Akari Irc Survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud: An Overview of the Survey and a Brief Description of the Point Source Catalog

Abstract

We observed an area of 10 deg 2 of the Large Magellanic Cloud using the Infrared Camera (IRC) onboard AKARI. The observations were carried out using five imaging filters (3, 7, 11, 15, and 24 µm) and the prism disperser (2 -5 µm, λ/∆λ ∼ 20) equipped in the IRC. This paper presents an outline of the survey project and also describes very briefly the newly compiled near-to midinfrared point source catalog. The 10 σ limiting magnitudes are 17.9, 13.8, 12.4, 9.9, and 8.6 mag at 3.2, 7, 11, 15 and 24 µm, respectively. The photometric accuracy is estimated to be about 0.1 mag at 3.2 µm and 0.06 -0.07 mag in the other bands. The position accuracy is 0.3 at 3.2, 7 and 11 µm and 1.0 at 15 and 24 µm. The sensitivities at 3.2, 7, and 24 µm are roughly comparable to those of the Spitzer SAGE LMC point source catalog, while the AKARI catalog provides the data at 11 and 15 µm, covering the near-to mid-infrared spectral range continuously.