The Kepler Input Catalog (or KIC) is a publicly searchable database of roughly 13.2 million targets used for the Kepler Spectral Classification Program (SCP) and Kepler.[1][2]
The Kepler SCP targets were observed by the 2MASS project as well as Sloan filters, such as the griz filters.[3] The catalog alone is not used for finding Kepler targets, because only a portion (about a 1/3 of the catalog) can be observed by the spacecraft.[1] The full catalog includes up to 21 magnitude, giving 13.2 million targets, but of these only about 6.5 to 4.5 million fall on Kepler's sensors.[1]
KIC is one of the few comprehensive star catalogs for a spacecraft's field of view.[4] The KIC was created, because no catalog of sufficient depth and information existed for target selection at that time.[5] The catalog includes "mass, radius, effective temperature, log(g), metallacity, and reddening extinction".[5]
An example of a KIC catalog entry is KIC #10227020
. Having had transit signals detected for this star, it has become a Kepler Object of Interest, with the designation KOI-730.[6]