The new Basel high-latitude field star survey of the Galaxy - I. General introduction, methodology and first analysis

Abstract

This is the first in a series of papers devoted to the determination of Galactic structure from the new homogeneous catalog of photographic RGU field star data in fourteen high-altitude directions. We give a general description of the motivation for this work, the construction of the observational data base, and the structural Galaxy models designed for its analysis. In particular, we provide a concise yet comprehensive account of the statistical methodology used for determining reliable constraints to the model parameters. Preliminary results obtained from the first-half sample of seven fields are discussed to demonstrate the significance of the approach.