The ASAS-SN catalogue of variable stars I: The Serendipitous Survey

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• Kochanek, C. S.
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• Stanek, K. Z.
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• Shappee, B. J.
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• Holoien, T. W. -S.
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• Thompson, Todd A.
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• Prieto, J. L.
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• Dong, Subo
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• Pawlak, M.
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• Shields, J. V.
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• Pojmanski, G.
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• Otero, S.
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• Britt, C. A.
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• Will, D.

Abstract

The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) is the first optical survey to routinely monitor the whole sky with a cadence of ∼2-3 d down to V ≲ 17 mag. ASAS-SN has monitored the whole sky since 2014, collecting ∼100-500 epochs of observations per field. The V-band light curves for candidate variables identified during the search for supernovae are classified using a random forest classifier and visually verified. We present a catalogue of 66 179 bright, new variable stars discovered during our search for supernovae, including 27 479 periodic variables and 38 700 irregular variables. V-band light curves for the ASAS-SN variables are available through the ASAS-SN variable stars data base (https://asas-sn.osu.edu/variables). The data base will begin to include the light curves of known variable stars in the near future along with the results for a systematic, all-sky variability survey.