J/A+A/516/A28 Star catalogue of Tycho Brahe (1627) (Verbunt+, 2010)
Three editions of the star catalogue of Tycho Brahe.
Machine-readable versions and comparison with the modern Hipparcos Catalogue.
Verbunt F., van Gent R.H.
<Astron. Astrophys. 516, A28 (2010)>
=2010A&A...516A..28V 2010A&A...516A..28V
ADC_Keywords: Historical catalog ; Positional data
Keywords: astrometry - history and philosophy of astronomy
Abstract:
Tycho Brahe completed his catalogue with the positions and magnitudes
of 1004 fixed stars in 1598. This catalogue circulated in manuscript
form. Brahe edited a shorter version with 777 stars, printed in 1602,
and Kepler edited the full catalogue of 1004 stars, printed in 1627.
We provide machine-readable versions of the three versions of the
catalogue, describe the differences between them and briefly discuss
their accuracy on the basis of comparison with modern data from the
Hipparcos Catalogue. We also compare our results with earlier analyses
by Dreyer (1916Obs....39..127D 1916Obs....39..127D, On Tycho Brahe's manual of
trigonometry) and Rawlins (1993BAAS...25.1335R 1993BAAS...25.1335R, Atmospheric Clarity
and Tycho's Fake Stars), finding good overall agreement. The
magnitudes given by Brahe correlate well with modern values, his
longitudes and latitudes have error distributions with widths of
2-arcmin, with excess numbers of stars with larger errors (as compared
to Gaussian distributions), in particular for the faintest stars.
Errors in positions larger than about 10-arcmin, which comprise about
15 per cent of the entries, are likely due to computing or copying
errors.
Description:
We present in three data files the Machine-readable versions of three
editions of Tycho Brahe's star catalogue. The main file KeplerE.dat
contains the catalogue as published by Kepler in 1627 as part of the
Tabulae Rudolphinae, with some emendations. The second file
Variants.dat contains the data from other editions if different from
the data in KeplerE.dat. These other editions are i) the Manuscript
version of Brahe from 1598, as published by Dreyer in the Tychonis
Brahe Dani Opera Omnia Vol. III (Kopenhagen, 1916), ii) the shorter
version published by Brahe In the Astronomiae Instauratae
Progymnasmata (1602), iii) the original (i.e. not emended) edition by
Kepler (1627), iv) variants given by Kepler (1627) as `meus catalogus'
or as `Piserus'.
In addition to the data from the Historical catalogue, the
machine-readable version contain the modern identification with a
Hipparcos star and the latter's magnitude, and based on this
identification the positional accuracy. The third file Names.dat
contains the latin descriptions of the stars as given in Brahe's
manuscript version (1598).
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
keplere.dat 89 1007 Emended version of Kepler (1627) edition of
Tycho Brahe Star Catalogue
variant.dat 95 82 Variants on Kepler Emended version
from other editions
names.dat 83 1007 Descriptions of the stars, from the
Manuscript version of the catalogue
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See also:
I/239 : The Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues (ESA 1997)
J/A+A/516/A29 : Star catalogue of Hevelius (1690) (Verbunt+, 2010)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: keplere.dat variant.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 4 I4 --- M ?=0 Sequence number in Manuscript Catalogue
6- 8 I3 --- B ?=0 Sequence number in Brahe 1602 edition
10- 13 I4 --- K ?=0 Sequence number in Kepler 1627 edition
15- 16 I2 --- C Sequence number of constellation in Kepler
18 A1 --- --- [=]
19- 21 A3 --- cst Abbreviation of constellation name
23- 24 I2 --- N Sequence number of star in constellation
26- 27 I2 30deg Elon.Z [1,12] Zodiacal sign of ecliptic longitude (1)
29- 30 I2 deg Elon.d [0,30] Degrees of ecliptic longitude (1)
32- 35 F4.1 arcmin Elon.m Arcminutes of ecliptic longitude (1)
37- 38 I2 deg Elat.d Degrees of ecliptic latitude (2)
40- 43 F4.1 arcmin Elat.m Arcminutes of ecliptic latitude (2)
45 A1 --- Elat.- [AB] Sign of ecliptic latitude,
Australis (-) or Borealis (+) (2)
47 I1 --- VB Magnitude as given by Brahe; 9 for `nebulous'
48 A1 --- n_VB [.:] Magnitude qualifier (3)
50- 55 I6 --- HIP ? Hipparcos number of identification
58 I1 --- I [1,6] Quality of identification (4)
61 I1 --- D [0,5] Comparison flag with Dreyer (5)
63 I1 --- R [0,5] comparison flag with Rawlins (5)
65- 68 F4.1 mag Vmag ?=0 Magnitude of Hipparcos identification
70- 75 F6.1 min Dlon ?=0 Difference in longitude: Hipparcos-Brahe
77- 82 F6.1 arcmin Dlat ?=0 Difference in latitude: Hipparcos-Brahe
84- 89 F6.1 arcmin Delta ?=0 Offset between Brahe star and identification
92 A1 --- v.K K indicates variant from Kepler (1627) (6)
93 A1 --- v.P P indicates variant from Brahe (1602) (6)
94 A1 --- v.M M indicates variant from manuscript 1598 (6)
95 A1 --- v.I C/P indicates variant meus catalogus/Piserus (6)
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Note (1): The ecliptic longitude (for the equinox of AD 1601.0) is given by
λ = (Z-1)30 + Elon.d + Elon.m/60
Note (2): The ecliptic latitude (for the year AD 1601.0) is given by
β = ±(Elat.d + Elat.m/60); (+ for Borealis, - for Australis)
Note (3): Magnitude qualifier:
: = brighter;
. = fainter
Note (4): Flag 'I' as follows:
1 = secure identification with nearest star
2 = secure identification, even though not nearest star
3 = probable identification
4 = possible identification
5 = not identified
6 = double entry
Note (5): Comparison flags as follows:
0 = no identification given by Dreyer/Rawlins
1 = same identification given by Dreyer/Rawlins
2 = identification in Dreyer/Rawlins to alternative identification
3 = identification in Dreyer/Rawlins different from our identification
4 = identification in Rawlins different due to corrected position
5 = called `utter fake' by Rawlins
Note (6): in variants.dat file only
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: names.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 4 I4 --- M ?=0 Sequence number in Manuscript Catalogue
6- 8 I3 --- B ?=0 Sequence number in Brahe 1602 edition
10- 13 I4 --- K ?=0 Sequence number in Kepler 1627 edition
16- 95 A80 --- Name Latin description of star in Manuscript 1598 (1)
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Note (1): Mathematical symbols (square, triangle) from the manuscripts are
indicated with LaTeX form ($, $△$); zodiac symbols from
the manuscript are indicated with the wasysym form (\aries, \taurus,
\gemini, \cancer, etc.)
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Acknowledgements:
Frank Verbunt, f.w.m.verbunt(at)uu.nl
Astron. Inst. Utrecht University, Netherlands
(End) Frank Verbunt [AIU Univ., Netherlands], Patricia Vannier [CDS] 05-Mar-2010