High-resolution VLA Imaging of SDSS Stripe 82 at 1.4 GHz
  We present a high-resolution radio survey of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS) Southern Equatorial Stripe, a.k.a. Stripe 82. This 1.4 GHz survey was
conducted with the Very Large Array (VLA) primarily in the A-configuration,
with supplemental B-configuration data to increase sensitivity to extended
structure. The survey has an angular resolution of 1.8" and achieves a median
rms noise of 52 microJy/bm over 92 deg^2. This is the deepest 1.4 GHz survey to
achieve this large of an area, filling a gap in the phase space between small,
deep and large, shallow surveys. It also serves as a pilot project for a larger
high-resolution survey with the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA). We discuss
the technical design of the survey and details of the observations, and we
outline our method for data reduction. We present a catalog of 17,969 isolated
radio components, for an overall source density of ~195 sources/deg^2. The
astrometric accuracy of the data is excellent, with an internal check utilizing
multiply-observed sources yielding an rms scatter of 0.19" in both right
ascension and declination. A comparison to the SDSS DR7 Quasar Catalog further
confirms that the astrometry is well tied to the optical reference frame, with
mean offsets of 0.02" +/- 0.01" in right ascension, and 0.01" +/- 0.02" in
declination. A check of our photometry reveals a small, negative CLEAN-like
bias on the level of 35 microJy. We report on the catalog completeness, finding
that 97% of FIRST-detected quasars are recovered in the new Stripe 82 radio
catalog, while faint, extended sources are more likely to be resolved out by
the resolution bias. We conclude with a discussion of the optical counterparts
to the catalog sources, including 76 newly-detected radio quasars. The full
catalog as well as a search page and cutout server are available online at
http://third.ucllnl.org/cgi-bin/stripe82cutout.
