The FIRST VLA survey: The North Galactic Pole. [VLA (very large array)]

As a preview of the scientific impact the authors expect for the full 10,000 square degree FIRST project, the authors present an analysis of a region of the survey in the of the North Galactic Pole (NGP). The data have been edited, self-calibrated, mapped, and combined using the automated script described in the companion paper by Becker et al. The resulting images have a uniform noise of 0.15 mJy rms over a 2.5[degrees] x 1.5[degrees] ([Delta][delta] x [Delta][alpha]) region centered on the NGP. A comparison of sources in overlapping areas of the fields indicate that the positions are accurate to better than 0.3 (seconds). The positional accuracy is a function of flux density for point sources will be discussed, as will the density accuracies. The extracted source catalog includes [approximately] 300 sources brighter than 1 mJy. The radio properties of these sources will be discussed, and the radio catalog will be compared to existing optical and infrared catalogs this well-studied area of the sky.