The FREE LUNCH Optical Catalogue of Quasars, Quasar Candidates, and Other Radio/X-ray Objects Eric Flesch, Wellington, New Zealand 14 January 2004 ================================================================================ The FREE LUNCH Catalogue aligns and overlays the year 2001/2 releases of the ROSAT HRI, RASS, PSPC and WGA X-ray catalogues, the NVSS (2002), FIRST (2003) and SUMSS (2003) radio catalogues, the Veron QSO catalogue (2003) and various galaxy/star reference catalogues onto the optical APM and USNO-A catalogues. This catalogue displays calculated percentage probabilities for each optical radio/X-ray-associated object of its likelihood of being a quasar, galaxy, star, or erroneous radio/X-ray association. This catalogue (Free-Lunch.zip) displays all 501,761 radio/X-ray associated optical objects and known quasars which are optically detected in the APM/USNO-A. One X-ray and/or radio identification for each object is showcased, altho this can be two radio identifications where there is a double lobe. This catalogue is the original quasars.org version which was publicized to show astronomers that there *is* a free lunch after all! Objects presented in this catalogue are those optical APM/USNO-A objects which are associated with radio/X-ray detections, or any optically-found catalogued QSO/AGN/Bl Lac objects, with confidence >40% of being a radio/X-ray emitting optical object. There are 501,761 objects included in all (including 48,285 catalogued quasars), representing the 99.4% coverage of the sky available from the APM and USNO-A. Each object is shown as one line bearing the position in equatorial coordinates, red and blue optical magnitudes (recalibrated) and PSF class, calculated probabilities of the object being, separately, a quasar, galaxy, star, or erroneous radio/X-ray association, any radio identification from one of the NVSS, FIRST and SUMSS surveys, including candidate double-lobe detections, any X-ray identification from one of the ROSAT HRI, RASS, PSPC and WGA surveys, including fluxes and field shifts of those identifications, plus, if already catalogued, the object name and redshift where applicable. Questions or comments may be directed to eric@flesch.org. File Summary: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FileName Lrecl Records Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Free-Lunch-ReadMe.txt 80 . This file Free-Lunch.txt 131 501761 The Free Lunch catalogue, displaying listings of detections from 7 surveys. Only 1 radio and/or 1 xray detection is presented per optical object. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See also: APM home page www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~apmcat USNO home page www.nofs.navy.mil NVSS home page www.cv.nrao.edu/nvss FIRST home page sundog.stsci.edu HRI & PSPC home page wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/rosat/rra WGA home page wgacat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wgacat/wgacat.html RASS-FSC home page www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/rosat/survey/rass-fsc RASS-BSC home page www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/rosat/survey/rass-bsc SUMSS home page www.astrop.physics.usyd.edu.au/SUMSS/index.html Veron home page www.obs-hp.fr/www/catalogues/veron2_11/veron2_11.html Principal Galaxy Catalogue (LEDA) home page leda.univ-lyon1.fr Sloan Digital Sky Survey www.sdss.org 2dF QSO Redshift Survey www.2dfquasar.org 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey www.mso.anu.edu.au/2dFGRS NED nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu CfA Redshift Catalogue cfa-www.harvard.edu/~huchra/ IRAS PSCz Redshift Survey www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~wjs/pscz.html Byte-by-byte Description of the Free-Lunch and Known-Objects files: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 2 I2 h RAh Right Ascension J2000 (hours) (1) 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) (1) 12- 13 I2 arcmin DEm Declination J2000 (minutes) 14- 15 I2 arcsec DEs Declination J2000 (seconds) 17- 19 A3 --- Descrip Nature of object and any association (2) 21- 24 F4.1 mag Rmag Red optical magnitude (3) 26- 29 F4.1 mag Bmag Blue optical magnitude (3) 31- 33 A3 --- comment Comment on optical object (4) 34 A1 --- R Red optical PSF class (5) 36 A1 --- B Blue optical PSF class (5) 38- 58 A21 --- name ID from the literature 59- 61 I3 pct QSOpct Confidence that the radio/X-ray association shows this object to be a quasar (6) 62- 64 I3 pct galpct Confidence (as above) that obj is galaxy (6) 65- 67 I3 pct starpct Confidence (as above) that obj is a star (6) 68- 70 I3 pct errpct Probability that this is a false association, i.e., coincidental radio/X-ray & optical (7) 71- 76 F6.3 z z Redshift from the literature. 78- 98 A21 --- ID1 #1 radio / X-ray ID (8) 99-103 I5 mJy/ rate1 Flux / count rate of the #1 source (9) cts/hr 105-125 A21 --- ID2 #2 x-ray ID (8) 126-130 I5 cts/hr rate2 Count rate per hour of the #2 source (9) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note (1): The location is given as per the IAU recommended naming convention, thus the location doubles as the name for each object. When referring to a candidate from these quasars.org catalog, specify it as e.g., QORG J000108.1-373858. Note (2): Summarizes the identification (from the literature) and radio/xray associations presented for this optical object. Legend: Q=QSO, G=galaxy, A=AGN, B=Bl Lac, S=star, U=unknown with redshift, R=radio source, 2=Double-Lobed radio source, X=X-ray source Note (3): Magnitudes have been recalibrated from the original APM / USNO-A values. Estimated accuracy of these values is 0.2 from true, B-R to 0.1. However, USNO-A non-POSSI objects fainter than 18.5 can have larger errors. Extended objects brighter than mag 13 can be represented as far too bright. If image is absent in this color, the plate depth is shown in parentheses. Note (4): Legend: p = optical magnitudes are POSS-I E and O. (no p)= Not POSS-I, so the magnitudes are UKST R and Bj. v = variability over 1 magnitude detected across epochs for both red & blue m = proper motion detected across epochs (nominally over 3 arcseconds). ? = "inferred" object -- position and magnitude is approximate for one or both colours where PSF is listed as "n". Note (5): The APM provides PSF class, the USNO-A does not. Legend: - = stellar PSF (from APM) 1 = fuzzy PSF (from APM) 2 = extended PSF. Can be galaxies, merged stars, etc. n = no PSF available, usually USNO-A sourced. x = no image resolved (image fainter than plate depth, or confused, etc.) Note (6): Probability that object is a QSO / galaxy / star is evaluated from the radio/X-ray association with catalogued QSOs / galaxies / stars. There are four cross-categories, these being the PSF (stellar appearance) of the optical object, its B-R color, the offset of the optical and radio/X-ray positions, and the ratio of the radio/X-ray flux to the optical flux (via magnitude), and the radio detections are pooled separately from the X-ray detections. Candidates are compared by these qualities to known objects, and the I.D. probabilities are set by numerical prevalence of the known objects. These same probabilities are also listed for the known objects, so that you may judge for yourself the effectiveness of this method in correctly determining the nature of the optical object. Note that the probability of incorrect association (of the optical object to the radio/X-ray detection) is listed in the fourth percentile column, and that the four columns add to 100%. Thus the probability of incorrect association is already built into the listed probabilities that the object is a radio/X-ray QSO, galaxy, or star. In this catalogue, a quasar is taken as any broad emission-line object, so includes Seyfert-1 galaxies and many/most Bl Lacs. However, known objects display object classifications as listed in the Veron catalogue. Note (7): Confidence of association is based on whole-sky density of optical objects of the listed PSF and B-R colors. Density of such objects at x arcseconds from the radio detections is compared with whole-sky density, same for X-ray. Ten times the density yields a confidence of 90%, etc. Whole-sky object densities are sub-categorized by galactic density subclasses to minimize local-sky bias to within 20% in most cases. Also, see note (6) above. Note (8): A radio detection is provided if available, same for an X-ray detection. If both radio and X-ray detections are listed, the radio is given first. Two radio detection are provided where the second is a lobe. See note (2), above, for an E-Z guide to what detections are listed. Note (9): If following a radio detection (i.e. from FIRST, NVSS or SUMSS), then this figure is the peak flux in mJy. If the first detection is an X-ray detection, then this figure is the countrate in counts/hour. Values are from their respective source catalogues. Values over 99999 are displayed as 99999. If using this catalogue in published research, please add a small acknowledgement.