In astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue numbers. There are a great many different star catalogues which have been produced for different purposes over the years, and this article covers only some of the more frequently quoted ones. Most of the recent catalogues are available in electronic format and can be freely downloaded from NASA's Astronomical Data Center and other places (see links at end). In ancient Greece and other early civilizations, astronomy consisted largely of astrometry, measuring positions of stars and planets in the sky. ... The Pleiades star cluster A star is a massive gaseous body in outer space which is currently or has in the past produced energy through nuclear fusion. ... NASA Logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

Historical catalogues

Although no longer in serious use, mention should be made of Ptolemy's star catalogue published in the 2nd century as part of his Almagest, which lists 1,022 stars visible from Alexandria. It was the standard star catalogue in the Western and Arab worlds for over a thousand years. Ptolemy's catalogue was based almost entirely on an earlier one by Hipparchus from the 2nd century B.C. (Newton 1977; Rawlins 1982). An even earlier star catalogue was that of Timocharis of Alexandria, which was written about 300 B.C. and later used by Hipparchus. Claudius Ptolemaeus, given contemporary German styling, in a 16th century engraved book frontispiece . Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος; ca. ... // Events Roman Empire governed by the Five Good Emperors (96–180) – Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius. ... Almagest is Latin form of the Arabic name (al-kitabu-l-mijisti, i. ... Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that countrys second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate. ... For the Athenian tyrant, see Hipparchus (son of Pisistratus). ... Timocharis of Alexandria (circa 320 BC - 260 BC) was a Greek astronomer and philosopher. ... For the Athenian tyrant, see Hipparchus (son of Pisistratus). ...

Two systems introduced in historical catalogues remain in use to the present day. The first system comes from Bayer's Uranometria and is for bright stars. These are given a Greek letter followed by the genitive case of the constellation in which they are located; examples are Alpha Centauri or Gamma Cygni. See Bayer designation for more information. The major problem with Bayer's naming system was the number of letters in the Greek alphabet. It was easy to run out of letters before running out of stars needing names, particularly for large constellations such as Argo Navis. Johann Bayer (1572 – March 7, 1625) was a German astronomer. ... Uranometrias engraving of the constellation Orion, courtesy of the US Naval Observatory Library Uranometria is the short title of a star atlas produced by Johann Bayer. ... The Greek language is written in the Greek alphabet, developed in classical times (ca 9th century B.C.) and passed down to the present. ... The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ... Orion is a remarkable constellation, visible from most places on the globe (but not always the whole year long). ... The position of Alpha Centauri Alpha Centauri (α Cen / α Centauri) is the brightest star system (a triple star system) in the southern constellation of Centaurus, and contains the fourth brightest star in the sky, with a total visual magnitude of −0. ... Sadr (also spelled Sadir or Sador) is the star Gamma Cygni. ... Many of the brighter stars are given names which are known as Bayer designations. ... The Greek language is written in the Greek alphabet, developed in classical times (ca 9th century B.C.) and passed down to the present. ... The constellation Argo Navis drawn by Johannes Hevelius in 1690 Argo Navis (or simply Argo) was a large southern constellation representing the Argo, the ship used by Jason and the Argonauts in Greek mythology. ...

The second system comes from John Flamsteed's Historia coelestis Britannica. It kept the genitive-of-the-constellation rule for the back end of his catalog names, but used numbers instead of the Greek alphabet for the front half. Examples include 61 Cygni and 47 Ursae Majoris; see Flamsteed designation for more information. John Flamsteed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... 61 Cygni is a star in the Cygnus constellation. ... 47 Ursae Majoris (abbreviated 47 UMa) is a 5th magnitude yellow dwarf star in the constellation of Ursa Major. ... Flamsteed designations for stars are similar to Bayer designations, except that they use numbers instead of Greek letters. ...

References

• Newton, Robert R. (1977). The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Rawlins, Dennis (1982). An investigation of the ancient star catalog. Pub. Astron. Soc. Pacific 94, 359.

