Bucciarelli, B. ; Fresnau, A. ; Abad, C. ; Argyle, R. W. ; Biggs, J. ; Brosch, N. ; Coyne, G. V. ; Davoust, E. ; De Cuyper, J.-P. M. ; van Dessel, E. L. ; Ducourant, C. ; Fierro, I. H. B. ; Geffert, M. ; Glushkova, E. V. ; Irwin, M. J. ; Jones, D. L. ; Lumme, K. A. ; Muiños, J. L. ; Odenkirchen, M. ; Orellana, R. B. ; Pauwels, T. ; Rafferty, T. J. ; Sanchez, M. ; Sanner, J. ; Tsvetkov, M. K. ; Vaughan, A. E.

published in Transactions of the International Astronomical Union, Series B, 26, pp. 95-97 (2007)

Abstract: Various experiments have definitely demonstrated that one-micron accuracy (0.″06) on the definition of stellar images on CdC plates cannot be claimed, as it was speculated back in 1999. More realistically, a 2-3 micron accuracy is achievable, getting worse toward the survey magnitude limit, with an average magnitude error of 0.3. The level of astrometric accuracy corresponds to a 0.″2 - 0.″3 error in position at Epoch 1900, which, once used as first Epoch for proper motion determination in combination with modern epoch observations, can produce errors at the level of 2-5 mas/yr, thereby allowing to detect stellar motions larger than 0.″01/yr, which at a distance of 500 pc from the Sun correspond to ~25-60 km/s tangential velocity. Therefore, the AC/CdC heritage collection can be regarded as a highly valuable first-epoch material, e.g., for the realization of a Tycho-2 extension to fainter magnitudes (~15 photographic), especially in selected areas where radial velocity data are available, for the exploration of stellar kinematics beyond our solar neighborhood.

DOI: 10.1017/S1743921308023727
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