Arecibo Observatory


The AGC

The AGC, or Arecibo General Catalog, contains information about the positions, sizes, magnitudes, morphologies, redshifts and HI properties of lots of galaxies. It is very heterogeneous, so it shouldn't be used as the ultimate authority on anything! But, here is some info on its status and a summary of what it contains; formats refer to the ASCII text version available to the CU EGG.

Latest news
The Jan 2008 version is more-or-less up to date in the north out to cz=18000, as of Oct 2008, but since new objects are being added by SDSS fairly regularly, it is not perfectly up to date. We make changes as time permits, and make big updates 1-2 per year. A serious caveat: to avoid duplicate entries, our algorithm does not add an object to the AGC if there is already one there within 2'. So it is probably not complete in crowded regions.


Even this documentation is incomplete! And imperfect! For more details, you will have to ask Martha.

The AGC databased is maintained separately by hemisphere (north and south) and epoch
(B1950 and J2000). The version available to ALFALFA is in J2000. 

    Variable name     Format     Data Content

       AGCNUMBER        I6        AGC entry number. See note 1.
                                  1-12943:     UGC galaxy (corresponds to UGC number)
                                  20001-33656: ESO sequence number
                                  100000 - 399999 northern hemisphere
                                  400000 - 699999 southern hemisphere
                                  700000 - 999999 northern hemisphere
       WHICH            A1        Identifier for multiple systems: a,b etc.
       RAH              I2        R.A. hours
       RAM              I2        R.A. minutes
       RAS10            I3        R.A. seconds *10.
       SIGN             A1        Dec. sign
       DECD             I2        Dec. degrees
       DECM             I2        Dec. minutes
       DECS             I2        Dec. seconds
       A100             I5        Blue major diameter *100. See note 15.
       B100             I4        Blue minor diameter *100.
       MAG10            I4        Zwicky magnitude *10. or RC3 ApparentBmag for decl<-3. See note 15
       INCCODE          I2        Nilson's inclination code
       POSANG           I3        Nilson's position angle (or other measure on same system)
       DESCRIPTION      A8        Morphological description
       BSTEINTYPE       I3        Burstein type code  (see gallib/sgal/typeesgc.f)
       VOPT             I6        Radial velocity (helio)
       VERR             I3        Error in radial velocity
       EXTRC3           I5        Galactic extinction *1000 either directly from RC3
                                  or derived from nearest RC3 galaxy, following
                                  Burstein&Heiles (1978) & RC3. See note 17.
       EXTDIRBE         I5        Galactic extinction ext*1000 from the DIRBE dust
                                  maps following Schlegel et al. 1998
                                  Value is: E(B-V) in mags (*1000). See note 17.
       VSOURCE          I3        Source for radial velocity measurement
                                  (follows Huchra for < 50; > 50 = H-G, probably out of date;
                                  -99 stands for NED; other negatives: see note (7).)
       NGCIC            A8        NGC or IC number from Dressel and Condon
                                  or Fisher and Tully or other name from ZCAT
                                  or MGC name abbreviated (SEZ strip) as
                                     MsLNNMMM where M denotes MCG
                                                   s is sign of strip
                                                   L indicates 6 deg strip (as in MCG)
                                                   NN is which field along strip
                                                   MMM is galaxy entry number in field.
                                  The MCG would have listed sLLNNMMM.
       FLUX100          I5        Observed (uncorrected) 21 cm line
                                  flux (in Jy-km/s) * 100.
       RMS100           I4        Rms noise in mJy *100.
       V21              I5        21 cm heliocentric velocity.
       WIDTH            I4        21 cm profile width.
       WIDTHERR         I2        Error in 21 cm width.
       WIDTHCODE        A4        Code for type of width measurement. See
                                  note (2).
       TELCODE          A1        Telescope code. See note (3).
       DETCODE          I1        Detection code. See note (4).
       HISOURCE         I2        Code for source of 21 cm data. See note (5).
       STATUSCODE       I1        Code for status of data. See note (6).
       SNRATIO          I3        Signal-to-noise ratio*10 for 21 cm feature
       IBANDQUAL        I1        Quality of I-band data. See note (8)
       IBANDSRC         I2        Code for source of I-band data. See note (9).
       IRASFLAG         I1        FLAG for inclusion in internal IRAS database
                                  See note (10).
       ICLUSTER         I2        Cluster membership. See note (11).
       HIDATA           I1        FLAG for inclusion in HI database (not yet
                                  implemented). See note (12).
       IPOSITION        I1        A flag to indicate the source of the coordinates
                                  used in the AGC. See note (13).
       IPALOMAR         I1        A flag to indicate that long slit spectroscopy has
                                  been obtained at Palomar. See note (14).
       RC3FLAG          I1        A flag to indicate that the galaxy is included
                                  in the RC3. See note (15).
       IROTCAT          I1        Included in rotcurve.cat rotation curve database
                                  See note (16)
       NEWSTUFF         I2        UNUSED


