SearchCal: The JMMC Evolutive Search Calibrator Tool

SearchCal builds an evolutive catalog of stars suitable as calibrators within any given user-defined angular distance and magnitude around a scientific target. SearchCal can select suitable bright calibration stars (V ≤ 10; K ≤ 5.0) for obtaining the ultimate precision of current interferometric instruments like the VLTI and faint calibration stars up to K ~ 15 around the scientific target. Star catalogs available at the CDS are searched via web requests and provide the useful astrometric and photometric informations for selecting calibrators. The missing photometries are computed with an accuracy of about 0.1 mag. The stellar angular diameter is estimated with a precision of about 10% through newly determined surface-brightness versus color-index relations based on the I, J, H and K magnitudes. For each star the squared visibility is computed taking into account the central wavelength and the maximum baseline of the predicted observations.