I/86A Sydney Southern Star Catalogue (King+ 1983)
Sydney Southern Star Catalogue
King D.S., Lomb N.R.
<J. Proc. R. Soc. N. S. W. 116, 53, (1983)>
ADC_Keywords: Positional data; Proper motions
Description:
This catalogue principally covers the range between -51deg. and -63.5
deg and contains positions and proper motions for 29,926 stars. 3244
faint Astrographic stars were added to supplement the stars at fainter
magnitudes. Positions in standard form (hours, minutes, and seconds of
time for the right ascensions and degrees, minutes, and seconds of arc
for the declinations) have been added to the machine readable version
of this catalogue.
Introduction:
The Sydney Southern Star Catalogue contains the results of the Sydney
Observatory astrometric program during the two decades ending in 1983.
Declination zones centered on -53.5, 58.5, -56.0, -58.5, -61.0, and
-63.5 deg. have been measured and are included. The plates were taken
with a 23-cm Taylor, Taylor, and Hobson camera and measured with a
Grubb-Parsons photoelectric measuring machine. The reference catalogue
used was the WL50. The standard error of a position based on four
images is 0.10" in either coordinate. A 2.3 magnitude diffraction
grating was used to produce side images shifted from the central image
in declination.
The stars selected were compiled from the Cape Photographic Catalogue
for 1950 (CPC) (Jackson and Stoy 1954-1958), International Reference
Stars (IRS) (Scott 1962), Cape Zone Cataloge for 1900 (ZC) (Gill and
Hough 1923, Spencer Jones and Jackson 1936), Albany General Catalogue
(GC) (Boss 1937) and the Sydney Astrographic Catalogue (AC) (Nangle
and Wood 1925-1971). The Sydney AC was used to obtain 3244
supplementary faint stars so that about one star per square degree is
in the photographic magnitude range 11.0 to 11.5. All of the AC stars
were given a magnitude of 12.0 to distinguish them as AC stars
although they are presumed to be in the stated photographic magnitude
range. In the area south of -63.5 deg., only the IRS stars were
selected for measurement. This was to give complete plate coverage for
the determination of plate constants for the plates centered at
-6358.5 deg. 395 IRS stars are included in this zone. CPC stars and AC
stars were selected for measurement between declinations -52deg. and
-63.5 deg. Between -51deg. and -52deg., the measuring list was
prepared by supplementing the few CPC stars in this area with ZC
stars, GC stars, and IRS stars. In general, stars brighter than
photographic magnitude 6.0 were excluded and stars brighter than
photographic magnitude 8.1 had their first order side images measured
as well as the central image, giving three measurements.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
primary.dat 62 23287 *Positions and proper motions for 23287 stars
faint.dat 52 3244 *Positions, only, for 3244 faint stars
south.dat 52 395 *Positions, only, for 395 stars south of
declination -63.5 deg.
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Note on primary.dat, faint.dat, south.dat:
Three files comprise the Sydney Southern Star Catalogue. The format of
the three files is identical except that only file 1 contains proper
motions. If any datum is missing, the corresponding field will be
blank. Although an I or an F format may be given as an alternate, an A
format may be necessary to distinguish between a blank and a zero.
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: primary.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 6 I6 --- num Number
7- 10 I4 0.01mag Pmag Photographic magnitude
11- 12 I2 h RAh Hours right ascension (1950)
13- 14 I2 min RAm Minutes right ascension (1950)
15- 20 F6.3 s RAs Seconds right ascension (1950)
21 A1 --- DE- Sign of declination
22- 23 I2 deg DEd Degrees declination (1950)
24- 25 I2 arcmin DEm Minutes declination (1950)
26- 30 F5.2 arcsec DEs Seconds declination (1950)
31- 38 I8 0.001s RAsec Right ascension in seconds
39- 46 I8 0.01arcsec DEsec Declination in arcseconds
47- 51 I5 0.001yr Ep-1900 Epoch - 1900.000
52 I1 --- Nobs No. observations
53- 57 I5 0.1ms/yr pmRA Proper motion in right ascen.
58- 62 I5 mas/yr pmDE Proper motion in declination
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: faint.dat, south.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 6 I6 --- num Number
7- 10 I4 0.01mag Pmag Photographic magnitude
11- 12 I2 h RAh *Hours right ascension (1950)
13- 14 I2 min RAm Minutes right ascension (1950)
15- 20 F6.3 s RAs Seconds right ascension (1950)
21 A1 --- DE- Sign of declination
22- 23 I2 deg DEd Degrees declination (1950)
24- 25 I2 arcmin DEm Minutes declination (1950)
26- 30 F5.2 arcsec DEs Seconds declination (1950)
31- 38 I8 0.001s RAsec Right ascension in seconds
39- 46 I8 0.01arcsec DEsec Declination in arcseconds
47- 51 I5 0.001yr Ep-1900 Epoch - 1900.000
52 I1 --- N No. observations
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Note on RAh:
The positions are for the equinox B1950 and the reference system
used was Washington El Leoncito 50.
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Additional Information:
Construction of the current version of the Sydney Southern Star
Catalogue The machine-readable file was received on magnetic tape from
Dr. N. R. Lomb of the Sydney Observatory in November, 1983 in
excellent shape. As received, the catalogue contained two files. The
primary catalogue file contained right ascensions and declinations in
milliseconds of time and hundreths of a second of arc, respectively.
The second file contained the data for both the faint Astrographic
stars and the southern IRS stars. In the present version, sexagesimal
positions (hours and degrees) have been added in addition to the form
given on the tape as received and the Astrographic and IRS data have
been divided into separate files.
Acknowledgments:
We thank Dr. Lomb for supplying us with the machine-readable
version of the Sydney Southern Star Catalogue and for a preprint of
the Source Reference.
References:
Boss, B. 1937, General Catalogue of 33,342 Stars for the Epoch
1950, vols. 2-5. Carnegie Inst. Washington, Publ. 468
(Cat. I/113)
Gill, D., and Hough, S. S. 1923, Zone Catalogue of 20,843 stars,
1900, R. Obs. Cape of Good Hope
(Cat. I/108)
Jackson, J., and Stoy, R. H. 1954-1958, Ann. Cape Obs. 19-20
(Cat. I/4)
King, D. S. and Lomb, N. R. 1983, J. Proc. R. Soc. N. S. W. 116, 53
(Sydney Obs. Papers No. 96)
Nangle, J., and Wood, H. W. 1925-1971, Astrographic Catalogue
1900.0, Sydney Section 1-53
Scott, F. P. 1962, AJ, 67, 690
Spencer Jones, H., and Jackson, J. 1936, Proper motions of Stars in
the Zone Catalogue of 20,843 Stars, 1900, Roy. Obs. Cape of Good
Hope (London, H. M. Stationery Office)
(Cat. I/5)
(End) Nancy G. Roman [SSDOO/ADC] 28-Mar-1995