Deepsky
Catalogs and
Observing Lists
It is unknown when people first started to compile lists of stars.
What we know is that the ancient Greeks recorded their observations and
measurements, and thus were compiling early star catalogs.
One of the earliest known compilation was created by Timocharis of
Alexandria about 300 B.C.: this was later used by Hipparchus (among
others, e.g. by Eratosthenes, of Cyrene, ca. 276-194 BC).
Early discoveries involving star catalogs include the
precession of the equinoxes,
a consequence of the precession of Earth's axis in roughly 26,000 years.
Throughout history, stars have been assigned proper names besides their
listing in catalogs. Nowadays, the scientific community has agreed to recognize
certain naming conventions, regulated by
The International Astronomical Union
(IAU). More information on
Naming Stars
is available
(Note: There is no way to get a star officially named for profit!)
A list of important historical star catalogs follows:
- 300 BC
- Timocharis of Alexandria
- 130 BC
- Hipparchus (of Rhodes)
- 120 AD
- Ptolemy (83-161 AD) compiled his monumental "Almagest",
a catalog of 48 constellations and 1022 stars.
- 1540
- Allessandro Piccolomini (1508-78),
De le Stelle Fisse
- 1603
- Johann Bayer (1572-1625), Uranometria;
note this appeared still before the introduction of the telescope in
astronomy in 1609.
In this work, Bayer introduced the naming of stars for their
constellation and by Greek letters
in the approximate order of (apparent) brightness:
The brightest star in a constellation should be labelled Alpha, the
second brightest Beta, and so on.
Misestimates and other irregularities are the reasons why this is only
an approximate scheme.
- 1661
- Johann Hevelius (1611-1687), Sternverzeichnis
- 1679
- Edmond Halley (1656-1742) compiled the first southern star catalog
- 1712
- John Flamsteed (1646-1719), Historia Coelestis Britannica, edited
by Edmond Halley. In this catalog, which contained lots of errors and was
never authorized by Flamsteed, stars in each constellation were numbered
by the so-called Flamsteed numbers, in the order of Right Ascension.
- 1725
- John Flamsteed, Stellarum Inerrantium Catalogus Britannicus.
This corrected and official version of Flamsteed's catalog does not
contain the numbers.
- 1762
- James Bradley (1693-1762), Star Catalog.
These more general initial lists were succeeded by more specialized catalogs,
such as William Herschel's early catalog of 269 double stars from 1782.
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846) determined acurate positions for 32,000
stars during 1821-1835. With his better instrumentation, more specialized
catalogs became possible, such as the double star catalog of Friedrich
Wilhelm Struve (1793-1864).
A milestone was set by Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander (1799-1875) who, together
with his coworkers Adalbert Krüger (1832-1896) and Eduard Schönfeld
(1828-1891) compiled the monumental Bonner Durchmusterung (BD) between
1852-1859. This work was complimented by the Cordoba Durchmusterung of the
Southern Sky, published 1892. Besides positions, these catalogs contained
visual photometric estimates. Other important visual photometric catalogs of
the late 19th century include the Harvard Revised Photometry, compiled
1879-1907, and the Potsdamer Durchmusterung, created 1886-1907.
A pioneering work in the area of photographic stellar photometry was
Karl Schwarzschild's (1873-1916) Göttinger Aktinometrie,
created 1904-1908.
When spectroscopy came up in the second half of the 19th century,
spectral classifications and catalogs of stars were compiled, one of the
first lists being that of the Italian Father Angelo Secchi (1818-1878),
which appeared in 1867 and contained 316 stars. The monumental early work in
that area became the Henry Draper Catalog with 225,300 stars,
published at Harvard College Observatory between 1918 and 1924.
- Bonner Durchmusterung (BD)
- F.W. Argelander, A. Krüger, and E. Schönfeld,
Beob. Bonn Obs., 3, 4, 5, 1860.
Positions and magnitudes, plus atlas (for equinox 1855.0).
320,000 stars
- Southern Durchmusterung (BD)
- Beob. Bonn Obs., 8, 1886.
