The Million Quasars (MILLIQUAS) catalogue version 2.8 (2012) Eric Flesch, 29 January 2012 ================================================================================ This is a compendium of all type I QSOs, AGNe, and Bl Lacs in the literature, up to 27 January 2012; completeness is full or near. High-confidence (70%+) photometric SDSS and radio/X-ray associated candidates are included, which bring the total objects to 1,182,964. Objects have been de-duplicated across catalogs, and the earliest name and best redshift is presented for each. Astrometry is fixed onto a combined APM/USNO-B/SDSS optical background, and is accurate to within 1-2 arcsec, even for the earliest quasars. Note: lensed images and close objects within 1.5 arcsec are listed as single objects. Changes from the previous edition are: (1) Completed the fixes of non-astrometric relic data from the Veron-Cetty & Veron 13th edition, a paper for which is in preparation. About 150 further fixes were done since version 2.7 of this catalog. (2) Quasars compilation is current to the 27th January 2012. The catalog format is simple, each object is shown as one line bearing the J2000 coordinates, its name, red and blue optical magnitudes, PSF class, redshift, and the source catalog for its name and redshift, plus a radio and/or X-ray identifier where applicable. Current plans are to keep this updated as a "living" QSO catalogue, and think about formal publication later. Questions/comments/praise/complaints may be directed to eric@flesch.org. File Summary: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FileName Lrecl Records Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- milliquas.txt 124 1182964 The catalogue Milliquas-ReadMe.txt 80 . This file -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Byte-by-byte Description of the Milliquas (million-quasar) file: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 2 I2 h RAh Right Ascension J2000 (hours) 3- 4 I2 min RAm Right Ascension J2000 (minutes) 5- 8 F4.1 s RAs Right Ascension J2000 (seconds) 9 A1 --- DE- Declination J2000 (sign) 10- 11 I2 deg DEd Declination J2000 (degrees) 12- 13 I2 arcmin DEm Declination J2000 (minutes) 14- 15 I2 arcsec DEs Declination J2000 (seconds) 18- 41 A24 --- name ID from the literature (0) 43- 45 A3 --- Descrip Classification of object (1) 47- 50 F4.1 mag Rmag Red optical magnitude (2) 52- 55 F4.1 mag Bmag Blue optical magnitude (2) 57- 59 A3 --- comment Comment on optical object (3) 60 A1 --- R Red optical PSF class (4) 62 A1 --- B Blue optical PSF class (4) 64- 69 F6.3 z z Redshift from the literature. 71- 72 A2 --- cat Source catalog for name (5) 74- 75 A2 --- zcat Source catalog for redshift (5) 77- 79 I3 pct Qpct probability that this object is a QSO (6) 81-101 A21 --- Rname Radio ID, if any. (7) 103-123 A21 --- Xname X-ray ID or radio lobe, if any. (7) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note (0): "BOSS" prefix indicates an XDQSO BOSS target (XDQSO good=0). "XDQ" prefix is an XDQSO non-BOSS object (XDQSO good=1,2). The name is left blank if the object is a radio/X-ray associated object only. If needing a designation for it, use the catalog (col 71-72) and astrometry (col 1-15) to make an IAU name: catalog QO=QORG, AX=ARXA, MQ=MQ. example: 000001.6-251707 & AX --> ARXA J000001.6-251707 Note (1): Legend: Q = QSO from the literature, with redshift, 151232 of these. A = AGN (Seyferts etc, disk brighter than core), 20521 of these. B = Bl Lac object, 1586 of these. q = SDSS photometric quasars, 928228 in total, from: NBCKDE -- 552171, on average 88.6% likely to be quasars. XDQSO BOSS targets -- 289912, avg 87.1% likelihood. XDQSO non-BOSS -- 80529, avg 85.8% likelihood. PD Stripe 82 variability selected -- 5512, at 80% likelihood. An additional 96 are from the SWIRE survey. The NBCKDE objects provide a likely redshift, rounded here to 0.1z. R = Radio association displayed. X = X-ray association displayed. 