AGC records are now 125 characters in length:

      CHARACTER DESCRIPTION*8,NGCIC*8,WHICH*1,TELCODE*1,WIDTHCODE*4,
     *  SIGN*1
      INTEGER AGCNUMBER,RAH,RAM,RAS10,DECD,DECM,DECS,
     *  A100,B100,MAG10,INCCODE,POSANG,BSTEINTYPE,
     *  VOPT,VERR,EXTRC3,EXTDIRBE,VSOURCE,
     *  FLUX100,RMS100,V21,WIDTH,WIDTHERR,
     *  DETCODE,HISOURCE,STATUSCODE,SNRATIO,
     *  IBANDQUAL,IBANDSRC,IRASFLAG,ICLUSTER,HIDATA,
     *  IPOSITION,IPALOMAR,RC3FLAG,IROTCAT,NEWSTUFF
   
      READ(10,125) AGCNUMBER,WHICH,RAH,RAM,RAS10,SIGN,DECD,DECM,DECS,
     *  A100,B100,MAG10,INCCODE,POSANG,DESCRIPTION,BSTEINTYPE,
     *  VOPT,VERR,EXTRC3,EXTDIRBE,VSOURCE,NGCIC,
     *  FLUX100,RMS100,V21,WIDTH,WIDTHERR,WIDTHCODE,TELCODE,
     *  DETCODE,HISOURCE,STATUSCODE,SNRATIO,
     *  IBANDQUAL,IBANDSRC,IRASFLAG,ICLUSTER,HIDATA,
     *  IPOSITION,IPALOMAR,RC3FLAG,IROTCAT,NEWSTUFF
  125 FORMAT(I6,A1,2I2.2,I3.3,A1,3I2.2,I5,2I4,I2,I3,A8,I3,I6,I3,
     *      2I5,I3,A8,I5,I4,I5,I4,I2,A4,A1,i1,I2,I1,I3,I1,I2,I1,
     *  I2,5I1,I2)

Note 1  The UGC is the Uppsala General Catalog (Nilson, 1973); a copy
        is available in the reading room. Further information on the entries
        can be obtained from reading Nilson's introduction to his catalog.
        The ESO catalog is a version based on Vince Ford's catalog and
        the entry number is simply a sequence number within that catalog
        (note it is meant to be used only as a pointer privately).. The
        ESGC catalog has been privately communicated by Harold Corwin.
        A permanent AGC is assigned when an object is added to the catalog.
        Sequencing is not retained if a position is updated, but assignment
        of numbers is made per hour of right ascension:
        100001-109999  0-1h north     400001-409999 0-1h south
        110001-119999  1-2h north     410001-419999 1-2h south
         etc. until
        330001-339999 23-24h north    630001-639999 23-24h south
        ****  NOTE
        Effective 2007 Jan 04
        Numbers above 700000 are used for objects in the north where there are
        >10000 galaxies per hour of RA. These are added sequentially without
        consideration of RA. ****
        The last number assigned per hour per catalog is listed in
        AGC.NUMBERS and AGC700000.NUMBERS
        Assignment of new numbers is done regularly using the program
        assign.f. Additional entries to the AGC should be entered
        first with sequence number "0". Assignment of new numbers should
        only be performed by MH.

Note 2  Widths measured as follows:
               Code         Measurement
              ' M50'        50% of the mean flux density
              ' P20'        20% of the peak flux density
              ' P50'        50% of peak flux density
              '5M2P'        average of (50% of mean) and (20% of peak) widths
              '2P50'        50% of each of the two peaks (if double-horned)
              ' F50'        50% level of fit to slope on either side 
			    (using 1991 msr algorithm .825 .5 .5 .2 .5)
              ' A50'        Similar to above, but using IDL_ALFALFA code

