The Palomar Transient Factory photometric catalog 1.0

• Published in: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2012-08, Vol.124 (918), p.854-860
• Main Authors: Ofek, E. O., Laher, R., Surace, J., Levitan, D., Sesar, B., Horesh, A., Law, N., van Eyken, J. C., Kulkarni, S. R., Prince, T. A., Nugent, P., Sullivan, M., Yaron, O., Pickles, A., Agüeros, M., Arcavi, I., Bildsten, L., Bloom, J., Cenko, S. B., Gal-Yam, A., Grillmair, C., Helou, G., Kasliwal, M. M., Poznanski, D., Quimby, R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astronomy; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Photometric observations; Stellar investigations
• ISSN: 0004-6280; 1538-3873
• DOI: 10.1086/666978

ABSTRACT We constructed a photometrically calibrated catalog of non-variable sources from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) observations. The first version of this catalog presented here, the PTF photometric catalog 1.0, contains calibrated RPTF-filter magnitudes for ≈2.1 × 107 sources brighter than magnitude 19, over an area of ≈11,233 deg2. The magnitudes are provided in the PTF photometric system, and the color of a source is required in order to convert these magnitudes into other magnitude systems. We estimate that the magnitudes in this catalog have a typical accuracy of about 0.02 mag with respect to magnitudes from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The median repeatability of our catalog's magnitudes for stars between 15 and 16 mag, is about 0.01 mag and it is over 0.03 mag for 95% of the sources in this magnitude range. The main goal of this catalog is to provide reference magnitudes for photometric calibration of visible light observations. Subsequent versions of this catalog, which will be published incrementally online, will be extended to cover a larger sky area and will also include gPTF-filter magnitudes, as well as variability and proper-motion information.