Astronomical Data Center

ADCADC/CDS Standard Document for Catalog:
/catalogs/1/1212/

The following is the "ReadMe" document that describes this ADC catalog. You can access the files described here in three ways:

1. Use the ADC Data Viewer Suite to visualize the data. [preview
2. Get the data files via anonymous FTP. (See Note.) [ftp


I/212               Proper motions in NGC 3680  (Kozhurina-Platais+, 1995)
================================================================================
Catalogue of Proper Motions in the region of NGC 3680.
     Kozhurina-Platais V., Girard T.M., Platais I., van Altena W.F.,
     Ianna P.A., Cannon R.D.
    <Bull. Inf. CDS 46, 9 (1995)>
    =1995BICDS..46....9K
A proper motion study of the open cluster NGC 3680.
    Ozhurina-Platais V., Girard M., Platais I., van Altena W.F.
    <Astron. J. 109, 672 (1995)>
    =1995AJ....109..672K
================================================================================
ADC_Keywords: Clusters, open ; Positional data ; Proper motions ;
              Magnitudes, photographic

Description:
    A catalogue of positions, proper motions and photographic BV
    magnitudes for 2711 stars in and around the open cluster NGC 3680
    is presented. The Catalogue is complete down to B=17.5 mag in a
    rectangular, one square degree area centered on the cluster. The
    limiting magnitude of the Catalogue is B=18.4 mag. The mean
    standard error of the proper motions for well-measured stars is
    +/-0.35 mas/yr. The photographic B and V magnitudes are accurate
    to about +/-0.1 mag. The mean error of the relative positions for
    all 2711 is +/-0.025 arcsec at the mean epoch of the plate
    material, 1977.8. For each star, three different cluster
    membership estimators are presented. For convenience,
    cross-identifications to other studies are provided.

Introduction:
    The open cluster NGC 3680 (C1123-429; l=286.8 deg, b=16.9 deg)
    fits the same age group as the well-studied cluster M67, although
    it is not a twin of that cluster. For instance, NGC 3680 contains
    a much smaller number of cluster members. Most likely it belongs
    to the group of so-called poorly-populated open clusters which has
    been studied by Platais (1994). Unfortunately, the lack of an
    astrometric study before now, impeded reaching definite
    conclusions as to the cluster's basic parameters and the
    luminosity function. Recently Kozhurina-Platais et. al (1995) have
    completed a comprehensive proper motion study of NGC 3680. Here we
    present an extended version of the proper motion catalogue for all
    2711 stars measured in that study. The Catalogue should prove
    valuable for further studies of the cluster properties and also
    can be useful for galactic structure studies toward the galactic
    anti-rotation direction as demonstrated by Mendez et al. (1993).

Data description:
    A detailed description of the astrometric and photometric data is
    available in Kozhurina-Platais et al. (1995). Only a brief summary
    of the reductions and attained accuracies is provided here. The
    astrometric reductions were based on twelve plates taken with the
    Yale-Columbia 26-in refractor (plate scale 18.85 "/mm). The
    earliest plate was taken in 1947, the latest - 1992. The largest
    plates cover 67' (E-W) by 52' (N-S) area. All of the plates were
    digitized with the Yale PDS microdensitometer equipped with laser
    encoders. Image centroids were obtained by fitting a
    two-dimensional bivariate Gaussian to the image density profiles.
    Proper motions were calculated using the basic principles of an
    iterative central-plate overlap technique supplemented with a very
    careful account of the magnitude equation and the magnitude/color
    corrections. Relative proper motions were calculated for 2711
    stars, measured on at least three plates which spanned a minimum
    of ten years epoch difference. The standard error of the proper
    motion for bright (V<14.0 mag) stars, measured on all twelve
    plates, is +/-0.35 mas/yr. The Catalogue of proper motions is
    complete down to B=17.5 mag, while the limiting magnitude is
    B=18.4 mag.