2 = Double radio lobe declaration. These lobes are displayed at the righthand end of the row if there are no other associations. 81395 optical objects are included based only on calculated radio or X-ray association. These are on average 86% likely to be quasars. Note (2): Optical data is from the APM (www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~apmcat), USNO-A & USNO-B (www.nofs.navy.mil), and the SDSS (sdss3.org). APM/USNO-A magnitudes have been recalibrated from the original values as documented in QORG, so such USNO-A magnitudes are often used in preference to USNO-B. APM galaxies < mag 17.0 are often shown too bright due to PSF modelling. Note (3): Legend: p = optical magnitudes are POSS-I O (violet 4100A) and E (red 6500A). These are preferred because O is well-offset from E, and these plates were always taken on the same night, thus the red-blue color is correct even for variable objects. j = blue magnitude is SERC J (Bj 4800A blue-green) from the POSS-II or UKST surveys. Red-blue color can be suspect because the plates were taken in different epochs, i.e. years apart. g = blue magnitude is SDSS green 4900A. u = blue magnitude is SDSS ultraviolet 3850A. b = blue magnitude is Vega 4400A. i = red magnitude is infrared. v = red magnitude is visual, ie, white. z = red magnitude is far-infrared z. (not i/v/z) = standard red color 6500A. + = variability nominally detected for both red & blue m = proper motion nominally detected. ? = astrometry/photometry is estimated. ?? = identification is unsure. Note (4): The APM, USNO-B, and SDSS provide PSF class, albeit using different criteria. These are shown here as: - = point source / stellar PSF (APM notation: -1, here truncated) 1 = fuzzy / galaxy shape (APM notation: 1 and some 2) n = no PSF available, whether borderline or too faint to tell, etc. x = not seen in this color (fainter than plate depth, or confused, etc.) Note (5): Legend (with counts of name and redshift) and references: 2d (50,54): 2dF GRS, Colless M. et al, 2001,MNRAS,328,1039 2L (311,97): 2LAC, Ackermann M. et al, 2011,arXiv:1108.1420 2M (126,125): Southern 2MASS AGN using 6dF, Masci F. et al,2010,PASA,27,302 2Q (22790,20598): 2QZ, Croom S.M. et al, 2004,MNRAS,349,1397 2S (7928,7906): 2SLAQ, Croom S.M. et al, 2009,MNRAS,392,19 6d (14,54): 6dF Galaxy Survey, Jones D.H. et al, 2009,MNRAS,399,683 6Q (265,264): 6QZ, same attribution as 2QZ AE (16,16): AEGIS, Yan R. et al, 2011,ApJ,728,38 AX (16676,0): Atlas of Radio/X-ray Associations, Flesch E.,2010,PASA,27,283 BA (1,1): dual AGN, Barrows R.S. et al, 2011,arXiv:1109.3469 BG (4,0): Gaston, B., 1983,ApJ,272,411 Bu (4,4): Burbidge E.M., October 2003, Keck-I LRIS, unpublished. CB (2,2): Chandra binaries, Green P. et al, 2011,arXiv:1109.1278 CF (9,9): CFHIZQ, Willott C. et al, 2010,AJ,139,906 Co (7,7): Lopez-Corredoira M. et al, 2008,A&A,480,61 CW (7,0): CWRU low-dispersion survey, Pesch P. et al, 1985-1995 misc publ. HA (7,0): Halton Arp, misc. publications HB (43,30): Hewitt A., Burbidge G., 1989,ApJS,69,1 KA (3,3): Kepler quasars, Mushotzky R. et al, 2011,arXiv:1111.0672 KE (5,2): KEYFIELD, Anderson M. & Filipovic M., 2009,SerAJ,179,7 LA (8,8): LAMOST, Wu X.