Bibcode
Drew, Janet E.; Greimel, R.; Irwin, M. J.; Aungwerojwit, A.; Barlow, M. J.; Corradi, R. L. M.; Drake, J. J.; Gänsicke, B. T.; Groot, P.; Hales, A.; Hopewell, E. C.; Irwin, J.; Knigge, C.; Leisy, P.; Lennon, D. J.; Mampaso, A.; Masheder, M. R. W.; Matsuura, M.; Morales-Rueda, L.; Morris, R. A. H.; Parker, Q. A.; Phillipps, S.; Rodriguez-Gil, P.; Roelofs, G.; Skillen, I.; Sokoloski, J. L.; Steeghs, D.; Unruh, Y. C.; Viironen, K.; Vink, J. S.; Walton, N. A.; Witham, A.; Wright, N.; Zijlstra, A. A.; Zurita, A.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 362, Issue 3, pp. 753-776.
Advertised on:
9
2005
Citations
513
Refereed citations
424
Description
The Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) Photometric Hα Survey of the
Northern Galactic Plane (IPHAS) is a 1800-deg2 CCD survey of
the northern Milky Way spanning the latitude range -5° < b < +
5° and reaching down to r'~= 20 (10σ). Representative
observations and an assessment of point-source data from IPHAS, now
underway, are presented. The data obtained are Wide Field Camera images
in the Hα narrow-band, and Sloan r' and i' broad-band filters. We
simulate IPHAS (r'-Hα,r'-i') point-source colours using a
spectrophotometric library of stellar spectra and available filter
transmission profiles: this defines the expected colour properties of
(i) solar metallicity stars, without Hα emission, and (ii)
emission-line stars. Comparisons with observations of fields in Aquila
show that the simulations of normal star colours reproduce the
observations well for all spectral types earlier than M. A further
comparison between colours synthesized from long-slit flux-calibrated
spectra and IPHAS photometry for six objects in a Taurus field confirms
the reliability of the pipeline calibration. Spectroscopic follow-up of
a field in Cepheus shows that sources lying above the main stellar locus
in the (r'- Hα,r'-i') plane are confirmed to be emission-line
objects with very few failures. In this same field, examples of Hα
deficit objects (a white dwarf and a carbon star) are shown to be
readily distinguished by their IPHAS colours. The role IPHAS can play in
studies of spatially resolved northern Galactic nebulae is discussed
briefly and illustrated by a continuum-subtracted mosaic image of Shajn
147 (a supernova remnant, 3° in diameter). The final catalogue of
IPHAS point sources will contain photometry on about 80 million objects.
Used on its own, or in combination with near-infrared photometric
catalogues, IPHAS is a major resource for the study of stellar
populations making up the disc of the Milky Way. The eventual yield of
new northern emission-line objects from IPHAS is likely to be an order
of magnitude increase on the number already known.