Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Ed. (Hoffleit+, 1991)

Authors: Dorrit Hoffleit, Wayne H. Warren Jr.

Description:

The Bright Star Catalogue (BSC) is widely used as a source of basic astronomical and astrophysical data for stars brighter than magnitude 6.5. The BSC contains 9110 objects (9096 stars + 14 novae or extragalactic objects for historical numbering). This 5th edition includes new data and expanded remarks. The catalog contains:

Identifications from other widely-used catalogs
Double and multiple star identifications
Indications of variability and variable star identifiers
Equatorial positions (B1900.0 and J2000.0)
Galactic coordinates
UBVRI photoelectric photometric data (where available)
Spectral types (Morgan-Keenan, MK classification)
Proper motions (J2000.0)
Parallax
Radial and rotational velocity data
Multiple star data (number of components, separation, magnitude differences)

In addition to the data file, there is an extensive remarks file that gives more detailed information on individual entries including:

Star names
Colors
Spectra
Variability details
Binary characteristics
Radial and rotational velocities for companion stars
Duplicity
Dynamical parallaxes
Stellar dimensions (radii and diameters)
Polarization
Membership in stellar groups and clusters

Data types and header descriptions

Bytes	Format	Units	Label	Explanations
1-4	I4	---	HR	[1/9110]+ Harvard Revised Number = Bright Star Number
5-14	A10	---	Name	Name, generally Bayer and/or Flamsteed name
15-25	A11	---	DM	Durchmusterung Identification (zone in bytes 17-19)
26-31	I6	---	HD	[1/225300]? Henry Draper Catalog Number
32-37	I6	---	SAO	[1/258997]? SAO Catalog Number
38-41	I4	---	FK5	? FK5 star Number
42	A1	---	IRflag	[I] I if infrared source
43	A1	---	r_IRflag	*[ ':] Coded reference for infrared source
44	A1	---	Multiple	*[AWDIRS] Double or multiple-star code
45-49	A5	---	ADS	Aitken's Double Star Catalog (ADS) designation
50-51	A2	---	ADScomp	ADS number components
52-60	A9	---	VarID	Variable star identification
61-62	I2	h	RAh1900	?Hours RA, equinox B1900, epoch 1900.0 (1)
63-64	I2	min	RAm1900	?Minutes RA, equinox B1900, epoch 1900.0 (1)
65-68	F4.1	s	RAs1900	?Seconds RA, equinox B1900, epoch 1900.0 (1)
69	A1	---	DE-1900	?Sign Dec, equinox B1900, epoch 1900.0 (1)
70-71	I2	deg	DEd1900	?Degrees Dec, equinox B1900, epoch 1900.0 (1)
72-73	I2	arcmin	DEm1900	?Minutes Dec, equinox B1900, epoch 1900.0 (1)
74-75	I2	arcsec	DEs1900	?Seconds Dec, equinox B1900, epoch 1900.0 (1)
76-77	I2	h	RAh	?Hours RA, equinox J2000, epoch 2000.0 (1)
78-79	I2	min	RAm	?Minutes RA, equinox J2000, epoch 2000.0 (1)
80-83	F4.1	s	RAs	?Seconds RA, equinox J2000, epoch 2000.0 (1)
84	A1	---	DE-	?Sign Dec, equinox J2000, epoch 2000.0 (1)
85-86	I2	deg	DEd	?Degrees Dec, equinox J2000, epoch 2000.0 (1)
87-88	I2	arcmin	DEm	?Minutes Dec, equinox J2000, epoch 2000.0 (1)
89-90	I2	arcsec	DEs	?Seconds Dec, equinox J2000, epoch 2000.0 (1)
91-96	F6.2	deg	GLON	?Galactic longitude (1)
97-102	F6.2	deg	GLAT	?Galactic latitude (1)
103-107	F5.2	mag	Vmag	?Visual magnitude (1)
108	A1	---	n_Vmag	*[ HR] Visual magnitude code
109	A1	---	u_Vmag	[ :?] Uncertainty flag on V
110-114	F5.2	mag	B-V	? B-V color in the UBV system
115	A1	---	u_B-V	[ :?] Uncertainty flag on B-V
116-120	F5.2	mag	U-B	? U-B color in the UBV system
121	A1	---	u_U-B	[ :?] Uncertainty flag on U-B
122-126	F5.2	mag	R-I	? R-I in system specified by n_R-I
127	A1	---	n_R-I	[CE:?D] Code for R-I system (Cousin, Eggen)
128-147	A20	---	SpType	Spectral type
148	A1	---	n_SpType	[evt] Spectral type code
149-154	F6.3	arcsec/yr	pmRA	?Annual proper motion in RA J2000, FK5 system
155-160	F6.3	arcsec/yr	pmDE	?Annual proper motion in Dec J2000, FK5 system
161	A1	---	n_Parallax	[D] D indicates a dynamical parallax, otherwise a trigonometric parallax
162-166	F5.3	arcsec	Parallax	? Trigonometric parallax (unless n_Parallax)
167-170	I4	km/s	RadVel	? Heliocentric Radial Velocity
171-174	A4	---	n_RadVel	*[V?SB123O ] Radial velocity comments
175-176	A2	---	l_RotVel	[<=> ] Rotational velocity limit characters
177-179	I3	km/s	RotVel	? Rotational velocity, v sin i
180	A1	---	u_RotVel	[ :v] uncertainty and variability flag on RotVel
181-184	F4.1	mag	Dmag	? Magnitude difference of double, or brightest multiple
185-190	F6.1	arcsec	Sep	? Separation of components in Dmag if occultation binary.
191-194	A4	---	MultID	Identifications of components in Dmag
195-196	I2	---	MultCnt	? Number of components assigned to a multiple
197	A1	---	NoteFlag	[*] a star indicates that there is a note (see file notes)

Note (1): These fields are all blanks for stars removed from the Bright Star Catalogue (see notes).

Note on r_IRflag:

Blank: from NASA merged Infrared Catalogue, Schmitz et al., 1978
': from Engles et al. 1982
:: uncertain identification

Note on Multiple:

A: Astrometric binary
D: Duplicity discovered by occultation
I: Innes, Southern Double Star Catalogue (1927)
R: Rossiter, Michigan Publ. 9, 1955
S: Duplicity discovered by speckle interferometry
W: Worley (1978) update of the IDS

Note on n_Vmag:

Blank: V on UBV Johnson system
R: HR magnitudes reduced to the UBV system
H: original HR magnitude

Note on pmRA:

As usually assumed, the proper motion in RA is the projected motion (cos(DE).d(RA)/dt). The total proper motion is:
sqrt(pmRA^2 + pmDE^2)

Note on n_RadVel:

V: variable radial velocity
V?: suspected variable radial velocity
SB, SB1, SB2, SB3: spectroscopic binaries (single, double, or triple lined spectra)
O: orbital data available

Yale Bright Star Catalog

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