Positions and magnitudes, plus atlas.
130,000 stars
- Cordoba Durchmusterung (CD)
- Result. Nat. Obs. Argentina, 16-18, 21a,
21b, 1892
Positions and magnitudes, plus atlas.
580,000 stars
- Cape Photographic Durchmusterung (CPD)
- Ann. Cape Obs., 3, 4, 5,1896.
Positions and magnitude.
450,000 stars
- Carte du Ciel
- Various Observatory Publications.
Positions and magnitude.
Some 10 million (10^7) stars.
- ELB 2
- Hamburg Sternwarte, 1936.
Proper motion for BD, CD, and CPD stars.
95,000 stars.
- Faint Blue Star Survey (LB)
- Luyten et.al., Minneapolis, 1954-1969.
Position, proper motion, magnitude, color.
11,500 stars
- Large Proper Motion Survey (LTT, LFT)
- Luyten, Minneapolis, 1955-1961.
Proper motion > 0.2 "/year.
~ 20,000 stars
- Bruce Proper Motion Survey
- Luyten, Minneapolis, 1963.
Proper motion.
98,000 stars
- 48" Proper Motion Survey
- Luyten, Minneapolis, 1963-1971.
Proper motion.
~ 50,000 stars
- Lowell Proper Motion Survey
- Giclas et.al., Lowell Obs., 1971.
Proper motion.
9,000 stars
- South Galactic Pole Survey
- Luyten and La Bonte, Minneapolis, 1973.
Proper motion.
7,000 stars
- North Galactic Pole Survey
- Luyten, Minneapolis, 1976.
Proper motion.
11,000 stars
- Large Proper Motion Survey (LHS)
- Luyten, Minneapolis, 1976.
Proper motion > 0.5 "/year.
6,000 stars
- AGK1
- Astron. Gesellschaft, Leipzig and Paris, 1890-1924.
Position.
~ 500,000 stars
- Yale Catalog (Reobservation of AGK1)
- Yale Obs. Trans., 4-31, 1925-1971.
Position and proper motion.
~ 210,000 stars
- Cape Zone Catalog
- Jones, Cape Obs., 1927, 1936.
Position, proper motion, magnitude.
~ 21,000 stars
- General Catalog
- Boss, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 486, 1936.
Position and proper motion.
33,000 stars
- Cape Catalog (Epochs 1925, 1950)
- Jackson et.al., 1949-1953.
Position and proper motion.
23,000 stars
- N30
- Astr. Papers Amer. Ephemeris, 13, part III, 1952.
Position and proper motion.
5,300 stars
- AGK2
- Hamburg Sternwarte, 1950-1958.
Position.
82,000 stars
- FK4
- Astron. Rechen-Inst. Heidelberg, 1963.
Position and proper motion.
1,500 stars
- Smithonian Star Catalog (SAO)
- Smithonian Ap. Obs., 1966.
Position, proper motion, magnitude, spectral type.
260,000 stars.
- AGK3
- Hamburg Sternwarte, 1975.
Position and proper motion.
183,000 stars
- Harvard-Groningen Selected Areas
- Pickering, Kapteyn, and van Rhijn, Harvard Ann.,
101-103, 1920.
Magnitude, 206 areas (15' x 15').
250,000 stars
- Mount Wilson Selected Areas
- Seares, Kapteyn, and van Rhijn, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 402,
1930.
Magnitude, 139 areas.
68,000 stars
- Radcliffe Catalog of Proper Motions
- Knox-Shaw and Barrett, Oxford Univ. Press, 1934.
Proper motion, Selected areas 1-115.
~ 30,000 stars
- Bergedorfer Spectral Durchmusterung
- Schwassmann and van Rhijn, Hamburg Sternwarte, 1935-1953.
Spectral type and magnitude, Selected areas 1-115.
174,000 stars
- Potsdam Spectral Durchmusterung
- Becker and Brück, Pub. Ap. Obs. Potsdam, 27,
28, 1929-1938.
Spectral type and magnitude, Selected areas 116-206.
