The Half Million Quasars (HMQ) catalogue Eric Flesch, 6 February 2015 ================================================================================ This is a compendium of all type-I QSOs and AGN, and BL Lac objects, complete from the literature to 25 January 2015. High-confidence (99%+) photometric SDSS candidates with radio/X-ray associations are included, plus type-II objects, which bring the total objects to 510764. Objects have been de-duplicated across source 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 in every case. Note: multiply-lensed images are listed as single objects. 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, the citations for the name and redshift, plus up to four radio/X-ray identifiers where applicable. Questions/comments/praise/complaints may be directed to me at eric@flesch.org. File Summary: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FileName Lrecl Records Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HMQ.txt 182 510764 The catalogue HMQ-references.txt 140 2171 indexed list of citations in the data HMQ-ReadMe.txt 80 . This file -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Byte-by-byte Description of the HMQ (half million quasar) file: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 11 F11.7 deg RA right ascension J2000 (degrees)(1) 13- 23 F11.7 deg DEC declination J2000 (degrees)(1) 26- 50 A25 --- Name ID from the literature 52 A1 --- Class classification of object (2) 53- 55 A3 --- Assoc summary of associations for object (3) 57- 60 F4.1 mag Rmag red optical magnitude (4) 62- 65 F4.1 mag Bmag blue optical magnitude (4) 67- 69 A3 --- Comment comment on optical object (5) 71 A1 --- R red optical PSF class (6) 73 A1 --- B blue optical PSF class (6) 75- 80 F6.3 z Z redshift from the literature (7) 82- 85 I4 --- Cite citation for name (8) 87- 90 I4 --- Zcite citation for redshift (8) 92-113 A22 --- Xname X-ray ID, if any (9) 115-136 A22 --- Rname radio ID, if any (9) 138-159 A22 --- Lobe1 radio lobe ID or extra R/X ID, if any (9) 161-182 A22 --- Lobe2 radio lobe ID or extra X-ray ID, if any (9) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note (1): These are to 7 decimals which is too precise, but which accomodates a miniscule round-up which prevents inadvertent truncation by the user when converting to sexagesimal. Note (2): Legend: Q = QSO from the literature, broad-line unresolved. 424748 of these. A = AGN, extended/Seyferts/low-luminosity. 26623 of these. B = BL Lac object, 1595 of these. q = high-confidence photometric QSO from SDSS NBCKDE/XDQSO, 25015 of these. K = type II objects, 32783 of these included for user reference. Note (3): Legend: R = Radio association displayed. X = X-ray association displayed. 2 = Double radio lobes displayed. (declared by data-driven algorithm) Note (4): Optical data is from the APM (http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~mike/apmcat), USNO-A & USNO-B (http://www.nofs.navy.mil), and the SDSS (http://sdss.org). APM/USNO-A magnitudes have been recalibrated from the original values as documented in QORG (2004,A&A,427,387), so such USNO-A magnitudes are often used in preference to USNO-B. APM galaxies < mag 17.0 are usually shown too bright due to PSF modelling. Note: many SDSS magnitudes are extinction-"corrected" ~0.3 mag brighter than photometry. Note (5): 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 is less reliable 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. v = red magnitude is visual, ie, white, 5500A midpoint. i = red magnitude is infrared 7500A. z = red magnitude is infrared z 8500A. k = red magnitude is infrared k 22000A. (not v/i/z/k) = standard red color 6500A. + = variability nominally* detected for both red & blue. m = proper motion nominally* detected. a = object is an SDSS galaxy with AGN subclass. If also BROADLINE then HMQ class is 'A', otherwise 'K' (see note 2). ? = identification uncertain (quasar may be located elsewhere). ( * from USNO-B or Flesch & Hardcastle,2004,A&A,427,387, section A.1 end ) Note (6): 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 (7): Photometric redshifts are rounded to 0.1 z. Note (8): see the accompanying file "HMQ-references.txt" which lists all citations in sequence. Each row has 4 columns, these are: (a) the citation # as it appears in the data. (b) the count of times used as a citation for the name. (excluding type 2) (c) the count of times used as a citation for the redshift. (excl. type 2) (d) the citation, i.e., standard authors list, year, journal volume & page, and sometimes a brief description or website. The citation for the classification (e.g., that the object is a quasar) can be from either the name or redshift citation. Note (9): Four columns of Radio/X-ray detections are presented: 1st column: best X-ray detection (i.e. highest probability association). 2nd column: best core Radio detection. 3rd column: a radio lobe if the associations (see note 3) show a "2", otherwise this is an additional radio or X-ray detection. 4th column: a radio lobe if the associations (see note 3) show a "2", otherwise this is an additional X-ray detection. Legend of Radio/X-ray detections and catalog home pages: FIRST: VLA FIRST survey, 13Jun05 version, http://sundog.stsci.edu NVSS: NRAO VLA sky survey, http://www.cv.nrao.edu/nvss SUMSS: Sydney U. Molonglo, http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/sifa/Main/SUMSS MGPS: Molonglo galactic plane survey, same attribution as SUMSS ROSAT catalogs home page: www.mpe.mpg.de/xray/wave/rosat/catalogue , for: - 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 CXO: Chandra Source Catalog, http://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/csc CXOX: XAssist Chandra source list, http://xassist.pha.jhu.edu/zope/xassist 3XMM: XMM-Newton, http://xmm.esac.esa.int/xsa XMMSL: XMM-Newton Slew survey, http://xmm.esac.esa.int/xsa XMMX: XAssist XMM-Newton source list, xassist.pha.jhu.edu/zope/xassist 1SXPS: Swift X-ray Point Source catalog, http://www.swift.ac.uk/1SXPS Optical field solutions are calculated from the raw source positions of all these catalogs as described in my ARXA paper 2010,PASA,27,283.