SAGUARO ASTRONOMY CLUB DOUBLE STAR DATABASE VERSION 2.1
dated Tuesday 25 March 1991
This compilation of data was begun in an effort to provide a
comprehensive observing list for use at the telescope. This data is
released for private use of anyone who wishes to use this database.
Please do not sell this database in any form.
The members of the Saguaro Astronomy Club (pronounced sa-war-oh) of
Phoenix, Arizona have provided much of the effort to compile this
database. However, it could not have been completed without the skill
of a variety of people who are not SAC members. Thank you to all.
Many members of our astronomy club have always enjoyed pretty multiple
stars and in an effort to provide a large list of these objects, this
project was begun. We are not foolish enough to believe that it is
complete, but it should be a good starting point for even the most
avid amateur double star observer.
We were lucky enough to receive a copy of the Washington Double Star
(WDS) catalog from Paul Brown in Canada. We wrote some programs to
glean the best and brightest from that massive list and wound up with
the data which you have in this database. The program was written to
get all stars with magnitudes in the WDS that included a primary
brighter than 9 and a secondary brighter than 13. If the stars were
closer than 2 arc seconds then the magnitudes had to match within one
magnitude. The authors of the SAC double star database think this has
given us a list which will be useful to owners of modest telescopes.
The database is distributed in ASCII text files which have been
compressed using PKZip to save space. See the READ-ME.TXT file for
more details on the contents of the distribution diskettes.
We
divided the database by RA hour, into five separate files.
Each of
the DBL21? data files has the same layout. Fields are separated by
commas.
Character fields are delimited with a double quotes.
A
description of the fields and what data they contain follows:
Database Format Summary:
FIELD NAME
Name
Star
RA
Dec
Con
Comp
Mag1
Mag2
Sep
PA
Tirion
U2000
Spec
Year
TYPE
Char
Char
Char
Char
Char
Char
Char
Char
Num
Char
Char
Char
Char
Char
WIDTH
8
11
7
(HH MM.M)
6
(+DD MM)
3
4
4
4
5
(999.9)
3
8
15
3
4
ADS
Char
5
Notes
Char
54
-----------------------------** Total **
144
Details about each field follows:
Field Number: 1
Name: NAME
Size: 8 (Char)
Name of the discoverer of this multiple system. The problems in
this field are generally going to be with either the Herschel or
Struve family of discoverers. William Herschel released his binary
star findings is several catagories labeled with Roman numerals based
on how difficult the star is too divide. This information was not
available to us in the WDS, so you will find several stars labeled
H 40 in the catalog, one would be H II 40, another H IV 40. This
is an obvious reason that professional double star astronomers refer
to these stars by their ADS or IDS numbers.
A
AC
AG
AGC
ALD
ALI
ARA
ARG
B
BAL
BAR
BET
BHA
BRD
BRT
BSO
BU
COO
COU
CPO
D
DA
DAW
DON
DOO
DOR
DUN
ES
FIL
FIN
FOX
GAL
GAN
GAU
GCB
Aitken R.G.
Clark Alvan
AG catalog
Clark A.G.
Alden H.L.
Ali A.
Aravamudan S.
Argelander F.
Bos W.H. van den
Baillaud R.
Barnard E.E.
Bertin B.
Bhaskaran T.P.
Bird F.
Barton S.G.
Brisbane Obs.
Burnham S.W.
Cordoba Obs.
Couteau P.
Cape Observatory
Dembowski E.
Dawes W.R.
Dawson B.H.
Donner H.F.
Doolittle E.
Dorpat Obs.
Dunlop J.
Espin T.E.
Filipov M.L.
Finsen W.S.
Fox P.
Gallo J.
Anderson G.
Gauchet P.L.
Giacobini M.
GLP
GRB
GYL
H
HDO
HEI
HJ
HLD
HLM
HO
HRG
HTG
HU
HWE
I
J
JC
JSP
KNT
KU
KUI
L
LAL
LAM
LDS
LEO
LPO
LV
MA
MA
MLB
MLF
MLL
MLO
MLR
Glasenapp S.