50,000 stars
- Yale Parallax Catalog
- Jenkins, Yale Univ. Obs., 1963.
Parallax.
6,000 stars
- Catalog of Nearby Stars
- Gleise, Veröff. Rechen Inst. Heidelberg, 3, No. 22,
1969.
Position, proper motion, radial velocity, distance, magnitude, color
for stars within 20 pc.
900 stars
- Catalog of Stars within 25 pc of the Sun
- Wooley et.al., Roy. Obs. Ann. No. 5, 1970.
Position, proper motion, radial velocity, space velocity, distance,
magnitude, color.
1,700 stars.
- Catalog of Stars within 5 pc of the Sun
- van de Kamp, Ann. Rev. Astr. Ap., 9, 103, 1971.
Position, proper motion, radial velocity, distance, magnitude.
45 stars
- Yale Bright Star Catalog (BS)
- Hoffleit, Yale Univ. Obs., 1964.
Position, proper motion, radial velocity, spectral type, color,
magnitude, parallax.
9,000 stars
- Catalog of High Velocity Stars
- Roman, Ap. J. Supp., 2, 198, 1955.
Position, magnitude, color, spectra, proper motion, space moiton.
600 stars
- Space Velocity Catalog
- Eggen, Roy. Obs. Bull. No. 51, 1962.
Magnitude, color, spectral type, radial velocity, proper motion,
space velocity.
3,500 stars
- Catalog of High Velocity Stars
- Eggen, Roy. Obs. Bull. No. 84, 1964.
Magnitude, color, distance, space motion.
660 stars
- Henry Draper Catalog (HD)
- Cannon and Pickering, Harvard Obs. Ann., 91-99,
1918-1924.
Spectral class and magnitude.
225,000 stars
- Henry Draper Extension (HDE)
- Cannon, Harvard Obs. Ann., 100, 1925-1936, 112,
1949.
Spectral class and magnitude.
134,000 stars
- Luminous Stars in the Northern Milky Way
- Hardorp et.al., Hamburg Sternwarte, 1959-1965.
Spectral and luminosity class, magnitude.
~ 8,000 stars
- Luminous Stars in the Southern Milky Way
- Stephenson and Sanduleak, Pub. Warner and Swasey Obs., 1,
No. 1, 1971.
Spectral and luminosity class, magnitude.
5,000 stars
- Catalog of Early-Type Emission Line Stars
- Wackerling, Mem. Roy. Ast. Soc., 73, 153, 1970.
Spectral type, magnitude.
11,000 stars
- Catalog of Stellar Spectra Classified in the MK System
- Jaschek et.al., LaPlata Obs., 1964.
MK spectral type and magnitude.
~ 20,000 stars
- MK Spectral Classification (additions to the LaPlata Catalog)
- Buscombe, Northwestern University, 1974-77.
MK spectral type, UBV photometry.
~ 45,000 stars
- Univ. of Michigan Catalog of Two-Dimensional Spectral Types
(Reclassification of HD)
- Houk and Cowley, U. of Michigan, since 1975.
MK spectral type.
35,000 (until about 1980)
- UBVRIJKL Photometry of Bright Stars
- Johnson et.al., Commun. Lunar and Plan. Lab., 4, 99, 1966.
UBV and infrared magnitudes.
~ 1,500 stars
- Photoelectric Catalog
- Blanco et.al., Pub. U.S. Nav. Obs., 21, 1968.
UBV magnitudes and colors.
21,000 stars
- Two Micron Survey
- Neugebauer and Leighton, NASA SP-3047, 1969.
Infrared magnitude.
5,000 stars
- Six-Color Catalog
- Kron et.al., Pub. U.S. Nav. Obs., 20, Part V, 1972.
Six color magnitudes (U V B G R I).
1,300 stars
- Celescope Catalog of UV Stellar Observations
- Davis et.al., Smithonian Ap. Obs., 1973.
Ultraviolet stellar magnitudes.
5,100 stars
- u v b y beta Photoelectric Photometric Catalog
- Lindemann and Hauck, Astr. and Ap. Supp., 11, 119, 1973.
