Large Quasar Astrometric Catalogue 2 (LQAC-2)

J/A+A/494/799). At first a LQAC name is given for each object based on its equatorial coordinates with respect to the ICRS, following a procedure which creates no ambiguity for identification. At second the equatorial coordinates of the objects are recomputed more accurately according to the algorithms used for the elaboration of the Large Quasar Reference Frame (LQRF) (Andrei et al., 2009, Cat.

I/313). At third we introduce a morphological classification for the objects which enables in particular to define clearly if the object is point-like or extended. Our final catalogue, called LQAC-2, contains 187 504 quasars.

This is roughly larger than the 113 666 quasars recorded in the first version of the LQAC (Souchay et al., 2009, Cat. J/A+A/494/799) and a little more than the number of quasars recorded in the up-dated version of the Veron Cetty and Veron (2010, Cat. VII/258) catalogue, which was the densest compilation of quasars up to now.

In addition to the quantitative and qualitative improvements brought by our compilation, we discuss the homogeneity of the data and carry out statistical analysis concerning the spatial density and the distance to the closest neighbour.