The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog. II. First Data Release

We present the second edition of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) QuasarCatalog. The catalog consists of 16713 objects in the SDSS First Data Release(DR1) that have luminosities larger than M_i=-22 (H_0=70 km/s, Omega_M=0.3,Omega_Lambda=0.7), have at least one emission line with FWHM larger than 1000km/s, and have highly reliable redshifts. The area covered is ~1360 deg^2 andthe redshifts range from 0.08 to 5.41, with a median value of 1.43. Each objecthas positions accurate to better than 0.2" rms per coordinate, five-band(ugriz) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.03 mag, and informationon the morphology and selection method, in addition to radio, near-infrared,and X-ray emission properties of the quasars, when available, from other largearea surveys. Calibrated digital spectra covering 3800-9200 Angstroms at aspectral resolution 1800-2100, are available. This publication supersedes thefirst SDSS Quasar Catalog, which was based on material from the SDSS Early DataRelease. A summary of corrections to current quasar databases is provided. Themajority of the objects were found in SDSS commissioning data using amulticolor selection technique. Since the quasar selection algorithm wasundergoing testing during the entire DR1 observational period, care must betaken when assembling samples for use in statistical studies. A total of 15786objects (94%) in the catalog were discovered by the SDSS; 12,173 of which arereported here for the first time, including five quasars brighter than i=16.0and 17 quasars with redshifts larger than 4.5.