Full-sky catalogues

Bayer and Flamsteed covered only a few thousand stars between them. In theory, full-sky catalogues try to list every star in the sky. There are, however, literally hundreds of millions, even billions of stars resolvable by telescopes, so this is an impossible goal; these kind of catalogs generally try to get every star brighter than a given magnitude. 50 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory. ... The apparent magnitude (m) of a star, planet or other heavenly body is a measure of its apparent brightness; that is, the amount of light received from the object. ...

HD/HDE

Main article: Henry Draper Catalogue

The Henry Draper Catalogue was published in the period 1918–1924. It covers the whole sky down to about ninth or tenth magnitude, and is notable as the first large-scale attempt to catalogue spectral types of stars. The catalogue was compiled by Annie Jump Cannon and her co-workers at Harvard College Observatory under the supervision of Edward Pickering, and was named in honour of Henry Draper, whose widow donated the money required to finance it. The Henry Draper Catalogue is an astronomy catalogue with astrometric and spectroscopic data about more than 225,000 stars. ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... 1924 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... In astronomy, stellar classification is a classification of stars based initially on photospheric temperature and its associated spectral characteristics, and subsequenly refined in terms of other characteristics. ... Annie Jump Cannon ( December 11, 1863 – April 13, 1941), US astronomer, was born to shipbuilder and state senator, Wilson Cannon, and his second wife, Mary Jump, in Dover, Delaware. ... Harvard College Observatory, about 1900. ... Edward Charles Pickering (July 19, 1846 – February 3, 1919) was an American astronomer and physicist, brother of William Henry Pickering. ... Henry Draper (March 7, 1837 – November 20, 1882) was an American doctor and astronomer. ...

HD numbers are widely used today for stars which have no Bayer or Flamsteed designation. Stars numbered 1–225300 are from the original catalogue and are numbered in order of right ascension for the 1900.0 epoch. Stars in the range 225301–359083 are from the 1949 extension of the catalogue. The notation HDE can be used for stars in this extension, but they are usually denoted HD as the numbering ensures that there can be no ambiguity. Right ascension (RA; symbol α: Greek letter alpha) is the astronomical term for one of the two coordinates of a point on the celestial sphere when using the equatorial coordinate system. ... In astronomy, an epoch is a moment in time for which celestial coordinates or orbital elements are specified. ...

SAO

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory catalogue is a photographic atlas of the sky, complete to about ninth magnitude, as a result of which there is considerable overlap with the Henry Draper catalogue. The epoch for the position measurements in the latest edition is J2000.0. The SAO catalogue contains one more major piece of information than Draper, the proper motion of the stars, so it is often used when that fact is of importance. The cross-references with the Draper and Durchmusterung catalogue numbers in the latest edition are also useful. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is a research institute of the Smithsonian Institution headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where it is joined with the Harvard College Observatory (HCO) to form the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). ... In astronomy, an epoch is a moment in time for which celestial coordinates or orbital elements are specified. ... The J2000. ... The proper motion of a star is the motion of the position of the star in the sky (the change in direction in which we see it, as opposed to the radial velocity) after eliminating the improper motions of the stars, which affect their measured coordinates but are not real...

Names in the SAO catalogue start with the letters SAO, followed by a number. The numbers are assigned following 18 ten-degree bands in the sky, with stars sorted by right ascension within each band. Right ascension (RA; symbol α: Greek letter alpha) is the astronomical term for one of the two coordinates of a point on the celestial sphere when using the equatorial coordinate system. ...

BD/CD/CPD

The Bonner Durchmusterung (german: Bonn sampling) and follow-ups were the most complete of the pre-photographic star catalogues. In astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue numbers. ... Bonn is a city in Germany (Population (2004 est): 313,605 ; the 19th largest city in Germany), in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine. ...

The Bonner Durchmusterung itself was published by Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander, Adalbert Krüger, and Eduard Schönfeld between 1852 and 1859. It covered 320,000 stars in epoch 1855.0. Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander (March 22, 1799 – February 17, 1875) was a Prussian astronomer, born in Memel in the Kingdom of Prussia (now Klaipeda in Lithuania), and best known for his work in recording the positions of stars. ... Eduard Schönfeld (December 22, 1828 - May 1, 1891), German astronomer, was born at Hildburghausen, in the duchy of Meiningen. ... 1852 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1859 is a common year starting on Saturday. ...

