The Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE): First Data Release

We present the first data release of the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE), an ambitious spectroscopic survey to measure radial velocities and stellar atmosphere parameters (temperature, metallicity, and surface gravity) of up to one million stars using the Six Degree Field multiobject spectrograph on the 1.2 m UK Schmidt Telescope of the Anglo-Australian Observatory. The RAVE program started in 2003, obtaining medium-resolution spectra (median R = 7500) in the Ca-triplet region (8410-8795 Å) for southern hemisphere stars drawn from the Tycho-2 and SuperCOSMOS catalogs, in the magnitude range 9 < I < 12. The first data release is described in this paper and contains radial velocities for 24,748…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 200020
• WM
  W. M. Keck Foundation
• GA
  Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
• AV
  Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
• JH
  Johns Hopkins University
• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• SN
  Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

  Awards: 200021-, 200020, 101924, 106260, 200021
• NO
  Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
• JA
  Javna Agencija za Raziskovalno Dejavnost RS
• CN
  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
• NS
  Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada