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PMSUCAT - Palomar/MSU Nearby Star Survey

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Overview

The Palomar/Michigan State University Catalogue contains basic data for 1971 stars confirmed by the authors to be late K or M main-sequence stars with absolute visual magnitudes of 8.0 or fainter taken from Tables 1A of papers I and II and Table 1D of paper I. Note that known degenerates have been excluded from this sample. All but 6 of these these star were selected from the Catalogue of Nearby Stars (Gliese & Jahreiss, "Preliminary Version of the Third Catalogue of Nearby Stars", CNS3), and most (88%) lie within 25 parsecs.

Catalog Bibcode

1995AJ....110.1838R

References

The Palomar/MSU Nearby Star Spectroscopic Survey. I. The Northern M Dwarfs - Bandstrengths and Kinematics (Reid, I.N., Hawley, S.L. and Gizis, J.E. 1995, AJ, 110, 1838)

The Palomar/MSU Nearby Star Spectroscopic Survey. II The Southern M Dwarfs and Investigation of Magnetic Activity (Hawley, S.L., Gizis, J.E., and Reid, I.N. 1996, AJ, 112, 2799 and 1997, AJ, 113, 1458)/.


Provenance

This online catalog was created by the HEASARC in July 1999 based on tables obtained from the ADC/CDS data centers.

Parameters

Name
A designation for the stars taken from, in order of decreasing preference, the Gliese (1969) [GL] and Gliese and Jahreiss (1979) [GJ] Nearby Star Catalogues, the LHS Catalogue (Luyten 1979), the Lowell Observatory survey (Giclas et al. 1971) [G], Luyten's Palomar Catalogue [LP], the McCormick spectroscopic M-dwarf samples (Vyssotsky 1963) [V], and other miscellaneous catalogs.

RA
The right ascension in the specified equinox. The original positional data were given in J2000 coordinates, notice, and the RA was given to a precision of 0.1 seconds. The positions in this catalogue were derived, in most cases, from cross-referencing the observed positions against the Guide Star Catalogue, using finding charts from either the Lowell survey or the LHS Atlas (Luyten and Albers 1979) to check the authors' identifications. The accuracy of these positions is expected to be order of a few arcseconds.

The limiting magnitude of the GSC is approximately V=14.5 for the northern hemisphere, and perhaps 14.0 for the southern hemisphere. For the fainter stars which are not in the GSC, the positions are the telescope coordinates derived from the authors observations at either the Palomar 60-inch or 200-inch telescopes. The latter positions are accurate to +/- 2 arcsec, and, in most cases, the former data have uncertainties of about 5 arcsec. However, (intermittent) problems with the Palomar 60-inch pointing model occasionally lead to larger discrepancies (although no more than 40 arcsec).

All positions were adjusted by the authors to equinox 2000 in the original published catalogue, and the appropriate proper motion corrections applied so as to adjust the positions to epoch 2000.0 (where a mean original epoch of 1984.0 was assumed for the GSC positions).

Dec
The declination in the specified equinox. The original positional data were given in J2000 coordinates, notice, and the declination was given to a precision of 1 arcsecond. The positions in this catalogue were derived, in most cases, from cross-referencing the observed positions against the Guide Star Catalogue, using finding charts from either the Lowell survey or the LHS Atlas (Luyten and Albers 1979) to check the authors' identifications. The accuracy of these positions is expected to be order several arcseconds.

The limiting magnitude of the GSC is approximately V=14.5 for the northern hemisphere, and perhaps 14.0 for the southern hemisphere. For the fainter stars which are not in the GSC, the positions are the telescope coordinates derived from the authors observations at either the Palomar 60-inch or 200-inch telescopes. The latter positions are accurate to +/- 2 arcsec, and, in most cases, the former data have uncertainties of about 5 arcsec. However, (intermittent) problems with the Palomar 60-inch pointing model occasionally lead to larger discrepancies (although no more than 40 arcsec).

All positions were adjusted by the authors to equinox 2000 in the original published catalogue, and the appropriate proper motion corrections applied so as to adjust the positions to epoch 2000.0 (where a mean original epoch of 1984.0 was assumed for the GSC positions).

LII
Galactic longitude of the star.

BII
Galactic latitude of the star.

Sample
A flag, indicating the paper of origin, where N=North, indicating that the star is taken from the sample tabulated in paper I, and S=South, indicating that the star is taken from the sample tabulated in paper II.

Cns3
The star number, as listed in the preliminary version of CNS3: this may not be the identifying number in the final version of the CNS3, notice. Notice that stars with cns numbers 3804 to 3810 are the additional stars that were listed in Table 1D of paper I.