    The five best 26-in telescope plates were used to obtain the B
    magnitudes. V magnitudes were derived primarily from two visual
    Yale Southern Observatory 51-cm astrograph plates. The
    instrumental magnitudes were transformed into the standard BV
    magnitudes using photographic BV-photometry by Anthony-Twarog et
    al. (1991). The formal photometric error for the whole Catalogue
    is about +/-0.1 mag in both B and V magnitude. Our BV photometry
    should be used with caution in a detailed analysis of the
    cluster's color-magnitude diagram since its primary purpose was
    for application of magnitude and color corrections made in the
    astrometric reductions. We are aware of several stars with totally
    erroneous V-photometry (for instance, Nos. 376, 2696) caused by
    the difficulty in separating blended images on the 51-cm
    astrograph visual plates.

    In addition to the proper motion, we also present each star's mean
    position. The mean error of the relative positions for all 2711
    stars is +/-0.45 micron or, in corresponding angular units,
    +/-0.025 arcsec, and for the 524 stars brighter than V=14.5 mag,
    the internal error is +/-0.18 micron (+/-0.010 arcsec) at the mean
    epoch of the plate material, 1977.8. Note that we had no control
    over possible magnitude equation in the positions. The mean
    positions were updated to epoch=2000.0 and then transformed into
    the HST Guide Star Catalog system of celestial coordinates using
    219 reference stars. The unit weight mean error of this
    transformation is +/-0.18 arcsec, which is dominated by the errors
    in the reference frame.

Proper motion errors:
    In the Catalogue the single-coordinate proper-motion formal error
    is estimated from the scatter about the best-fit line for each
    star separately. Due to the small number of plates involved in the
    solution, this formal error may not always be a statistically
    reliable estimator of the true error. Here we would like to
    caution that the proper motion uncertainties given in
    Kozhurina-Platais et al. (1995) for the probable cluster members
    are calculated by median smoothing the proper-motion error
    distribution as a function of B magnitude. This procedure,
    however, was not applied to the stars with proper-motion errors
    exceeding three times the median-smoothed error estimate. The
    proper-motion membership probability calculation benefited
    significantly from the use of these median-smoothed proper-motion
    error estimates. Statistical properties of the formal errors,
    though, should be studied only from the error values provided in
    this Catalogue.

Membership Probabilities:
    The probability of a given star being a cluster member is defined
    as the ratio of the frequency of cluster stars to all stars at the
    point within the proper motion distribution corresponding to that
    star's proper motion. To derive the probabilities, the standard
    technique (Sanders, 1971) of modeling the proper-motion
    distributions has been widely used. Following this tradition, we
    applied the modified Sanders method to the proper-motion data and
    derived the probabilities P_\mu. Our best fit to the proper-motion
    distributions yields only 74 cluster members. With such a small
    fraction of cluster members, the associated membership
    probabilities may be sensitive to the shape of cluster's
    luminosity function and the spatial distribution. The latter can
    be rigorously taken into account by including an empirical spatial
    surface density distribution into the membership probability. The
    joint spatial/proper motion membership probabilities P_\mu,r
    provide more realistic probability estimates but can be distorted
    by a varying cluster-to-field luminosity function ratio over the
    entire magnitude range. Therefore, we also provide a so-called
    local-sample membership estimator, P_s, which should not be biased
    by possible differences in the shape of the luminosity functions.
    Note that these probabilities are calculated only for stars
    measured on seven or more plates.
    For practical cluster member selection purposes, we recommend use
    of the P_\mu,r probabilities with the caution not to use them to
    derive information regarding the cluster's spatial structure.
    A full discussion regarding the various membership probability
    estimates can be found in Kozhurina-Platais et al. (1995).

