We present the Brera Multi-scale Wavelet ROSAT HRI source catalogue ( BMW-HRI ) derived from all ROSAT HRI pointed observations with exposure time longer than 100 s available in the ROSAT public archives .
The data were analyzed automatically using a wavelet detection algorithm suited to the detection and characterization of both point-like and extended sources .
This algorithm is able to detect and disentangle sources in very crowded fields and/or in presence of extended or bright sources .
Images have been also visually inspected after the analysis to ensure verification .
The final catalogue , derived from 4,303 observations , consists of 29,089 sources detected with a detection probability of \geq 4.2 \sigma .
For each source , the primary catalogue entries provide name , position , count rate , flux and extension along with the relative errors .
In addition , results of cross-correlations with existing catalogues at different wavelengths ( FIRST , IRAS , 2MASS and GSC2 ) are also reported .
All these information are available on the web via the DIANA Interface .
As an external check , we compared our catalogue with the previously available ROSHRICAT catalogue ( both in its short and long versions ) and we were able to recover , for the short version , \sim 90 \% of the entries .
We computed the sky coverage of the entire HRI data set by means of simulations .
The complete BMW-HRI catalogue provides a sky coverage of 732 deg ^ { 2 } down to a limiting flux of \sim 10 ^ { -12 } erg s ^ { -1 } cm ^ { -2 } and of 10 deg ^ { 2 } down to \sim 10 ^ { -14 } erg s ^ { -1 } cm ^ { -2 } .
We were able to compute the cosmological log ( N ) -log ( S ) distribution down to a flux of \simeq 1.2 \times 10 ^ { -14 } erg s ^ { -1 } cm ^ { -2 } .