An all-sky optical catalogue of radio/X-ray sources ^*,**

¹ PO Box 12520, Wellington, New Zealand e-mail: eric@flesch.org
² Department of Physics, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, UK e-mail: m.hardcastle@bristol.ac.uk

Received: 13 April 2004
Accepted: 15 July 2004

Abstract

We present an all-sky catalogue that aligns and overlays the ROSAT HRI, RASS, PSPC and WGA X-ray catalogues and the NVSS, FIRST and SUMSS radio catalogues onto the optical APM and USNO-A catalogues. Objects presented are those APM/USNO-A optical objects which are calculated with ≥% confidence to be associated with radio/X-ray detections, or which are identified as known QSOs, AGN or BL Lacs, totalling 501 761 objects in all, including 48 285 QSOs and 21 498 double radio lobe detections. For each radio/X-ray associated optical object we display the calculated percentage probabilities of its being a QSO, galaxy, star, or erroneous radio/X-ray association, plus any identification from the literature. The catalogue includes 86 009 objects which were not previously identified and which we list as being 40% to >99% likely to be a QSO. As a byproduct of the construction of this catalogue, we are able to list comprehensive ROSAT field shifts as determined by our whole-sky likelihood algorithm, and also plate-by-plate photometric recalibration of the complete APM and USNO-A2.0 optical catalogues, significantly improving accuracy for objects of >15 mag. The catalogue is available wholly and in subsets at http://quasars.org/qorg-data.htm