Kyiv meridian axial circle with CCD camera

Abstract

We describe the modifications made in the design of the Kyiv meridian axial circle (MAC) and in the observation technique after the instrument was equipped with a CCD camera with an array of 10401160 pixels. The observations are performed in the drift-scan mode (time-delay imaging) with an effective exposure time of 108 s for equatorial stars. The MAC photometric system reproduces the stan- dard V system; the limiting magnitude is V =1 7 m . The observations made with the modified MAC in 2001-2003 served as the basis for the KMAC1 catalog which contains positions, proper motions, and magnitudes B, V, R, r', J for 100 000 stars in the sky areas with the ICRF objects. The errors of positions and V magnitudes in the catalog are 50-90 mas and 0.1 m , respectively, for stars with V =1 5 m . Stars in the equatorial sky areas and radio stars are presently observed with the aim to determine their exact posi- tions, proper motions, and magnitudes. The catalogs are available in the data base of the Centre de Donnes Astronomiques de Strasbourg (ftp.cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr) and on the site of the Main Astronomi- cal Observatory (http://www.mao.kiev.ua).