As it covered only the northern sky and some of the south (being compiled from the Bonn observatory), this was then supplemented by the Südliche Durchmusterung (SD), which covers stars between declinations -1 and -23 degrees (1886, 120,000 stars). It was further supplemented by the Cordoba Durchmusterung (580,000 stars), which began to be compiled at Córdoba, Argentina in 1892 under the initiative of John M. Thome and covers declinations -22 to -90. Lastly, the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung (450,000 stars, 1896), compiled at the Cape, South Africa, covers declinations -18 to -90. Bonn is a city in Germany (Population (2004 est): 313,605 ; the 19th largest city in Germany), in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine. ... 1886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... In astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue numbers. ... Avenida Colón, Córdoba Córdoba is a city located in the foothills of the Sierra Chica mountains on the Suquía river, the center of Argentinas most productive agricultural area. ... 1892 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... John Macon Thome (August 22, 1843 – September 27, 1908) was an American-Argentine astronomer. ... 1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

Astronomers preferentially use the HD designation of a star, as that catalogue also gives spectroscopic information, but as the Durchmusterungs cover more stars they occasionally fall back on the older designations when dealing with one not found in Draper. Unfortunately, a lot of catalogues cross-reference the Durchmusterungs without specifying which one is used in the zones of overlap, so some confusion often remains. Spectrum of fluorescent lights showing prominent mercury peaks. ...

Star names from these catalogues include the initials of which of the four catalogues they are from (though the Southern follows the example of the Bonner and uses BD; CPD is often shortened to CP), followed by the angle of declination of the star (rounded down, and thus ranging from +00 to +89 and -00 to -89), followed by an arbitrary number as there are always thousands of stars at each angle. Examples include BD+50°1725 or CD-45°13677. In astronomy, declination (dec) is one of the two coordinates of the equatorial coordinate system, the other being either right ascension or hour angle. ...

AC

The Catalogue astrographique (Astrographic Catalogue) was part of the international Carte du ciel programme designed to photograph and measure the positions of all stars brighter than magnitude 11.0. In total, over 4.6 million stars were observed, many as faint as 13th magnitude. This project was started in the late 1800s. The observations were made between 1891 and 1950. To observe the entire celestial sphere without burdening only a handful of institutions, the sky was divided among 20 observatories, by declination zones. Each observatory exposed and measured the plates of its zone, using a standardized telescope so each plate photographed had a similar scale of approximately 60 arcsecs/mm. The U.S. Naval Observatory took over custody of the catalogue, now in its 2000.2 edition. 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Aerial view of USNO. The United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is one of the oldest scientific agencies in the United States. ...

USNO-B1.0

USNO-B1.0 is an all-sky catalog created by researchers at the U.S. Naval Observatory that presents positions, proper motions, magnitudes in various optical passbands, and star/galaxy estimators for 1,042,618,261 objects derived from 3,643,201,733 separate observations. The data were obtained from scans of 7,435 Schmidt plates taken for the various sky surveys during the last 50 years. USNO-B1.0 is believed to provide all-sky coverage, completeness down to V = 21, 0.2 arcsecond astrometric accuracy at J2000.0, 0.3 magnitude photometric accuracy in up to five colors, and 85% accuracy for distinguishing stars from non-stellar objects. Aerial view of USNO. The United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is one of the oldest scientific agencies in the United States. ... 2m Schmidt Camera (Alfred-Jensch-Telescope Tautenburg, Thuringia, Germany A Schmidt camera is an astronomical camera designed to provide wide fields of view with limited aberrations. ... The J2000. ...

Specialized catalogues

Specialized catalogs make no effort to list all the stars in the sky, working instead to highlight a particular type of star, such as variables or nearby stars. Most stars are of nearly constant luminosity. ... This list of the nearest stars to Earth is ordered by increasing distance out to a maximum of 5 parsecs (16. ...

ADS

Aitken's double star catalogue Robert Grant Aitken (December 31, 1864 – October 29, 1951) was an American astronomer. ... Double Star is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. ...

New general catalogue of double stars within 120 deg of the North Pole (1932, R. G. Aitken).

This lists 17,180 double stars north of declination -30 degrees. 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... In astronomy, declination (dec) is one of the two coordinates of the equatorial coordinate system, the other being either right ascension or hour angle. ...

