The Kyiv Meridian Axial Circle Catalogue of stars in fields with extragalactic radio sources

A catalogue of astrometric (positions, proper motions) and photometric (B, V, R, r', J) data of stars in fields with ICRF objects has been compiled at the Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Kyiv University Observatory. All fields are located in the declination zone from 0 to +30 degrees; the nominal field size is 46' (right ascension) x 24' (declination). The observational basis of this work is 1100 CCD scans down to V=17 mag which were obtained with the Kyiv meridian axial circle in 2001-2003. The catalogue is presented in two versions. The version KMAC1-T contains 159 fields (104 796 stars) and was obtained with reduction to the Tycho2 catalogue. For another 33 fields, due to a low sky density of Tycho2 stars, the reduction was found to be unreliable. Transformation to the ICRF system in the second version of the catalogue (KMAC1-CU) was performed using the UCAC2 and CMC13 catalogues as a reference; it contains 115 032 stars in 192 fields and is of slightly better accuracy. The external accuracy of one catalogue position is about 50-90 mas for V < 15 mag stars. The average error of photometry is better than 0.1 mag for stars down to 16 mag.Comment: 13 pages, 19 figure

Observing programs of the Kyiv meridian axial circle equipped with a CCD micrometer

The present status of the Kyiv meridian axial circle after its refurbishment is described. The mounting of a new micrometer with the front-illuminated CCD 1040$\times$1160 allows to observe stars up to $V=16$ mag. For the stars of 11–14 mag, the internal positional accuracy of a single observation is 0.05–0.10'', and stellar V values are determined with an accuracy of 0.03–0.06 mag. The project of observations of star fields in the direction of 209 extragalactic radio-sources in declination zone 0+30{\degr} is now in progress. The catalogue of positions, magnitudes and proper motions of secondary reference stars in regions with ICRF sources is expected to be compiled by 2003. Another project under way is a long-term astrometric survey of the equatorial zone to extend the Hipparcos-Tycho frame to fainter stars, and to measure their magnitudes and $V-R$ colours