The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog. I. Early Data Release

Schneider D.P., Richards G.T., Fan X., Hall P.B., Strauss M.A., Vanden Berk D.E., Gunn J.E., Newberg H.J., Reichard T.A., Stoughton C., Voges W., Yanny B., Anderson S.F., Annis J., Bahcall N.A., Bauer A., Bernardi M., Blanton M.R., Boroski W.N., Brinkmann J., Briggs J.W., Brunner R., Burles S., Carey L., Castander F.J., Connolly A.J., Csabai I., Doi M., Friedman S., Frieman J.A., Fukugita M., Heckman T.M., Hennessy G.S., Hindsley R.B., Hogg D.W., Ivezic .Z., Kent S., Knapp G.R., Kunszt P.Z., Lamb D.Q., Leger R.F., Long D.C., Loveday J., Lupton R.H., Margon B., Meiksin A., Merelli A., Munn J.A., Newcomb M., Nichol R.C., Owen R., Pier J.R., Pope A., Rockosi C.M., Saxe D.H., Schlegel D., Siegmund W.A., Smee S., Snir Y., SubbaRao M., Szalay A.S., Thakar A.R., Uomoto A., Waddell P., York D.G.

We present the first edition of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Quasar Catalog. The catalog consists of the 3814 objects (3000 discovered by the SDSS) in the initial SDSS public data release that have at least one emission line with a full width at half-maximum larger than 1000 km s-1, luminosities brighter than Mi*=-23, and highly reliable redshifts. The area covered by the catalog is 494 deg2; the majority of the objects were found in SDSS commissioning data using a multicolor selection technique. The quasar redshifts range from 0.15 to 5.03. For each object the catalog presents positions accurate to better than 0.2" rms per coordinate, five-band (ugriz) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.05 mag, radio and X-ray emission properties, and information on the morphology and selection method. Calibrated spectra of all objects in the catalog, covering the wavelength region 3800-9200 ? at a spectral resolution of 1800-2100, are also available. Since the quasars were selected during the commissioning period, a time when the quasar selection algorithm was undergoing frequent revisions, the sample is not homogeneous and is not intended for statistical analysis. Based on observations obtained with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which is owned and operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium.

Table: The SDSS Quasar Catalog I
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: datafile3.txt
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   Bytes Format Units        Label  Explanations
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   1- 18 A18    ---          Name   Object name (1) 
  21- 28 I8     10+7rad      RA     Right Ascension (J2000) in units 
                                     of 10^7^ radians
  31- 38 I8     10+7rad      DE     Declination (J2000) in units 
                                     of 10^7^ radians
  40- 43 I4     10+3         z      Redshift times 1000
  45- 45 I1     ---        r_Name   Source of object (2)
  47- 50 I4     100mag       u*mag  The u* band magnitude times 100 
  52- 54 I3     100mag     e_u*mag  The error in u*mag
  56- 59 I4     100mag       g*mag  The g* band magnitude times 100
  61- 63 I3     100mag     e_g*mag  The error in g*mag
  65- 68 I4     100mag       r*mag  The r* band magnitude times 100
  70- 72 I3     100mag     e_r*mag  The error in r*mag
  74- 77 I4     100mag       i*mag  The i* band magnitude times 100
  79- 81 I3     100mag     e_i*mag  The error in i*mag
  83- 86 I4     100mag       z*mag  The z* band magnitude times 100
  88- 90 I3     100mag     e_z*mag  The error in z*mag
  93- 95 I3     100mag       uAbs   Galactic absorption in u band times 100
  97-102 I6     100mJy       PFlux  FIRST peak flux density at 20 cm times 100
 104-107 I4     -1000.[ct/s] Cts    Log of ROSAT full band count rate times -1000
 109-112 I4     -100mag      i*Mag  Absolute i* band magnitude times -100 (3)
     115 I1     ---          Morph  Morphology flag (4) 
     118 I1     ---          TarSel Target selection version (5)
     121 I1     ---          QFlag  Quasar target flag (6)
     124 I1     ---          FFlag  FIRST target flag (6) 
     127 I1     ---          RFlag  ROSAT target flag (6) 
     130 I1     ---          SFlag  Serendipity target flag (6) 
     133 I1     ---          StFlag Star target flag (6) 
     136 I1     ---          GFlag  Galaxy target flag (6)
 139-142 I4     ---          SNum   SDSS Imaging Run Number for photometric
                                     measurements
 144-148 I5     d            MJD    Modified Julian Date of spectroscopic
                                     observation
 151-153 I3     ---          Plate  Spectroscopic Plate Number
 155-157 I3     ---          Fiber  Spectroscopic Fiber Number
 159-178 A20    ---          OName  Object Name if not discovered by SDSS
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Note (1): The full name of an object is SDSS hhmmss.ss+ddmmss.s (J2000).
Note (2):
    0 = EDR quasar;  
    1 = Extreme BAL Search;
    2 = Visual search of EDR spectra.
Note (3): Assuming H_o_ = 50 km/s/Mpc, Omega_M_ = 1.00, Omega_L_ = 0.00, 
          and alpha_Q_ = -0.50.
Note (4):
    0 = point source;
    1 = extended.
Note (5): 
    1 = 2.2a; 
    2 = 2.5; 
    3 = 2.7.
Note (6):
    0 = not targetted; 
    1 = targetted.
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example:
000011.96+000225.1      8703      7037  479 0 1787   1 1759   1 1769   1 1764   1 1757   3   16     .00 1661 2471  0  0  1  0  1  0  0  0   125 51791  387 200 LBQS 2357-0014
000039.00-001804.0     28366    -52554 2114 0 1947   3 1927   2 1909   3 1900   2 1883   6   17     .00    0 2650  0  0  1  0  0  1  1  0   125 51791  387 167
000042.89+005539.4     31197    161903  951 0 1835   2 1821   2 1796   1 1791   1 1777   3   15     .00    0 2590  0  0  1  0  0  1  1  0   125 51791  387 531 LBQS 2358+0038
....
235938.40-003448.5  62816148   -101254 1210 2 1810   2 1811   1 1786   1 1780   2 1790   3   20     .00    0 2654  0  0  1  0  0  1  1  0    94 51791  387 188
235944.13-005738.2  62820319   -167660 1787 0 1938   3 1926   2 1913   2 1883   2 1874   5   23     .00    0 2634  0  0  1  0  0  1  1  0    94 51791  387 134
235958.21+005139.7  62830553    150282 2023 0 1915   3 1884   1 1863   1 1854   2 1837   4   13     .00    0 2685  0  0  1  0  0  0  0  0   125 51791  387 458