J/A+A/516/A29 Star catalogue of Hevelius (1690) (Verbunt+, 2010)
The star catalogue of Hevelius.
Machine-readable versions and comparison with the modern Hipparcos Catalogue.
Verbunt, F., van Gent, R.H.
<Astron. Astrophys. 516, A29 (2010)>
=2010A&A...516A..29V 2010A&A...516A..29V
ADC_Keywords: Historical catalog ; Positional data
Keywords: astrometry - history and philosophy of astronomy
Abstract:
The catalogue by Johannes Hevelius with the positions and magnitudes
of 1564 entries was published by his wife Elisabeth Koopman in 1690.
We provide a machine-readable version of the catalogue, and briefly
discuss its accuracy on the basis of comparison with data from the
modern Hipparcos Catalogue. We compare our results with an earlier
analysis by Rybka (1984), finding good overall agreement. The
magnitudes given by Hevelius correlate well with modern values. The
accuracy of his position measurements is similar to that of Brahe,
with error distributions with widths of about 2 arcmin for longitudes
and latitudes, but with more errors larger than 5 arcmin than expected
for a Gaussian distribution. The position accuracy decreases slowly
with magnitude. The fraction of stars with position errors larger than
a degree is 1.5 per cent, rather smaller than the fraction of 5 per
cent in the star catalogue of Brahe.
Description:
We present a Machine-readable versions of the star catalogue of
Hevelius (1690). In addition to the data from the Historical
catalogue, the machine-readable version contains the modern
identification with a Hipparcos star and the latter's magnitude, and
based on this identification the positional accuracy. We also give
cross references to Brahe's catalogue (in the Kepler 1627 edition).
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
hevelius.dat 92 1564 Star catalogue of Hevelius (1690)
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See also:
I/239 : The Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues (ESA 1997)
J/A+A/516/A28 : Star catalogue of Tycho Brahe (1627)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: hevelius.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 4 I4 --- H Sequence number in Hevelius 1690 Catalogue
6- 9 I4 --- K ?=0 Sequence number in Brahe/Kepler
Catalogue (1)
11- 12 I2 --- C Sequence number of constellation
14 A1 --- --- [=]
15- 17 A3 --- cst Abbreviation of constellation name
19- 20 I2 --- N Sequence number of star in constellation
23- 24 I2 --- OT Ordo Tychonis (2)
27 I1 --- VH Magnitude as given by Hevelius (3)
28 A1 --- q_VH Magnitude qualifier (4)
30- 31 I2 30deg Elon.Z ? Zodiacal sign of ecliptic longitude (5)
33- 34 I2 deg Elon.d ? Degrees of ecliptic longitude (5)
36- 37 I2 arcmin Elon.m ? Arcminutes of ecliptic longitude (5)
39- 40 I2 arcsec Elon.s ? Arcseconds of ecliptic longitude (5)
43- 44 I2 deg Elat.d ? Degrees of ecliptic latitude (6)
46- 47 I2 arcmin Elat.m ? Arcminutes of ecliptic latitude (6)
49- 50 I2 arcsec Elat.s ? Arcseconds of ecliptic latitude (6)
52 A1 --- Elat.- [AB] Sign of ecliptic latitude,
Autralis (+) or Borealis (-) (6)
54- 59 I6 --- HIP ?=0 Hipparcos number of identification
62 I1 --- I Flag indicating quality of identification (7)
64 I1 --- B Flag indicating comparison with Brahe (8)
66 I1 --- R Flag indicating comparison with Rybka (9)
68- 71 F4.1 mag Vmag ?=0 Magnitude of Hipparcos identification
73- 78 F6.1 min Dlon ?=0 Difference in longitude: Hipparcos-Hevelius
80- 85 F6.1 arcmin Dlat ?=0 Difference in latitude: Hipparcos-Hevelius
87- 92 F6.1 arcmin Delta ?=0 Offset between Hevelius star and
identification
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Note (1): Sequence number in Brahe/Kepler Catalogue:
* K<1005 refers to the Kepler (1627) edition of Brahe's catalogue
* 1004<K<1303 refers to Kepler's (1627) Secunda Classis, the entries
in which we number starting with 1005 (ending with 1302)
* K>2000 refers to entry K-2000 in Kepler's (1627) edition of
Brahe's catalogue which we identify with the same Hipparcos star
as the Hevelius entry, but for which Hevelius does not give an
explicit reference to the Kepler catalogue; the identity of
identification may then be due to chance.
Note (2): The Ordo Tychonis is the sequence number of the star within its
constellation in Kepler's (1627) edition of Brahe's catalogue. It
sometimes refers to the Secunda Classis. For detail see paper.
Note (3): Magnitude as given by Hevelius:
8 = only visible with telescope
9 = nebulous
Note (4): Hevelius sometimes qualifies his magnitudes (Table 3 of paper):
+,I = or one magnitude higher (i.e. fainter)
-,i = or one magnitude lower (i.e. brighter)
f = approximately
V = varies between 3 and 6
T = only visible with a telescope
Note (5): The ecliptic longitude λ, for the equinox AD 1661
("Annum Christi Completum MDCLX"), is given by
λ=(Elon.Z-1)30+Elon.d+Elon.m/60+Elon.s/3600
Note (6): the ecliptic latitude β, for the equinox AD 1661,
("Annum Christi Completum MDCLX"), is given by
β = ±(Elat.d+Elat.m/60+Elat.s/3600); ± for S=B/A
Note (7): Quality flag 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 (8): Comparison with our identification for corresponding star in
Kepler's 1627 edition of Brahe's star catalogue flag as follows:
1 = same identification
2 = identification to alternative identification
3 = identification different
Note (9): Flag indicating comparison with Rybka as follows:
1 = same identification in Rybka
2 = identification in Rybka to alternative identification
3 = identification in Rybka different from our identification
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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] 19-Mar-2010