Groombridge S.
Goyal A.N.
Herschel W.
Harvard Obs.
Heintz W.D.
Herschel J.
Holden E.S.
Holmes E.
Hough G.W.
Hargrave L.
Hastings C.S.
Hussey W.L.
Howe H.A.
Innes R.T.A.
Jonckheere R.
Jacob W.S.
Jessup M.K.
Knott G.
Kustner F.
Kuiper G.P.
Lewis T.
Lalande F. de
Lamont J. von
Luyten p.m.
Leonard F.C.
La Plata Obs.
Leavenworth F.
Madler J.H.
Mason A.H.
Milburn W.
Muller F.
Mitchell S.A.
Melbourne Obs.
Muller P.
PAN
PLQ
POL
POP
POU
PRO
PTT
PZ
R
RMK
ROE
RST
S
SCJ
SE
SEE
SEI
SHJ
SKI
SLR
STF
STG
STI
STN
STT
THE
UPT
VOU
WAK
WEI
WG
WHC
WNC
WNO
WOR
Pannuzzio R.
Paloque E.
Pollock J.A.
Popovic G.
Pourteau A.
Perth Obs.
Pettitt E.
Piazzi G.
Russell H.C.
Rumker C.
Roe E.D.
Rossiter R.A.
South J.
Schjellerup H.
Secchi A.
See T.J.
Scheiner J.
South & Herschel
Skinner A.N.
Sellors R.P.
Struve F.G.W.
Struve G.
Stein J.
Stone O.
Struve O.
The P.S.
Voute J.G.
Walker R.L.
Weisse M.
Wrigley R.W.
Wilson H.C.
Winnecke A.
Washington Obs.
Worley C.E.
GLE Gale W.F.
GLI Gilliss J.M.
NZO New Zealand Obs.
OL Olivier C.P.
WRH Wilson
R.H.
If the object was not listed in a preceding catalog, we used the
designation.
Star
Field Number: 2
Name: STAR
Size: 11 (Char)
Designations by which this pair may be known. The same abbreviations
as the CON field are used in this field. Generally, this will be the
Bayer or Flamsteed designations. However, there are some variable
star designations and proper names in this field.
Field Number: 3
Name: RA
Size: 7 (Char)
Epoch 2000 position in hours and minutes of Right Ascension.
Field Number: 4
Name: DEC
Size: 6 (Char)
Epoch 2000 position in Declination degrees and minutes.
Field Number: 5
Name: CON
Size: 3 (Char)
Constellation in which the object is found in IAU format, given in the
table below.
Only upper case abbreviations are used for ease of
programming using case-sensitive commands.