BS, BSC, HR

First published in 1930 as the Yale Catalog of Bright Stars, this catalog contained information on all stars brighter than visual magnitude 6.5 in the Harvard Revised Photometry Catalogue. The list was revised in 1983 with the publication of a supplement that listed additional stars down to magnitude 7.1. The catalog detailed each star's coordinates, proper motions, photometric data, spectral types, and other useful information. 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Yale can refer to: Yale University, one of the United States oldest and most famous universities. ... The apparent magnitude (m) of a star, planet or other heavenly body is a measure of its apparent brightness; that is, the amount of light received from the object. ... Harvard, see Harvard (disambiguation) Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... In astronomy, photometry is the measurement of the flux or intensity of an astronomical objects electromagnetic radiation. ... 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The proper motion of a star is the motion of the position of the star in the sky (the change in direction in which we see it, as opposed to the radial velocity) after eliminating the improper motions of the stars, which affect their measured coordinates but are not real... In astronomy, photometry is the measurement of the flux or intensity of an astronomical objects electromagnetic radiation. ... In astronomy, stellar classification is a classification of stars based initially on photospheric temperature and its associated spectral characteristics, and subsequenly refined in terms of other characteristics. ...

The last printed version of the Bright Star Catalog was the 4th revised edition, released in 1982. The 5th edition is in electronic form and is available online. 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

GJ, Gliese, Gl

The Gliese (later Gliese-Jahreiss) catalogue attempts to list all stars within 20 parsecs of Earth (see the List of nearest stars). Later editions expanded the coverage to 25 parsecs. Numbers in the range 1.0–965.0 (Gl numbers) are from the second edition, which was Wilhelm Gliese (June 21, 1915 – June 12, 1993) was a German astronomer. ... In astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue numbers. ... Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third-closest planet to the Sun. ... This list of the nearest stars to Earth is ordered by increasing distance out to a maximum of 5 parsecs (16. ...

Catalogue of Nearby Stars (1969, W. Gliese).

Apparently, the integers represent stars which were in the first edition, while the numbers with a decimal point were used to insert new stars for the second edition without destroying the desired order. This catalogue is referred to as CNS2, although this name is never used in catalogue numbers. 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ...

Numbers in the range 9001–9850 are from the supplement

Extension of the Gliese catalogue (1970, R. Woolley, E. A. Epps, M. J. Penston and S. B. Pocock).

Numbers in the ranges 1000–1294 and 2001–2159 (GJ numbers) are from the supplement 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Sir Richard van der Riet Woolley (April 24, 1906 – December 24, 1986) was a British astronomer. ...

Nearby Star Data Published 1969–1978 (1979, W. Gliese and H. Jahreiss).

The range 1000–1294 represents nearby stars, while 2001–2159 represents suspected nearby stars. In the literature, the GJ numbers are sometimes retroactively extended to the Gl numbers (since there is no overlap). For example, Gliese 436 can be interchangeably referred to as either Gl 436 or GJ 436. This page refers to the year 1979. ... GJ 436, also designated Gliese 436 and HIP 57087, is a red dwarf star 30 light years from Earth in the constellation of Leo. ...

Numbers in the range 3001–4388 are from

Preliminary Version of the Third Catalogue of Nearby Stars (1991, W. Gliese and H. Jahreiss).

Although this version of the catalogue was termed "preliminary", it is still the current one as of September 2001, and is referred to as CNS3. It lists a total of 3,803 stars. Most of these stars already had GJ numbers, but there were also 1,388 which were not numbered (plus the Sun, which needs no number). The need to give these 1,388 some name has resulted in them being numbered 3001–4388 (NN numbers, for "no name"), and data files of this catalogue now usually include these numbers. An example of a star which is often referred to by one of these unofficial GJ numbers is GJ 3021 (see Extrasolar planet). 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... The Sun is the star at the centre of our Solar system. ... Infrared image of the star GQ Lupi (A) orbited by a planet (b) at a distance of approximately 20 times the distance between Jupiter and our Sun. ...

