Near-Solar-Circle method for determining the galactic constants

Abstract

We propose a method to determine the galactic constants, R0 (distance to the Galactic Center) and V0 (rotation velocity of the Sun), from measurements of the distances, radial velocities and proper motions of objects near the solar circle. This is a modification of the solar-circle method to a more practical observational method. We applied the method to determine R 0 using data from the literature with known distances and radial velocities, and obtained R0 = 7.54±0.77 kpc. © 2011. Astronomical Society of Japan.