(b-y), m1, c1, beta index.
7,600 stars.
- O Star Catalog
- Goy, Astr. and Ap. Supp., 26, 273, 1976.
UBV magitudes, spectral types, polarization.
800 stars
- Spectrophotometric Catalog
- Breger, Ap. J. Supp., 32, 7, 1976
- UV Bright-Star Spectrophotometric Catalog
- ESA, ESA SR-27, 1976.
UV spectral energy distributions.
1,350 stars
- General Catalog of UBV Photometry
- Mermillod and Nicolet, Astr. and Ap. Supp., 29, 259, 1977.
UBV magnitudes.
53,000 stars
- General Catalog of Radial Velocities (Lick)
- Moore, Pub. Lick Obs., 18, 1932; 20, 1949.
Radial velocity.
6,700 stars
- General Catalog of Radial Velocities (Mt. Wilson)
- Wilson, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 601, 1953.
Radial velocity.
15,000 stars.
- Bibliography of Stellar Radial Velocities
- Abt and Briggs, Kitt Peak Nat. Obs., 1972
Radial velocity.
25,000 stars.
- Catalog of Individual Mt. Wilson Radial Velocities
- Abt, Ap. J. Supp., 19, 387, 1970; 26, 365, 1973.
Radial velocity.
7,200 stars.
- AGC
- Alvin G. Clark
- Barnard
- E.E. Barnard
- van den Bos
- Willem H. van den Bos (1896-1974)
- Dawes
- R.W. Dawes (1799-1868)
- Dorpat Catalogue, F.G.W. Struwe (Sigma)
- F.G.W. Struwe, Dorpat Catalog (1927)
- Dorpat Catalogue, 2nd supp., Wilhelm Struwe (Sigma II)
- Wilhelm Struwe, Dorpat Catalog, Second Supplement.
- J. Herschel (h)
- John Herschel
- HDO
- Harvard College Observatory and Stations
- Hough (Ho)
- George Washington Hough (1836-1909)
- Hussey (Hu)
- William J. Hussey (1862-1926), 1901
- Krüger (Kr)
- A. Krüger
- Pulkowo Catalog, Otto W. Struve (O Sigma)
- Otto Wilhelm (Vasilievich) Struve (1819-1905), The Pulkowo Catalog
- See
- T.J.J. See
- W. Herschel (HN)
- William Herschel, 1821
- s,h
- James South and John Herschel, 1824
- General Catalogue of Double Stars
- S.W. Burnham, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 5, 1906.
Double Star Observations.
13,500 double stars
- ADS
- R.G. Aitken, 1918 (revised 1935)
- New General Catalogue of Double Stars
- Aitken, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 417, 1932.
Double star observations and orbits.
17,200 double stars
- Catalog General de Etoiles Doubles
- Jonckhere, Pub. Obs. de Marseille, 1962.
Double star observations.
3,400 double stars
- Catalog of Visual Binary Orbits
- Worley, Pub. U.S. Nav. Obs., 18, Part III, 1963.
Double star orbits.
540 double stars
- Index Catalog of Visual Double Stars, 1961.0
- Jeffers et.al., Lick Obs. Pub., 21, 1963.
Double star observations.
64,200 double stars
- General Catalog of Variable Stars
- Kukarkin et.al., Sternberg Obs., Moscow, 1969-76 (3rd ed. + supplements)
Positions, magnitude, variability, type.
26,000 variables
- Catalogue of Supernovae
- Karpowicz and Rudnicki, Warsaw Univ. Press, 1968.
Data and literature review.
About 200 supernovae
- Dimitri Mihalas and James Binney. Galactic Astronomy. Structure and
Kinematics. Second edition 1981, W.H. Freeman, San Francisco.
- Robert Garfinkle. Star-Hopping - Your Visa to Viewing the
Universe. Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-521-59889-3.
- G.D. Roth (ed). Compendium of Practical Astronomy, Volume 1:
Instrumentation and Reduction Techniques. Springer-Verlag, Berlin,
1994. 4th edition.
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