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A Cold Nearby Cloud inside the Local Bubble
The high-latitude Galactic H I cloud toward the extragalactic radiosource 3C 225 is characterized by very narrow 21 cm emission andabsorption indicative of a very low H I spin temperature of about 20 K.Through high-resolution optical spectroscopy, we report the detection ofstrong, very narrow Na I absorption corresponding to this cloud toward anumber of nearby stars. Assuming that the turbulent H I and Na I motionsare similar, we derive a cloud temperature of20+6-8 K (in complete agreement with the 21 cmresults) and a line-of-sight turbulent velocity of 0.37+/-0.08 kms-1 from a comparison of the H I and Na I absorption linewidths. We also place a firm upper limit of 45 pc on the distance of thecloud, which situates it well inside the Local Bubble in this directionand makes it the nearest known cold diffuse cloud discovered to date.
| The Geneva-Copenhagen survey of the Solar neighbourhood. Ages, metallicities, and kinematic properties of 14 000 F and G dwarfs
We present and discuss new determinations of metallicity, rotation, age,kinematics, and Galactic orbits for a complete, magnitude-limited, andkinematically unbiased sample of 16 682 nearby F and G dwarf stars. Our63 000 new, accurate radial-velocity observations for nearly 13 500stars allow identification of most of the binary stars in the sampleand, together with published uvbyβ photometry, Hipparcosparallaxes, Tycho-2 proper motions, and a few earlier radial velocities,complete the kinematic information for 14 139 stars. These high-qualityvelocity data are supplemented by effective temperatures andmetallicities newly derived from recent and/or revised calibrations. Theremaining stars either lack Hipparcos data or have fast rotation. Amajor effort has been devoted to the determination of new isochrone agesfor all stars for which this is possible. Particular attention has beengiven to a realistic treatment of statistical biases and errorestimates, as standard techniques tend to underestimate these effectsand introduce spurious features in the age distributions. Our ages agreewell with those by Edvardsson et al. (\cite{edv93}), despite severalastrophysical and computational improvements since then. We demonstrate,however, how strong observational and theoretical biases cause thedistribution of the observed ages to be very different from that of thetrue age distribution of the sample. Among the many basic relations ofthe Galactic disk that can be reinvestigated from the data presentedhere, we revisit the metallicity distribution of the G dwarfs and theage-metallicity, age-velocity, and metallicity-velocity relations of theSolar neighbourhood. Our first results confirm the lack of metal-poor Gdwarfs relative to closed-box model predictions (the ``G dwarfproblem''), the existence of radial metallicity gradients in the disk,the small change in mean metallicity of the thin disk since itsformation and the substantial scatter in metallicity at all ages, andthe continuing kinematic heating of the thin disk with an efficiencyconsistent with that expected for a combination of spiral arms and giantmolecular clouds. Distinct features in the distribution of the Vcomponent of the space motion are extended in age and metallicity,corresponding to the effects of stochastic spiral waves rather thanclassical moving groups, and may complicate the identification ofthick-disk stars from kinematic criteria. More advanced analyses of thisrich material will require careful simulations of the selection criteriafor the sample and the distribution of observational errors.Based on observations made with the Danish 1.5-m telescope at ESO, LaSilla, Chile, and with the Swiss 1-m telescope at Observatoire deHaute-Provence, France.Complete Tables 1 and 2 are only available in electronic form at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/418/989
| Sixth Catalogue of Fundamental Stars (FK6). Part III. Additional fundamental stars with direct solutions
The FK6 is a suitable combination of the results of the HIPPARCOSastrometry satellite with ground-based data, measured over a longinterval of time and summarized mainly in the FK5. Part III of the FK6(abbreviated FK6(III)) contains additional fundamental stars with directsolutions. Such direct solutions are appropriate for single stars or forobjects which can be treated like single stars. Part III of the FK6contains in total 3272 stars. Their ground-based data stem from thebright extension of the FK5 (735 stars), from the catalogue of remainingSup stars (RSup, 732 stars), and from the faint extension of the FK5(1805 stars). From the 3272 stars in Part III, we have selected 1928objects as "astrometrically excellent stars", since their instantaneousproper motions and their mean (time-averaged) ones do not differsignificantly. Hence most of the astrometrically excellent stars arewell-behaving "single-star candidates" with good astrometric data. Thesestars are most suited for high-precision astrometry. On the other hand,354 of the stars in Part III are Δμ binaries in the sense ofWielen et al. (1999). Many of them are newly discovered probablebinaries with no other hitherto known indication of binarity. The FK6gives, besides the classical "single-star mode" solutions (SI mode),other solutions which take into account the fact that hidden astrometricbinaries among "apparently single-stars" introduce sizable "cosmicerrors" into the quasi-instantaneously measured HIPPARCOS proper motionsand positions. The FK6 gives, in addition to the SI mode, the "long-termprediction (LTP) mode" and the "short-term prediction (STP) mode". TheseLTP and STP modes are on average the most precise solutions forapparently single stars, depending on the epoch difference with respectto the HIPPARCOS epoch of about 1991. The typical mean error of anFK6(III) proper motion in the single-star mode is 0.59 mas/year. This isa factor of 1.34 better than the typical HIPPARCOS errors for thesestars of 0.79 mas/year. In the long-term prediction mode, in whichcosmic errors are taken into account, the FK6(III) proper motions have atypical mean error of 0.93 mas/year, which is by a factor of about 2better than the corresponding error for the HIPPARCOS values of 1.83mas/year (cosmic errors included).