File Summary:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 FileName    Lrecl    Records    Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe          80          .    This file
ngc3680.dat    113       2711    The catalogue of stars in NGC 3680
xid.dat         15        427    Cross-identifications with previous work
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See also:
    J/AJ/113/1045 : BV photometry of NGC 3680 (Kozhurina-Platais+ 1997)
    J/A+AS/118/407 : NGC 3680 CCD photometry & velocities (Nordstroem+ 1996)
    J/A+A/322/460  : NGC 3680 photometry and radial velocities (Nordstrom+ 1997)

Byte-by-byte Description of file: ngc3680.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Bytes Format  Units   Label    Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2-  5  I4     ---     No       [1/2711]+ Sequential number of the star.
   7- 11  F5.2   mag     Vmag     [7/18] Photographic BV-photometry.
  13- 17  F5.2   mag     B-V      Photographic colour index
  20- 21  I2     h       RAh      [11] Right Ascension (hours)
                                    Equinox=J2000, Epoch=J2000
  23- 24  I2     min     RAm      [22/28] Right Ascension J2000 (minutes)
  26- 30  F5.2   s       RAs      Right Ascension J2000 (seconds)
      32  A1     ---     DE-      [-] Declination J2000 (sign)
  33- 34  I2     deg     DEd      [42/43] Declination J2000 (degrees)
  36- 37  I2     arcmin  DEm      Declination J2000 (minutes)
  39- 42  F4.1   arcsec  DEs      Declination J2000 (seconds)
  44- 45  I2     ---     nPlates  The number of plates used in the
                                    proper motion calculation.
  47- 53  F7.2   mas/yr  pmX      Relative proper motions in X-coordinate.
  55- 61  F7.2   mas/yr  pmY      Relative proper motions in Y-coordinate.
  63- 67  F5.2   mas/yr  e_pmX    Formal error of pmX.
  69- 73  F5.2   mas/yr  e_pmY    Formal error of pmY.
  75- 77  I3     %       Pr(pm)   [0/100] Standard membership probability
                                    for the cluster NGC 3680. (2)
  79- 81  I3     %       Pr(pm,r) [0/100] Joint spatial/proper motion
                                    membership probability. (2)
  83- 85  I3     %       Pr(S)    [0/100]?=-1 Local-sample membership
                                    probability; negative probabilities
                                    indicate a not computed probability. (2)
  87- 94  F8.4   mm      X        Standard-plate coordinate (1)
  96-103  F8.4   mm      Y        Standard-plate coordinate (1)
 105-108  F4.1   um      e_X      Mean error on X (microns)
 110-113  F4.1   um      e_Y      Mean error on Y (microns)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1): Mean standard-plate coordinates derived from the iterative
    central-plate overlap solution (epoch=1977.8, scale=18.85 "/mm).
    The mean standard plate originated from the plate #Y36 with
    X=Y=0.0 placed close to the optical center.
Note (2): see above section on Membership Probabilities

Byte-by-byte Description of file: xid.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Bytes Format  Units   Label    Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2-  5  I4     ---     No       [1/2711]+= The present Catalogue number.
   7- 10  A4     ---     Ant-Twa  Identification with Anthony-Twarog
                                    et al. (1991).
  13- 15  A3     ---     Eggen    Identification with Eggen (1969).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

References:
 [1] (1991AJ....102.1056A) Anthony-Twarog, B.J., Heim, E.A., Twarog, B.A.,
       Caldwell, N.: 1991, Astron. J., vol. 102, 1056.
 [2] (1969ApJ...155..439E) Eggen, O.J.: 1969, Astrophys. J., vol. 155, 439.
 [3] (1995AJ....109..672K) Kozhurina-Platais, V., Girard, T.M., Platais, I.,
       van Altena, W.F, Ianna, P.A., Cannon, R.D.: 1995, Astron. J. (in press)
 [4] Mendez, R.A., Kozhurina-Platais, V., Girard, T.M., van Altena, W.F.:
       1993, in "Workshop on Databases for Galactic Structure", eds.
       A.G. Davis Philip, B. Hauck and A.R. Upgren, L. Davis Press, 223.
 [5] Platais, I.: 1994, in "Galactic and Solar System Optical Astrometry",
       eds. L.V. Morrison and G.F. Gilmore, Cambridge University Press, 211.
 [6] (1971A&A....14..226S) Sanders, W.L.: 1971, Astron. Astrophys.,
       vol. 14, 226.

E-mail (for the first author): <vera@astro.yale.edu>

================================================================================
(End)                                 Francois Ochsenbein [CDS]      08-Feb-1995

Go to ADC Home Page