-B. et al, 2010,RAA,10,745 LM (144,144): LMC Magellanic, Kozlowski S. et al, 2011,arXiv:1106.3110 MQ (39516,0): MILLIQUAS, original data in this catalog. Flesch E., 2011 NB (552171,552150): NBCKDE, Richards G.T. et al, 2009,ApJS,180,67 NE (1084,382): NASA/IPEC Extragalactic DB, http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu PD (5512,0): Palanque-Delabrouille N. et al, 2011,A&A,530,122 PG (1011,6): Principal Galaxy Catalogue, Paturel G. et al, 2003,A&A,412,45 PS (1,1): Pan-Starrs hi-z, Morganson E. et al, 2011,arXiv:1109.6241 QO (25200,0): QORG, Flesch E. and Hardcastle M., 2004,A&A,427,387 S8 (5369,4192): SDSS Data Release 8, Aihara H. et al, 2011,ApJS,193,29 http://sdss3.org/dr8 SC (1,1): Stripe82-CFHTLS, Zeimann G. et al, 2011,ApJ,736,57 SL (11,11): SDSS Lens Search, Inada N. et al, 2010,AJ,140,403 SP (157,161): SDSS Quasar DR5, Schneider D. et al, 2007,AJ,134,102 SQ (100479,105985): SDSS Quasar DR7, Schneider D. et al, 2010,AJ,139,2360 SDSS AGNe not in SQ/SP are from previous releases on http://www.sdss.org/dr7/products/spectra/getspectra.html . These are: S1 (3112,4467): SDSS Data Release 1 to 3 (combined files) S4 ( 765,1274): SDSS Data Release 4 increment S5 ( 786,1307): SDSS Data Release 5 increment S6 (1017,1475): SDSS Data Release 6 increment S7 (1235,1723): SDSS Data Release 7 increment Sa ( 738, 949): SDSS Special-a Sb ( 210, 92): SDSS Special-b Se ( 290, 403): SDSS Extra SM (29,29): SMC Magellanic, Kozlowski S.,Kochanek,Udalski,2011,ApJS,194,22 SR (24,24): SDSS Radio, McGreer I., Helfand D., White R., 2009,AJ,138,1925 SW (96,96): SWIRE-hiz, Siana B. et al, 2008,ApJ,675,49 UL (1,1): ULAS hi-z, Mortlock D. et al, 2011,Nature,474,616 VE (24548,20530): Veron 13th ed, Veron-Cetty M. & Veron P.,2010,A&A,518,10 VL (168,169): VLT-LBG, Crighton N. et al, 2011,MNRAS,414,28 WE (41,0): Weedman D., 1985,ApJS,57,523 WR (2,2): Wolf-Rayet QSOs, Neugent K. & Massey P., 2011,ApJ,733,123 WW (0,10): Variable QSOs Stripe 82, Wu, X.-B. et al, 2011,AJ,142,78 XB (135,136): XBSS, Caccianiga A. et al, 2008,A&A,477,735 XC (2,2): XMM Cluster survey, Hilton M. et al, 2010,ApJ,718,133 XD (370438,4): SDSS-XDQSO, Bovy J. et al, 2011,ApJ,729,141 XL (222,222): XMM-LSS sources, Stalin C.S. et al, 2010,MNRAS,401,294 XM (158,160): XMSS, Barcons X. et al, 2007,A&A,476,1191 Note (6): The nominal percent chance that this object is a QSO, based on either photometric or radio/X-ray association analysis. Note that this object may be a catalogued QSO in which case this "nominal" figure is superseded. 1009105 objects without spectroscopic confirmation are included where of >=70% probability. Two families of calculated objects are included: (1) SDSS photometric quasars from the NBCKDE/XDQSO/Stripe82 catalogs, totalling 928119 of which ~35000 also show radio/X-ray association. The displayed probability of NBCKDE/XDQSO objects is not from their catalogs which provide data ratios only; instead, the displayed absolute probability is calculated as described in Appendix A below. (2) Radio/X-ray associated objects, totalling 81091 without any other attribution, from the QORG (25200) or ARXA (16676) catalog, and also 39516 first identified in this catalog. The displayed probability is calculated as described in the ARXA/QORG papers. Approx 35000 SDSS photometric quasars are also radio/X-ray associated, and the displayed probability figure combines the photometric QSO probability P1 and the radio/X-ray derived QSO probability P2 as P = 1/(1+((1-P1)*(1-P2))/(P1*P2)). Using the probability as expected yield, these 1,182,964 objects will yield 1,058,835 actual quasars, making MILLIQUAS a true million-quasar catalog. Note (7): Legend of Radio/X-ray detections and catalog home pages: ROSAT catalogs home page: www.mpe.mpg.de/xray/wave/rosat/catalogue -- 1RXH: ROSAT HRI (high resolution imager) -- 1RXS: ROSAT RASS (all-sky survey, both bright & faint) -- 2RXP/2RXF: ROSAT PSPC (position sensitive proportional counter) 1WGA: White, Giommi & Angelini, wgacat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wgacat/wgacat.html 2XMM/2XMMi: XMM-Newton, xmmssc-www.star.le.ac.uk CXO: Chandra Source Catalog, cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/csc CXOMP: Champ2 catalog, Kim M. et al, 2007, ApJS, 169, 401 CXOX: XAssist Chandra source list, xassist.pha.jhu.edu/zope/xassist FIRST: VLA FIRST survey, sundog.stsci.edu (Southern sky