The Kepler Input Catalog

The Kepler mission will monitor 170,000 planet-search targets during the first year, and 100,000 after that. The Kepler Input Catalog (KIC) will be used to select optimum targets for the search for habitable earth-like transiting planets. The KIC will include all known catalogued stars in an area of about 177 square degrees centered at RA 19:22:40 and Dec +44:30 (l=76.3 and b=+13.5). 2MASS photometry will be supplemented with new ground-based photometry obtained in the SDSS g, r, i, and z bands plus a custom filter centered on the Mg b lines, using KeplerCam on the 48-inch telescope at the Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins, Arizona. The photometry will be used to estimate stellar characteristics for all stars brighter than K 14.5 mag. The KIC will include effective temperature, surface gravity, metallicity, reddening, distance, and radius estimates for these stars. The CCD images are pipeline processed to produce instrumental magnitudes at PSI. The photometry is then archived and transformed to the SDSS system at HAO, where the astrophysical analysis of the stellar characteristics is carried out. The results are then merged with catalogued data at the USNOFS to produce the KIC. High dispersion spectroscopy with Hectochelle on the MMT will be used to supplement the information for many of the most interesting targets. The KIC will be released before launch for use by the astronomical community and will be available for queries over the internet. Support from the Kepler mission is gratefully acknowledged.