APASS Data Product Developments (Abstract)

Volume 41 number 1 (2013)

Douglas L. Welch

McMaster University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada; welch@physics.mcmaster.ca

Abstract

(Abstract only) Data Release 6 (DR6) of the AAVSO Photometric All-Sky Survey (APASS) was a significant milestone in the ambitious project to provide calibrated photometry for 10 < V < 17 over the entire sky in Johnson B and V and Sloan g'‚r'‚I'‚ bandpasses. DR6 itself was a list of mean magnitudes and colors for about 42 million objects and sky coverage was approximately 95% complete. The photometric means database has now been supplemented by additional data products: an epoch photometry database and a publicly-accessible store of the dark-subtracted, flat-fielded images at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre. In this talk, I will describe the processes and challenges of producing these new, useful resources and the contributions of numerous people to the success of this effort. As new data releases occur, the epoch photometry database—which contains data for all measured stars, not just variables—will be updated to include all newly available measurements. As of October 2012, 861,322,813 individual photometric measurements exist in the epoch photometry database. The breakdown of measurements per filter is: B 167,682,680; V 170,005,969; u 25,457; g 181,303,298; r 181,266,321; i 160,374,091; z 664,997. A VStar plug-in to access and analyse the APASS epoch photometry database will be demonstrated and future developments discussed.