The USNO-B Catalog

Dave Monet
US Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station

In September 2002, USNO will release the USNO-B1.0
catalog.  It presents positions, proper motions, magnitudes,
colors, and star/galaxy estimators for just over 1e9 objects,
and is compiled from the 4-fold (south) and 5-fold (north)
photographic surveys done during the last 50 years.  A
stunningly superficial discussion of the photographs and the
digitizer will be presented, and a brief discussion of various
error sources and scientific opportunities will be offered.
Particular emphasis will be given to the difficulties
encountered in preparing a simple catalog from the
multi-terabyte database, and to useful projects (particularly
astrometric ones) that the next generation of survey
telescopes might do