Extension of ICRF for selected areas down to V=16

Objects are within areas of special astronomical interest, containing extragalactic radio sources, mostly from ICRF (see Cat. <I/251>), and pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars in Southern star-forming regions (Chamaeleon, Lupus and Upper Scorpius-Ophiuchus). This work represents a major upgrade of that presented in Camargo et al., 2001, Cat. <J/A+A/375/308>, aiming at the extension of the ICRF at optical wavelengths in regions of special astronomical interest, using observations from the Bordeaux and Valinhos meridian circles.

Along with the new fields, the main differences, when compared to the first release, are: a much larger sky coverage, the replacement of the AC2000 by its upgraded version AC2000.2 (<I/275>) as one of the first epoch astrometrical sources, inclusion of Tycho-2 (<I/259>) and 2MASS (2nd Incremental Data Release, See Cat <II/246>) photometry when available, and the correction for a magnitude equation on the Valinhos right ascension system as well.