We have developed a system, called SKICAT, for producing, managing and
analyzing catalogs from the digitized POSS-II survey. The system classifies and
matches catalogs from multiple, overlapping plate scans as well as CCD calibration
sequences; and it can be used for the scientific analysis of the resulting
catalogs. It incorporates a number of novel machine-learning and AI tools,
including the star/galaxy classification using decision tree algorithms. This
results in star/galaxy separation accurate to 90% or better down to
B
J
∼ 21
m
, i.e. ∼ 1
m
above the plate limit The final catalog is expected to contain at
least 5 × 107 galaxies and > 2 ×
109 stars. We present preliminary results on galaxy counts
from a test region near the NGP. We find a mild excess over the no-evolution
models, smaller than previously found by the APM group. A search for
z > 4 quasars and the two-point correlation
analysis of this data set are in progress.