Strömgren-Crawford uvbyβ all sky survey - towards understanding of the Galaxy

Abstract

AbstractThe Strömgren-Crawford (SC) intermediate-band photometric system is a very powerful and efficient one for the detailed study of stars, and therefore the Milky Way and local universe. However, due to the narrow bandwidth, low efficiency of detectors and serious atmospheric extinction in u band, and high photometric accuracy required, there was only one all sky survey in this system finished a decade ago, which is restricted to stars brighter than 8.3 mag in y (equal to V) in the solar neighborhood. In this context, it is the right time to carry out an all sky survey to a completeness depth of ~19 mag, equivalent to a volume-completed distance 4 kpc for solar-type stars. For stars brighter than 15 mag in V, the expected photometric accuracies are ~0.01mag. With these stars, high precision 3D extinction map can be obtained thanks to the β index. Stellar atmospheric parameters can be determined with accuracies comparable to those from high-resolution spectroscopy. Fundamental parameters like stellar luminosities and distances can be reliably estimated as well. We propose to use the Nanshan 1m telescope to start the survey in early 2014 in the Northern sky. There are several 1-m class telescopes in Chile which can be used to perform the Southern sky survey. This entire survey, when finished, will greatly improve our knowledge on stars and the Galaxy, and will provide us the first 6D map of the Milky Way together with the LAMOST survey and the Gaia mission.