FIRST data received courtesy of Rick White) MGPS: Molonglo galactic plane survey, same attribution as SUMSS NVSS: NRAO VLA sky survey, www.cv.nrao.edu/nvss ST82: deep VLA obs on Stripe 82: www.physics.drexel.edu/~gtr/vla/stripe82 SUMSS: Sydney U. Molonglo, www.physics.usyd.edu.au/sifa/Main/SUMSS XMMSL: XMM-Newton Slew survey, www.star.le.ac.uk/~amr30/Slew XMMX: XAssist XMM-Newton source list, xassist.pha.jhu.edu/zope/xassist Appendix A: The inclusion of SDSS photometric QSO candidates into MILLIQUAS The two major releases of SDSS photometric QSO candidates are: (1) the NBCKDE catalog (Richards G.T. et al, 2009,ApJS,180,67) taken over the DR6 footprint, which provides QSO & star density profiles per object for which direct comparison yields a nominal pQSO, ie, the odds that the object is a QSO. (2) the XDQSO catalog (Bovy J. et al, 2011,ApJ,729,141) over the DR8 footprint, which is intended to provide targets for the SDSS BOSS survey. It is annotated with a nominal pQSO figure which their paper cautions is just a comparative figure and not a genuine QSO likelihood (see esp. their figure 14). In this "Million Quasars" catalog, the requirement is to display genuine odds for each candidate that it is indeed a quasar. I have accordingly analyzed the XDQSO data using techniques similar to the QORG (Flesch & Hardcastle, 2004,A&A, 427,387) processing. This uses a 4-color binned training set in the usual way, subsetted by 5 overall background sky density bins, but with a key difference. NBCKDE and XDQSO use the set of all SDSS-spectroscoped objects as a surrogate for the random sky. But the true random sky has far more stars, so prior to binning I "flood" the training set with 10,000,000 anonymized XDQSO stars, and then calculate a "genuine" pQSO against this adjudged well-ratioed random background of quasars, galaxies and stars. Some interesting revelations ensue: (1) NBCKDE nominal pQSOs are optimistic, and can be converted to approx genuine pQSOs by taking the 4th power of the nominal, e.g., 98%^4 --> ~ 92%. (2) XDQSO nominal pQSOs are convertible to approx genuine pQSOs by using pQSO = 0.0809/(1.08757-nominal), for nominal<.9977 BOSS targets (good=0). However, I have added a galactic latitude dependent calculation to this. (3) My own training set yielded independent pQSOs. My technique was to use the transformed pQSO from (1) as stand-alone, and (2) in combination, and then re-test failing objects with my own pQSO to extract the maximum number of objects which meet the 70% threshold. In every case, the extracted objects were binned and re-tested against a calibrated random-sky training set to ensure that the 70% threshold was met. The final count of extracted objects which are without spectra are: NBCKDE -- 552171, on average 88.6% likely to be quasars. XDQSO BOSS targets -- ~670000. However, most of these overlap with NBCKDE which has the precedence, which leaves 289911, of avg 87.1% pQSO. XDQSO non-BOSS (good=1,2) -- 80525, of avg 85.8% pQSO. These objects have been listed in the Million Quasars catalog with the true pQSO calculated as outlined above, expressed as a percentage. Consult the original source catalogs to obtain their nominal pQSOs. The XDQSO team is planning to issue a photometric catalog of their leading candidates, with probable redshifts listed. I hope to incorporate those redshifts into this catalog, thereafter. (end of Appendix A) If using this catalogue in published research, please add a small mention. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research has made use of data obtained from the Chandra Source Catalog, provided by the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) as part of the Chandra Data Archive. Funding for SDSS-III has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy. The SDSS-III web site is http://www.sdss3.org/.