2006AJ....132..633H

We present an analysis of the color and variability characteristics for point sources in the Faint Sky Variability Survey (FSVS). The FSVS cataloged ∼23 deg² in BVI filters from ∼16 to 24 mag to investigate variability in faint sources at moderate-to-high Galactic latitudes. Point-source completeness is found to be >83% for a selected representative sample (V=17.5-22.0 mag, B-V=0.0-1.5) containing both photometric B, V detections and 80% of the time-sampled V data available compared to a basic internal source completeness of 99%. Multiepoch (10-30) observations in V spanning minutes to years modeled by light-curve simulations reveal amplitude sensitivities to ∼0.015-0.075 mag over a representative V=18-22 mag range. Periodicity determinations appear viable to timescales of order 1 day or less using the most sampled fields (∼30 epochs). The fraction of point sources is found to be generally variable at 5%-8% over V=17.5-22.0 mag. For V brighter than 19 mag, the variable population is dominated by low-amplitude (<0.05 mag) and blue (B-V<0.35) sources, possibly representing a population of γ Doradus stars. Overall, the dominant population of variable sources are bluer than B-V=0.65 and have main-sequence colors, likely reflecting larger populations of RR Lyrae, SX Phe, γ Doradus, and W UMa variables.