A CATALOG OF 1022 BRIGHT CONTACT BINARY STARS

In this work we describe a large new sample of contact binary stars extracted in a uniform manner from sky patrol data taken by the ROTSE-I telescope. Extensive ROTSE-I light-curve data are combined with J-, H-, and K-band nearinfrared data taken from the Two Micron All Sky Survey to add color information. Contact binary candidates are selected using the observed period-color relation. Candidates are confirmed by visual examination of the light curves. To enhance the utility of this catalog, we derive a new J - H periodcolor-luminosity relation and use this to estimate distances for the entire catalog. From these distance estimates we derive an estimated contact binary space density of(1.7(plus-minus)0.6)× 10^-5 pc^-3.