Note 3  Telescope code:
               0  - Arecibo circular feed - no corrections applied
               1  - NRAO 91 m. - no corrections
               2  - Bonn 100 m. - no corrections
               3  - NRAO 42 m. - no corrections
               4  - Arecibo flat feed. - no corrections
               5  - Nancay. - corrected flux
               6  - Parkes. - observed flux
               7  - Hybrid - corrected flux
               8  - Optical, or else unspecified radio dish (see Note 5,
                                                             HI Source = 69)
               9  - No observations made
               A  - Arecibo non-detection WITHOUT known optical redshift
               B  - Arecibo flat feed, corrected flux (normally mapping)
               C  - Nancay, uncorrected flux (we should change this)
	       D  - VLA
	       E  - WSRT
	       F  - Australia Compact Array
               G  - Arecibo Gregorian, 3.5arcmin beam, uncorrected.
               H  - HIPASS/Parkes multibeam
               I  - HIJASS/Jodrell multibeam
               J  - AO/ALFA
               K  - GBT
               L  - ATCA
               M  - GMRT

Note 4  HI detection code:
               0  - not detected/not observed
               1  - detected.
                    This is equivalent to CODE=1 in the ALFALFA scheme.
               2  - marginally detected; everything uncertain.
                    This is equivalent to CODE=3 in the ALFALFA scheme
               3  - detection, but inadequate for FT purposes. This
                    may mean width cannot be measured because of baseline
                    or noise on edge, or the profile is very asymmetric or
                    weird, or confusion is suspected. In this case, the flux
                    and velocity are usually measured ok, but one is not
                    certain what they all refer to.
               4  - HI profile shows absorption. Flux certainly affected.
               5  - Confused with obvious optical companion (i.e. confusion
                    is certain).
               6  - This means the width has been BOXCAR+HANNING not just simple
                    Hanning. NOTE THIS IS AN UPDATE TO PREVIOUS DOCUMENTATION!
               7  - Used for ALFALFA detections to indicate an object which is
                    detected at low SN but with apriori redshift. This is 
                    equivalent to CODE=2 in the ALFALFA scheme. 
                    THIS DISTINCTION IS NOT YET IMPLEMENTED!
               8  - Profile obtained by some of us, but parameters not final
               9  - preliminary measurement

Note 5  Source for 21 cm data:
              -3  - Misc from NED
              -2  - Entry from RC3
              -1  - Entry from Richter catalog of March 1989. You must go
                    look this reference up in the catalog and then in the
                    original publication to be sure the number is right.
        For other codes, check NED or ask Martha; 
        Codes > 50 are ours. ALFALFA detections are coded "75".

Note 6  21 cm data status:
               0  - No data.
               1  - Published.
               2  - Unpublished but available.
               4  - Observed by source in reference but not available
                    to public.
               5  - Obtained from on-line compilation, such as GOLDMINE etc,
                    may not be original source.

Note 7  Extra codes used for velocity where not in ZCAT
        -98 is SDSS
        -99 is NED
        Check NED anyway....
        Watch out that code "6" is from ZCAT, misc AO fluxes (21cm!) -- not
        optical!

Note 8  IBANDQUAL - I1 - quality/status flag:
        Ask Martha

Note 9  Source for I-band ccd data
        Ask Martha, or look at the Cornell digital archive for the SFI++ dataset
             http://arecibo.tc.cornell.edu/hiarchive/sfiplusplus.php

Note 10: Out of date; ignore.

Note 11: Cluster membership. 
        Out of date: ignore.

Note 12:  Flag set to "1" indicates that there is a spectrum of
this galaxy in the "final" HI digital archive and derived parameters
are included in the HI results archive. IN PROGRESS!

Note 13:  It is beneficial to know where the coordinates listed in the
AGC came from. This 1-digit code will allow us to identify the
source and hence the expected accuracy of the position entered into the
AGC. We should make use of this code in the future.
      1 -- From measurements made using digital pad
      2 -- From POSS prints with OVERLAY only (either 
           OSU overlays or our own).
      3 -- From DSS by DD
      5 -- Found using SKYVIEW
      6 -- Published positions
           UGC objects: Cotton et al. 1999 ApJS 125, 409.

      8 -- From SDSS SQL
      9 -- NED positions with accuracy quoted to be <2"

Note 14:  Identifier for existence of data in Palomar long-slit DBS
database. 
          Ask Martha.

Note 15:  Flag for objects that are listed in the RC3. A cross reference
file is maintained in /galaxy/rc3/rc3agc.cross. It should be accurate
except in some cases of confusion in multiple systems. In July 00, we 
updated magnitudes and diameters in the agc.south using RC3 scaling so
that 
   (a) for galaxies in the MCG strip with RC3FLAG=1 (-18  ext_I = 0.45*extrc3
          DIRBE   E(B-V) ==>  ext_I = 1.962*extdirbe
          NOTE: THIS HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED LATELY!!! MANY OBJECTS MISSING THESE VALUES!


This page maintained by members of the Cornell ExtraGalactic Group.

Last modified: Tue Jan 8 11:03:37 EST 2008 by martha