<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
</head>
<body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div class="">Dear Colleagues,</div>
<div class="">
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">The SkyMapper Team is pleased to announce that Data Release 3 (DR3) of the SkyMapper Southern Survey is now available to all interested parties based in Australia. The release includes ~200,000 images and 8 billion object detections. For web-based
data access and documentation, go to <a href="https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/FOlsCmOxDQtjKEg2oTGbU38?domain=skymapper.anu.edu.au" class="">http://skymapper.anu.edu.au/</a> </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><span class="" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Catalogue access (through Cone Search and TAP/ADQL) and image cutouts are available via the SkyMapper node of the All-Sky Virtual Observatory (ASVO) and with tools like TOPCAT
and Aladin (see </span><a href="https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/k6PWCnxyErC7qMP5ZcJXDFw?domain=skymapper.anu.edu.au" class="OWAAutoLink" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://skymapper.anu.edu.au/how-to-access/</a><span class="" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">).
Australian astronomers initially have exclusive access to DR3, after which the data will become available to researchers worldwide. </span></div>
<div class=""><span class="" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br class="">
</span></div>
<div class="">DR3 comes with the same data products as DR2, but a large increase in frames and deep sky coverage, including images from 5.5 years of observations. Nearly all Southern sky at |b|>10 deg has all six filters observed by the deeper Main-Survey exposures
(see red area in map attached below). There are more cross-matched external catalogues, both photometric catalogues such as VHS and Viking, and spectroscopic catalogues such as OzDES and RAVE. Photometric zero-points are still anchored to Gaia DR2, and where
comparisons are possible, the on-sky variation in zero points relative to PS1 appears to be below 1%, and internal reproducibility of PSF photometry is on the order of 1% at the bright end.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">
<div class="" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Access to the SkyMapper Southern Survey has been provided through a LIEF grant from the Australian Research Council. The SkyMapper ASVO node received grant funding from the Australian Government
through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) program via Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL).</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br class="">
</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Feedback, questions, and bug reports may be directed to <a href="mailto:skymapper@anu.edu.au" class="OWAAutoLink">skymapper@anu.edu.au</a></div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div class="">Best wishes,</div>
<div class="">Christian Wolf, on behalf of the SkyMapper Team</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>