracy of the optical NCCS data, derived from a comparison with the UCAC3 catalogue, is better than 0.2 arcsec and the photometry, when compared with SDSS, is good to ~0.15 mag for sources brighter than V = 20.3, R = 21.0 and I = 19.2 mag. The SDSS point-extended source separation is reproduced with >92% efficiency.