X-ray AGN from RASS and SDSS

The technique is detailed and employs X-ray data from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS, Cat. <IX/10>, <IX/29>) and optical imaging and spectroscopic follow-up from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS, <J/AJ/123/567>); these two surveys prove to be serendipitously very well matched in sensitivity.

As part of the SDSS software pipelines, optical objects in the SDSS photometric catalogs are automatically positionally cross-correlated with RASS X-ray sources. Then priorities for follow-on SDSS optical spectra of candidate counterparts are automatically assigned using an algorithm based on the known ratios of fX/fopt for various classes of X-ray emitters at typical RASS fluxes of 10^-13^ergs/cm^2^/s. SDSS photometric parameters for optical morphology, magnitude, and colors, plus FIRST radio information, serve as proxies for object class.