THE VLBA CALIBRATOR SEARCH FOR THE BeSSeL SURVEY

Abstract

We present the results of a survey of radio continuum sources near the\nGalactic plane using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). Our observations are\ndesigned to identify compact extragalactic sources of milliarcsecond size that\ncan be used for parallax measurements in the Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy\nSurvey. We selected point sources from the NVSS and CORNISH catalogs with flux\ndensities above 30 mJy and within $1.5\\degr$ of known maser targets. Of the\n1529 sources observed, 199 were detected. For sources detected on 3 or more\nbaselines, we determined accurate positions and evaluated their quality as\npotential calibrators. Most of the 1330 sources that were not detected with the\nVLBA are probably of extragalactic origin.\n