OMCat: Catalog of Serendipitous Sources Detected with the XMM-Newton Optical Monitor

The Optical Monitor Catalog of serendipitous sources (OMCat) contains entries for every source detected in the publicly available XMM-Newton Optical Monitor (OM) images taken in either the imaging or “fast” modes. Since the OM is coaligned and records data simultaneously with the X-ray telescopes on XMM-Newton, it typically produces images in one or more near-UV or optical bands for every pointing of the observatory. As of the beginning of 2006, the public archive had covered roughly 0.5% of the sky in 2950 fields. The OMCat is not dominated by sources previously undetected at other wavelengths; the bulk of the objects have optical counterparts. However, the OMCat can be used to extend optical or X-ray spectral energy distributions for known objects into the ultraviolet, to study at higher angular resolution objects detected with GALEX, or to find high-Galactic-latitude objects of interest for UV spectroscopy.