Astronomical catalog
Encyclopedia
An astronomical catalog or catalogue is a list or tabulation of astronomical object
s, typically grouped together because they share a common type, morphology, origin, means of detection, or method of discovery. Astronomical catalogs are usually the result of an astronomical survey of some kind.
Astronomical object
Astronomical objects or celestial objects are naturally occurring physical entities, associations or structures that current science has demonstrated to exist in the observable universe. The term astronomical object is sometimes used interchangeably with astronomical body...
s, typically grouped together because they share a common type, morphology, origin, means of detection, or method of discovery. Astronomical catalogs are usually the result of an astronomical survey of some kind.
Catalogs of historical importance
- Azophi's Book of Fixed StarsBook of Fixed StarsThe Book of Fixed Stars is an astronomical text written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi around 964. The book was written in Arabic, although the author himself was Persian...
, published in 964, describes more than a thousand stars in detail and provides the first descriptions of the Andromeda GalaxyAndromeda GalaxyThe Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Andromeda. It is also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, and is often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy to the...
and the Large Magellanic CloudLarge Magellanic CloudThe Large Magellanic Cloud is a nearby irregular galaxy, and is a satellite of the Milky Way. At a distance of slightly less than 50 kiloparsecs , the LMC is the third closest galaxy to the Milky Way, with the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal and Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy lying closer to the center...
. - Johann BayerJohann BayerJohann Bayer was a German lawyer and uranographer . He was born in Rain, Bavaria, in 1572. He began his study of philosophy in Ingolstadt in 1592, and moved later to Augsburg to begin work as a lawyer. He grew interested in astronomy during his time in Augsburg...
's UranometriaUranometriaUranometria is the short title of a star atlas produced by Johann Bayer.It was published in Augsburg, Germany, in 1603 by Christophorus Mangus under the full title Uranometria : omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, aereis laminis expressa. This translates to...
star atlas was published in 1603 with over 1200 stars. Names are made of Greek letters combined with constellation name, for example Alpha CentauriAlpha CentauriAlpha Centauri is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus...
. - John FlamsteedJohn FlamsteedSir John Flamsteed FRS was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. He catalogued over 3000 stars.- Life :Flamsteed was born in Denby, Derbyshire, England, the only son of Stephen Flamsteed...
's Historia coelestis Britannica star atlasFlamsteed designationFlamsteed designations for stars are similar to Bayer designations, except that they use numbers instead of Greek letters. Each star is assigned a number and the Latin genitive of the constellation it lies in...
, published in 1725, lists stars using numbers combined with constellation and ordered by right ascension, for example 61 Cygni61 Cygni61 Cygni,Not to be confused with 16 Cygni, a more distant system containing two G-type stars harboring the gas giant planet 16 Cygni Bb. sometimes called Bessel's Star or Piazzi's Flying Star, is a binary star system in the constellation Cygnus...
. - MessierCharles MessierCharles Messier was a French astronomer most notable for publishing an astronomical catalogue consisting of deep sky objects such as nebulae and star clusters that came to be known as the 110 "Messier objects"...
CatalogMessier objectThe Messier objects are a set of astronomical objects first listed by French astronomer Charles Messier in 1771. The original motivation of the catalogue was that Messier was a comet hunter, and was frustrated by objects which resembled but were not comets...
- Nebulae and Star Clusters was published in 1781, with objects M1 – M110. - New General CatalogueNew General CatalogueThe New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars is a well-known catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy. It contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects...
compiled in the 1880s, lists objects NGC 0001 – NGC 7840. - Henry DraperHenry DraperHenry Draper was an American doctor and amateur astronomer. He is best known today as a pioneer of astrophotography.-Life and work:...
Catalog published between 1918 and 1924, lists more than 225,000 of the brightest stars, named using HD followed by a 6-digit number. - Sir Patrick MoorePatrick MooreSir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore, CBE, FRS, FRAS is a British amateur astronomer who has attained prominent status in astronomy as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter of the subject, and who is credited as having done more than any other person to raise the profile of...
compiled the Caldwell catalogueCaldwell catalogueThe Caldwell Catalogue is an astronomical catalog of 109 bright star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies for observation by amateur astronomers. The list was compiled by Sir Patrick Caldwell-Moore, better known as Patrick Moore, as a complement to the Messier Catalogue.The Messier Catalogue is used...
in 1995 to complement the Messier catalog, listing 109 bright star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies named C1 to C109. (This is a list of favorite deep-sky objects and not a catalog in the astronomical sense. Other deep-sky observing lists for amateur astronomers predated it.) - 2MASS2MASSObservations for the Two Micron All-Sky Survey began in 1997 and were completed in 2001 at two telescopes located one each in the northern and southern hemispheres to ensure coverage of the entire sky...
is the most ambitious project to map the night sky to date. Goals included first detection of brown dwarfs, an extensive survey of low mass stars, and cataloguing of all detected stars and galaxies. More than 300 million point sources and 1 million extended sources were catalogued.
Widely used astronomical catalogs
- Hipparcos Catalogue - containing data for about 118,000 stars.
- Tycho-2 CatalogueTycho-2 CatalogueThe Tycho-2 Catalogue is a catalogue of more than 2.5 million of the brightest stars.- Catalogue :The astrometric reference catalogue contain positions, proper motions, and two-color photometric data for the 2,539,913 of the brightest stars in the Milky Way, of which about 5000 are visible to the...
- containing data for about 2,500,000 stars. - USNO B1.0 (1,042,618,261 stars/galaxies)
- 6th Orbit Catalog (Orbital elements for double/multiple star systems)
- Washington Double Star CatalogWashington Double Star CatalogThe Washington Double Star Catalog, or WDS, is a catalog of double stars, maintained at the United States Naval Observatory. The catalog contains positions, magnitudes, proper motions and spectral types and has entries for 102,387 pairs of double stars. The catalog also includes multiple stars...
- Yale Bright Star CatalogueBright Star CatalogueThe Bright Star Catalogue, also known as the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars or Yale Bright Star Catalogue, is a star catalogue that lists all stars of stellar magnitude 6.5 or brighter, which is roughly every star visible to the naked eye from Earth. It is currently available online in its 5th...
- NOMAD and related catalogs
See also
- List of astronomical catalogues
- Star catalogueStar catalogueA star catalogue, or star catalog, is an astronomical catalogue that lists stars. 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...
discusses various types in more detail - AstrographAstrographAn astrograph is a telescope designed for the sole purpose of astrophotography. Astrographs are usually used in wide field surveys of the night sky as well as detection of objects such as asteroids, meteors, and comets.-Design:...
- a type of instrument used to produce astronomical catalogues.