ANDROMEDA
ANTLIA
APUS
AQUARIUS
AQUILA
ARA
ARIES
AURIGA
BOOTES
CAELUM
CAMELOPARDALIS
CANCER
CANES VENATICI
CANIS MAJOR
CANIS MINOR
CAPRICORNUS
CARINA
CASSIOPEIA
CENTAURUS
CEPHEUS
CETUS
CHAMAELEON
CIRCINUS
COLUMBA
COMA BERENICES
CORONA AUSTRALIS
CORONA BOREALIS
CORVUS
AND
ANT
APS
AQR
AQL
ARA
ARI
AUR
BOO
CAE
CAM
CNC
CVN
CMA
CMI
CAP
CAR
CAS
CEN
CEP
CET
CHA
CIR
COL
COM
CRA
CRB
CRV
LACERTA
LEO
LEO MINOR
LEPUS
LIBRA
LUPUS
LYNX
LYRA
MENSA
MICROSCOPIUM
MONOCEROS
MUSCA
NORMA
OCTANS
OPHIUCHUS
ORION
PAVO
PEGASUS
PERSEUS
PHOENIX
PICTOR
PISCES
PISCES AUSTRINUS
PUPPIS
PYXIS
RETICULUM
SAGITTA
SAGITTARIUS
LAC
LEO
LMI
LEP
LIB
LUP
LYN
LYR
MEN
MIC
MON
MUS
NOR
OCT
OPH
ORI
PAV
PEG
PER
PHE
PIC
PSC
PSA
PUP
PYX
RET
SGE
SGR
CRATER
CRUX
CYGNUS
DELPHINUS
DORADO
DRACO
EQUULEUS
ERIDANUS
FORNAX
GEMINI
GRUS
HERCULES
HOROLOGIUM
HYDRA
HYDRUS
INDUS
CRT
CRU
CYG
DEL
DOR
DRA
EQU
ERI
FOR
GEM
GRU
HER
HOR
HYA
HYI
IND
SCORPIUS
SCULPTOR
SCUTUM
SERPENS
SEXTANS
TAURUS
TELESCOPIUM
TRIANGULUM AUSTRALE
TRIANGULUM
TUCANA
URSA MAJOR
URSA MINOR
VELA
VIRGO
VOLANS
VULPECULA
SCO
SCL
SCT
SER
SEX
TAU
TEL
TRA
TRI
TUC
UMA
UMI
VEL
VIR
VOL
VUL
Field Number: 6
Name: COMP
Size: 4 (Char)
If this is a multiple system, which components of the triple (or more)
are in this record. For instance, if this field has ABXD then this
field of data applies to the star system D in relation to the
brightest pair in this multiple star AB.
Field Number: 7
Name: MAG1
Magnitude of the primary star.
Size: 4
(Char)
Field Number: 8
Name: MAG2
Magnitude of the secondary star.
Size: 4
(Char)
Field Number: 9
Name: SEP
Separation of the pair in arc seconds.
Size: 5
(Numeric)
Field Number: 10
Name: PA
Size: 3 (Char)
Position Angle of the pair in arc degrees clockwise from North.
Field Number: 11
Name: TIRION
Size: 8 (Char)
The charts in the Tirion Sky Atlas 2000.0 that map the area of sky in
which the star is located. This is included so that a less detailed
view of the area will be available to star hoppers.
Field Number: 12
Name: U2000
Size: 15 (Char)
The charts in the Uranometria 2000.0 that map the area of sky in which
the star is located. It is not guaranteed that all multiple stars
plotted on U2000 are contained in the database but we are trying.
Field Number: 13
Name: SPEC
Size: 3 (Char)
Spectrum of the primary, or the binary pair if a spectroscopic binary.
Field Number: 14
Name: YEAR
Size:
Year the measures of this pair were taken.
4
(Char)
Field Number: 15
Name: ADS
Size: 5 (Char)
Number from the Aitken Double Star catalog, a common cross-reference.
Field Number: 16
Name: NOTES
Size: 54 (Char)
Several abbreviations were used in the Notes section:
cpm = common proper motion, the pair is moving through The Galaxy in
the same direction and at the same speed.
They are probably
gravitationally bound together.
eclp-bin = eclipsing binary, a system that is edge-on to Earth and the
stars pass in front of each other, changing the total magnitude.
orbit calc'd = an orbit (maybe a preliminarily one)
calculated
for
this system.
Several references in
astronomical library will provide a drawing of the orbit.
famous pairs are in Burnham's Celestial Handbook.
has been
a
large
The more
spect-comp = spectrum composite, the two spectra of the binary form a
single spectrum that is the addition of the stars in the multiple star
system.
sp-bin = spectroscopic binary, a pair whose spectra change as the
motion of the system moves through different angles to the Earth.
Many very close binaries are spectroscopic and cannot be separated
visually at the eyepiece.
var = variable, the magnitude of the star changes with time.
HINTS ON USING THE SAC DOUBLE STAR DATABASE
The layout of the data was thought out to try and let the user get the
type of listing that is preferred with as few problems as possible.
