A Two-Colour CCD Survey of the North Celestial Cap: I. The Method
  We describe technical aspects of an astrometric and photometric survey of the
North Celestial Cap (NCC), from the Pole (DEC=90 deg) to DEC=80 deg, in support
of the TAUVEX mission. This region, at galactic latitudes from ~ 17 deg to ~ 37
deg, has poor coverage in modern CCD-based surveys. The observations are
performed with the Wise Observatory one-meter reflector and with a new mosaic
CCD camera (LAIWO) that images in the Johnson-Cousins R and I bands a
one-square-degree field with subarcsec pixels. The images are treated using
IRAF and SExtractor to produce a final catalogue of sources. The astrometry,
based on the USNO-A2.0 catalogue, is good to ~ 1 arcsec and the photometry is
good to ~ 0.1 mag for point sources brighter than R=20.0 or I=19.1 mag. The
limiting magnitudes of the survey, defined at photometric errors smaller than
0.15 mag, are 20.6 mag (R) and 19.6 (I). We separate stars from non-stellar
objects based on the object shapes in the R and I bands, attempting to
reproduce the SDSS star/galaxy dichotomy. The completeness test indicates that
the catalogue is complete to the limiting magnitudes.
