NEW VARIABLES IN THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY CALIBRATION FIELDS

The US Naval Observatory 0.2 m Flagstaff Astrometric Scanning Transit Telescope was used to obtain astrometric information in 16 equatorial fields in support of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Each field is appro ximately 7.degrees 6 x 3.degrees 2 in size and was scanned similar to 10 times with overlapping CCD strip scans; star positions accurate to +/-50 mas in each coordinate and magnitudes good to +/-0.011 mag were determined. As an ancillary project, this database was searched for ne w variables, and the results of that search are presented here, Approx imately 1500 new variables have been discovered, and accurate coordina tes for similar to 100 previously identified variables and suspected v ariables are given.