Users who have taken the time to write or call have said that a wide
variety of database managers will make it easier for the sophisticated
double star observer to utilize the data in a variety of forms.
People have used dBase III, Paradox, PC File, PC File dB, Microsoft
Works, Wampum and a few have used a word processor to search and sort
the SAC database. It is even possible Import it into Lotus 123 as a
Text file.
Several people have considered burning it into a ROM for
use in a telescope control program.
Of course, if you do not need overly complex search routines, the
provided SACDBL.EXE program from Dan Ward will suffice. It allows the
user to make a fine observing list quickly. See the REPORTS.DOC file
for more details.
CONTRIBUTORS
Dan Ward did error corrections, fine tuned the data field formats,
wrote the install file, edited the documentation and developed the
SACDBL report generator program included with this disk set.
A.J.
Crayon
did
error
corrections
and
assisted
indirectly
in
developing the install and observing list program because Dan recycled
some code that he and A.J. had jointly developed in the past.
Brian Skiff provided us with error checking data and
input on what to include for each entry.
gave
us
much
Steve Stanford wrote the program which determined the Tirion and U2000
chart numbers.
Steve
data.
Coe co-wrote the file you are reading and checked
and
entered
Alan Gore parsed out the star names from the Notes as given in the WDS
and checked and entered data.
John and Tom McGrath checked and entered data.
Kent Hepburn ran the precession and chart number programs.
checked and entered data.
He
also
Roger Wegehoft of Ashton-Tate provided some dBASE code to strip excess
blanks out
of the middle of some data fields, which allowed us to
reduce the overall size of the database by over 500k!
Wayne Gary provided valuable suggestions for fine tuning some of
fields formats.
the
REVISION HISTORY
Version 1.0 was the raw data from the output of a Quick Basic search
routine that was written by Bill Anderson and Steve Coe and run
against the Washington Double Star catalog as we received it.
Version 1.1 was the output from Alan Gore's dBase III+
parse the star names from the NOTES.
program
Version 1.2 contained the precessed values for position and added
chart numbers. Steve Stanford wrote the chart numbering program
Kent Hepburn interfaced it with the data from the WDS.
to
the
and
Version 1.3 was a quick check to make certain that we had not lost any
"famous" doubles while dealing with the above operations.
Version 1.4 was the output of a comprehensive check that lasted
several months trying to catch any errors, large or small, in the data
or documentation. All the above versions were internal to the SAC and
did not get a general release to the public.
Versions 1.5 thru 1.8 were intermediate revisions done by Dan Ward to
eliminate some data format inconsistencies. A few non-SAC members
received copies of one or more of these versions. When Dan finished
1.9, the rest of the team went through it again to make one more check
prior to release.
Version 2.0 is hereby placed in the public domain. It is
release of the double star database for general use.
our
first
Version 2.1 is released to fix a problem that Quick Basic had with
values of Declination near the equator. The algorithms in QB just don't
understand negative zero!! A dec such as - 00 32 was forced to become
positive. So we had to go through all the stars near the equator and
check their declinations.
FINAL NOTES
We realize that such an undertaking could not possibly be completed
without some errors or typos creeping into the database.
We would
like you to get in contact with us if you find any of three types of
problems. One, just plain errors, either typos or problems we did not
know about. Two, places in the database where we have no data in that
field and you know what should go there.
Three, ideas on how better
to arrange the data or programs you have written to manipulate the
data.
It is hoped that over a period of time we can hunt down
mistakes and make the database as error free as possible. Thank you
for any help you can render in attaining that goal.
Steve Coe
4919 W. Saguaro Dr.
Glendale, Az. 85304
PH. (602) 939-3787
A. J. Crayon
13819 N. 37th Ave.
Phoenix, Az. 85023
Ph. (602) 938-3277
Dan Ward can be reached on CompuServe at his ID number of
72040,3357. His address is included with the report generator
program.