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Schmidt plate survey towards the Galactic centre. 2. Stellar statistics in the direction of the Sagittarius‐Carina arm
Author(s) -
Kharchenko N.,
Schilbach E.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.2113170209
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , stars , spiral galaxy , galaxy , proper motion , sagittarius , galactic center , luminosity function , red clump , astronomy , extinction (optical mineralogy) , absolute magnitude , stellar kinematics , main sequence , luminosity , milky way , optics
A study of the structure and kinematics of the Galaxy from Tautenburg Schmidt plates taken towards the Galactic centre ( l = 17.0°, b = +0.8°) is presented. Proper motions and B, V magnitudes were determined for about 36 500 stars up to the limiting magnitude V = 16 m .8 in a field of 8.95 square degrees. Proper motion accuracy of about 3 mas/year has been obtained for stars brighter than V = 15 m . The rms errors of stellar magnitudes and ( B–V ) colours is about 0.1 mag. The majority of field stars in the survey are main sequence stars and red giants of the disk. They belong to the Local or Sagittarius‐Carina arms, or they are located between these spiral arms. Comparing the modelled and observed distributions of magnitudes and colours, we specified the interstellar extinction determined in the preceding study of open clusters in this field. The luminosity function towards the Galactic centre was determined for stars with absolute magnitudes from ‐4 m .35 to +9 m . Kinematical and spatial distribution parameters up to 4 kpc from the Sun were obtained as a function of galactocentric distance.