The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog. I. Early data release

We present the first edition of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Quasar Catalog. The catalog consists of the 3814 objects ( 3000 discovered by the SDSS) in the initial SDSS public data release that have at least one emission line with a full width at half-maximum larger than 1000 km s(-1), luminosities brighter than M(i*) = -23, and highly reliable redshifts. The area covered by the catalog is 494 deg(2); the majority of the objects were found in SDSS commissioning data using a multicolor selection technique. The quasar redshifts range from 0.15 to 5.03. For each object the catalog presents positions accurate to better than 0.2 rms per coordinate, five-band (ugriz) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.05 mag, radio and X-ray emission properties, and information on the morphology and selection method. Calibrated spectra of all objects in the catalog, covering the wavelength region 3800-9200 Angstrom at a spectral resolution of 1800-2100, are also available. Since the quasars were selected during the commissioning period, a time when the quasar selection algorithm was undergoing frequent revisions, the sample is not homogeneous and is not intended for statistical analysis.