GCTP

The General Catalogue of Trigonometric Parallaxes, first published in 1952 and later superseded by the New GCTP (now in its fourth edition), covers nearly 9,000 stars. Unlike the Gliese, it does not cut off at a given distance from the Sun; rather it attempts to catalogue all known measured parallaxes. It gives the co-ordinates in 1900 epoch, the secular variation, the proper motion, the weighted average absolute parallax and its standard error, the number of parallax observations, quality of interagreement of the different values, the visual magnitude and various cross-identifications with other catalogues. Auxiliary information, including UBV photometry, MK spectral types, data on the variability and binary nature of the stars, orbits when available, and miscellaneous information to aid in determining the reliability of the data are also listed. In astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue numbers. ... 1952 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

William F. van Altena, John Truen-liang Lee and Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit, Yale University Observatory, 1995.

Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit (usually known as Dorrit Hoffleit) (March 12, 1907 – ) is a senior research astronomer at Yale University. ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

HIP

The Hipparcos catalogue was compiled from the data gathered by the European Space Agency's astrometric satellite Hipparcos, which was operational from 1989 to 1993. The catalogue was published in June 1997 and contains 118,218 stars. It is particularly notable for its parallax measurements, which are considerably more accurate than those produced by ground-based observations. The High Precision Parallax Collecting Satellite of the Hipparcos Space Astrometry Mission was a project of the European Space Agency (ESA) dedicated to the measurement of stellar parallax and the proper motions of stars. ... In astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue numbers. ... The European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975, is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to exploration of space with currently 16 member states. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Parallax (Greek: παραλλαγή (parallagé) = alteration) is the change of angular position of two stationary points relative to each other as seen by an observer, due to the motion of said observer. ...

Proper motion catalogues

A common way of detecting nearby stars is to look for relatively high proper motions. Several catalogues exist, of which we'll mention a few. The Ross and Wolf catalogues pioneered the domain: Frank Elmore Ross (April 2, 1874 – September 21, 1960) was an American astronomer and physicist. ... Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (June 21, 1863 – October 3, 1932) was a German astronomer. ...

Ross, Frank Elmore, New Proper Motion Stars, eleven successive lists, Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 36 to 48, 1925-1939

Wolf, Max, "Katalog von 1053 stärker bewegten Fixsternen", Veröff. d. Badischen Sternwarte zu Heidelberg (Königstuhl), Bd. 7, No. 10, 1919; and numerous lists in Astron. Nachr. 209 to 236, 1919-1929

Willem Jacob Luyten later produced a series of catalogues: 1925 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Willem Jacob Luyten (March 7, 1899 – November 21, 1994) was a Dutch-American astronomer. ...

L - Luyten, Proper motion stars and White dwarfs

Luyten, W. J., Proper Motion Survey with the forty-eight inch Schmidt Telescope, University of Minnesota, 1941 (General Catalogue of the Bruce Proper-Motion Survey)

LFT - Luyten Five-Tenths catalogue 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Luyten, W. J., A Catalog of 1849 Stars with Proper Motion exceeding 0.5" annually, Lund Press, Minneapolis (Mn), 1955 ([1])

LHS - Luyten Half-Second Catalogue 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Luyten, W. J., Catalogue of stars with proper motions exceeding 0"5 annually, University of Minnesota, 1979 ([2])

LTT - Luyten Two-Tenths catalogue This page refers to the year 1979. ...

Luyten, W. J., Catalogue of stars with proper motions exceeding 0"2 annually, Univ. of Minnesota, 1980 ([3])

LP - Luyten Palomar proper-motion catalogue 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...

Luyten, W. J., Proper Motion Survey with the 48 inch Schmidt Telescope, University of Minnesota, 1963-1981

Later, Henry Lee Giclas took over, again with a series of catalogues: 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Henry Lee Giclas (born December 9, 1910) is an American astronomer. ...

Giclas, H. L., et al., Lowell Proper Motion Survey, Lowell Observatory Bulletins, 1971-1979 ([4])

1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ...

External links

• NASA Astronomy Data Center
• Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg
• Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• IAU FAQ on "Naming Stars"
• Name a Star? The Truth about Buying Your Place in Heaven
• Astronomical Catalog Designations: Standardized List for Online Databases
• Hartmut Frommert's list of star catalogues