Note
A letter code for a note on the particular star, using the following scheme:

            A  Low quality trigonometric parallax
            B  Poor photometry
            C  Accurate parallax and good photometry. Both components of Gl 799
                lie above the main-sequence.
            E  629 (Hy 207) appears twice in the preliminary version of the CNS3
            G  2172: This star is not listed as double in the LHS
            H  2426 (GJ 2112 A): Eggen (1980ApJS...43..457E) notes that this
                star appears to be a double in good seeing, but there are no
                confirming observations.
            I  2805 (GSC036B-821) is listed in the CNS3 as a companion of V796,
                but the authors find that the radial velocity differs by 50km/s
            J  star from Brosch & Goldberg (1994MNRAS.268L..27B)
            K  star from Irwin et al. (1991MNRAS.252p..61I)
  

Component
A qualifier that identifies primary (P) or secondary or tertiary (S) binary components.

Position_Source
A code indicating the source of the positional data:

        0-  Palomar 60-inch telescope
        1-  Palomar 200-inch, Keck, or AAT telescopes
        2-  Guide Star Catalogue
        3-  CNS3
        4-  Digital Sky Survey
  

Since completing the text of this paper, the authors used the on-line Digital Sky Survey to check all stars where the positions differ by more than 15 arcseconds from the CNS3 data. They assumed mean epochs of 1954.0 and 1980.0 for POSS I and UKST plates in deriving positions from the DSS.

Abs_Vmag
The absolute visual magnitude of the star, calculated from the apparent magnitude given in the CNS3, and the estimated stellar distance.

Flag_Abs_Vmag
A flag with regard to the accuracy of the photometry from which the absolute visual magnitude was obtained:

         A: CNS3 lists a photographic magnitude - the authors assumed an
                (m(pg)-V) colour of 1.5 magnitudes
         B: CNS3 lists a `photometric' magnitude for this star
  

Stars with lower accuracy photometry that are flagged in this way have absolute magnitudes that are given to a precision of only 0.1 magnitudes, notice, compared to the precision of 0.01 magnitudes for the other stars.

Distance
The distance to the star, in parsecs. Distances for each star were derived by combining the trigonometric data listed in the CNS3 with spectroscopic estimates based on the M_V(TiO5) calibration plotted in Figure 3 of paper I, weighting each estimate by the reciprocal of the uncertainty (a distance uncertainty of 30% was adopted for distances estimated from M_V(TiO5). No attempt was made by the authors to average the distance estimates to individual components in binary or triple systems. In cases where there is a substantial disagreement between the distance estimates to components of multiple systems, the distance to the primary star is likely to be the more reliable estimate.

Distance_Error
The relative uncertainty, in percent, of the estimate of the distance.

Distance_Note
A code on the origin of distance and absolute magnitude:

            C: distance and absolute magnitude from CNS3
            S: distance estimate is based on the authors' spectroscopic data
            P: Distance estimate is based on trigonometric parallax
  

Trig_Parallax_Wt
The weight of the trigonometric parallax in the estimate for the stellar distance.

Spec_Parallax_Wt
The weight of the spectroscopic parallax in the estimate for the stellar distance.

Spect_Type_Flag
A flag used to qualify the spectral type ('<' means earlier than, '>' means later than) or to indicate a sub-dwarf (SD) luminosity class.

Spect_Type
The spectral type of the star, as derived by the authors using their spectroscopy. The primary spectral-type calibrator that they used was TiO5, the full depth of the 7050 Angstrom bandhead of TiO.

Spect_Type_Note
A code referring to a note about the spectrum:

            C: Spectral type from Kirkpatrick et al (1995AJ....109..797K)
            D: Strong CaH - probable metal-poor disk dwarf or halo subdwarf
            F: 1752: Leggett & Hawkins (1988MNRAS.234.1065L) suggest, on
                the basis of JHK colours, that this star might be a giant, but
                our spectra are consistent with classification as a dwarf. Note
                that the V magnitude listed by LH88 is 8.07, while the CNS3
                magnitude is 11.4 (photometric estimate). The authors observed
                a star of the latter magnitude. There is a nearby 8th magnitude
                SAO star (SAO 7382) - listed as K5, luminosity class unknown but
                mu~0arcsec/yr which Leggett & Hawkins may have observed by
                mistake.
            K: Spectral type from Kirkpatrick et al. (1995AJ....109..797K)
  

Class
The browse classification, derived from the spectral type parameter spect_type.


Contact Person

Questions regarding the PMSUCAT database table can be addressed to the HEASARC User Hotline.
Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Wednesday, 12-Oct-2005 16:58:23 EDT