| The ROSAT International X-ray/Optical Survey (RIXOS): source catalogue
We describe the ROSAT International X-ray/Optical Survey (RIXOS), amedium-sensitivity survey and optical identification of X-ray sourcesdiscovered in ROSAT high Galactic latitude fields (|b|>28 deg) andobserved with the Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC)detector. The survey made use of the central 17arcmin of each ROSATfield. A flux limit of3x10-14ergcm-2s-1 (0.5-2keV) wasadopted for the survey, and a minimum exposure time of 8000s wasrequired for qualifying ROSAT observations. X-ray sources in the surveyare therefore substantially above the detection threshold of each fieldused, and many contain enough counts to allow the X-ray spectral slopeto be estimated. Spectroscopic observations of potential counterpartswere obtained of all sources down to the survey limit in 64 fields,totalling a sky area of 15.77deg2. Positive opticalidentifications are made for 94per cent of the 296 sources thusexamined. A further 18 fields (4.44deg2), containing 105sources above the 3x10-14ergcm-2s-1survey limit, are completely optically identified to a higher flux of8x10-14ergcm-2s-1 (0.5-2keV). Opticalspectroscopic data are supplemented by deep CCD imaging of many sourcesto reveal the morphology of the optical counterparts, and objects toofaint to register on Sky Survey plates. The faintest opticalcounterparts have R~22. This paper describes the survey method, andpresents a catalogue of the RIXOS sources and their opticalidentifications. Finding charts based on Sky Survey data are given foreach source, supplemented by CCD imaging where necessary.
| X-ray spectra of the RIXOS source sample
We present results of an extensive study of the X-ray spectralproperties of sources detected in the RIXOS survey, which is a large,nearly complete sample of objects detected serendipitously in ROSAT PSPCfields down to a flux limit of 3x10^-14ergcm^-2s^-1 (0.5-2keV). We showthat for X-ray surveys containing sources with low count rate, such asRIXOS, spectral slopes estimated using simple hardness ratios in theROSAT band can be biased. Instead, we analyse three-colour X-ray datausing statistical techniques appropriate to the Poisson regime whichremove the effects of this bias. We also show that the use ofthree-colour data enables some discrimination between thermal andnon-thermal spectra. We have then applied this technique to the RIXOSsurvey to study the spectral properties of the sample. For the AGN wefind an average energy index of 1.05+/-0.05, with no evidence forspectral evolution with redshift. Individual AGN are shown to have arange of properties, including soft X-ray excesses and intrinsicabsorption. Narrow-emission-line galaxies (NELGs) also seem to fit to apower-law spectrum, which may indicate a non-thermal origin for theirX-ray emission. We infer that most of the clusters in the sample have abremsstrahlung temperature >3keV, although some show evidence for acooling flow. The stars deviate strongly from a power-law model but fitto a thermal model. Finally, we have analysed the whole RIXOS sample(extending the flux cut-off to the sensitivity threshold of eachindividual observation) containing 1762 sources to study therelationship between spectral slope and flux. We find that the meanspectral slope of the sources hardens at lower fluxes, in agreement withresults from other samples. However, a study of the individual sourcesdemonstrates that the majority have relatively soft spectra even atfaint flux levels, and the hardening of the mean is caused by theappearance of a population of very hard sources at the lowest fluxes.This has implications for the nature of the soft X-ray background.
| The Tokyo PMC catalog 90-93: Catalog of positions of 6649 stars observed in 1990 through 1993 with Tokyo photoelectric meridian circle
The sixth annual catalog of the Tokyo Photoelectric Meridian Circle(PMC) is presented for 6649 stars which were observed at least two timesin January 1990 through March 1993. The mean positions of the starsobserved are given in the catalog at the corresponding mean epochs ofobservations of individual stars. The coordinates of the catalog arebased on the FK5 system, and referred to the equinox and equator ofJ2000.0. The mean local deviations of the observed positions from theFK5 catalog positions are constructed for the basic FK5 stars to comparewith those of the Tokyo PMC Catalog 89 and preliminary Hipparcos resultsof H30.
| Fifth fundamental catalogue. Part 2: The FK5 extension - new fundamental stars
The mean positions and proper motions for 3117 new fundamental starsessentially in the magnitude range about 4.5 to 9.5 are given in thisFK5 extension. Mean apparent visual magnitude is 7.2 and is on average2.5 magnitudes fainter then the basic FK5 which has a mean magnitude of4.7. (The basic FK5 gives the mean positions and proper motions for theclassical 1535 fundamental stars). The following are discussed: theobservational material, reduction of observations, star selection, andthe system for the FK5 extension. An explanation and description of thecatalog are given. The catalog of 3117 fundamental stars for the equinoxand epoch J2000.0 and B1950.0 is presented. The parallaxes and radialvelocities for 22 extension stars with large forecasting effects aregiven. Catalogs used in the compilation of the FK5 fundamental catalogare listed.
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Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Sextans |
| Right ascension: | 10h04m47.53s |
| Declination: | +05°00'14.5" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 7.361 |
| Distance: | 125.786 parsecs |
| Proper motion RA: | -19 |
| Proper motion Dec: | 0.9 |
| B-T magnitude: | 8.101 |
| V-T magnitude: | 7.423 |
Catalogs and designations:
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