A Southern Sky Survey of Low Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs

Abstract We are conducting a survey of the southern sky to study the properties of the lowest mass stars and the sub-stellar brown dwarf population thought to exist at masses below 0.08 M⊙. The survey makes use of plates from the UK and ESO Schmidt telescopes, using the new SuperCOSMOS plate measuring machine at Edinburgh to provide a catalogue of photographic BRI colours and proper motion measurements. Candidates are selected by extreme R–I colour (> 2.5) to a plate-limited magnitude of I ≈ 19.0 and R ≈ 21.0. The size of the survey is only limited by the progress of the UK Schmidt I band survey and the availability of photometric data for calibration of SuperCOSMOS measurements. It is anticipated that the survey will form part of a multi-colour proper motion database of southern sky objects.