J/PAZh/28/201 General Catalogue of Variable Stars. Vol. 1 (Samus+, 2002)
An electronic version of Volume I of the General Catalogue of Variable Stars
with improved coordinates.
Samus N.N., Goranskii V.P., Durlevich O.V., Zharova A.V., Kazarovets E.V.,
Pastukhova E.N., Hazen M.L., Tsvetkova T.M.
<Pis'ma Astron. Zh. 28, 201 (2002)>
=2002PAZh...28..201S 2002PAZh...28..201S (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
=2002AstL...28..174S 2002AstL...28..174S
ADC_Keywords: Stars, variable ; Combined data
Keywords: stars: variable and peculiar
Description:
We present a new electronic version of the first volume of the General
Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS), fourth edition, which contains
data on 10558 variable stars in Andromeda - Crux (the constellations
are ordered in the Catalog according to the Latin alphabet). This
version incorporates the name lists of variable stars from no.67 to
no.76 for the same constellations. The main distinctive feature of the
new version is that it provides improved equatorial J2000.0
coordinates for 10351 stars (including those for 4592 stars corrected
for proper motions). These are based on identifications with
positional catalogs using finding charts and on our new measurements.
We searched for a number of stars on original plates from the plate
collections of several observatories. So far we have failed to
determine accurate coordinates for 207 variable stars, because there
are no finding charts and because the information for star
identification is insufficient. The version also includes a file of
remarks to the first GCVS volume and a preliminary version of the file
of bibliographic references to the entire fourth edition of the GCVS.
Apart from a complete update of the positional information, the new
version incorporates all the other corrections that were found to be
necessary after the first GCVS volume was published (1985).
Introduction:
The file vol1.dat
-------------------
The main table (vol1.dat) of the new electronic version of volume I of
the GCVS contains information on 10558 objects (not counting the stars
that were erroneously named for the second time or proved to be
nonexistent) in Andromeda - Crux, which are mostly variable stars of
our Galaxy discovered and named before 2001; i.e., it covers the
variable stars that were included in the fourth edition of the GCVS
and name lists nos. 67 - 76 (for the same constellations).
The structure of the main table corresponds to that of the combined
table of the GCVS 4th edition and the name lists (Kholopov et al.
1998; see also www.sai.msu.su/groups/cluster/gcvs/gcvs/iii/). The
differences between these tables are as follows:
(1) Instead of B1950.0 coordinates, we provide new improved equatorial
J2000.0 coordinates.
(2) The most recent name lists, up to no. 76, were included.
(3) We included all the corrections and changes that were found
necessary during our work on the GCVS in other columns of the main
table, in references, and in remarks. Note that for stars that had no
published finding charts but that we identified with the GSC or with
the US Naval Observatory (USNO) A1.0/A2.0 catalogs, we now give a
symbol of the corresponding catalog (GSC, USNO) as a reference to the
finding chart.
The main table is presented in the form traditional for the GCVS,
i.e., in the order of constellations and variable-star names adopted
in the GCVS. The table includes the following information: equatorial
J2000.0 coordinates (right ascensions to within 0.1s and declinations
to within 1"), variability types, magnitudes at maximum and minimum
light, photometric magnitude systems, periods of light variations,
durations of brightness rise from minimum to maximum of eclipse
durations, spectral types, and bibliography. For the stars from name
lists no. 67 - 76 published after the appearance of the GCVS 4th
edition, we provide not all columns of the table but only coordinates,
variability types, magnitudes, and bibliography; the missing data will
be added to the 5th edition of the GCVS.
The file vol1_pos.dat
---------------------
For 10351 variable stars, our version provides new equatorial J2000.0
coordinates (right ascensions to within 0.01s and declinations to
within 0.1"), for 4592 stars with allowance for their proper motions.
The table vol1_pos.dat provides positional information based on our
identifications with major astrometric catalogs, on published data, or
on our new measurements (see below) for 10351 stars of the new version
of volume I (including stars of the new name lists in the same
constellations). The order of stars in this table is the same as that
in the main table.
The files rem.txt and ref.txt
-----------------------------
The list of remarks to volume I (rem.txt) includes information that
supplements the main table for 2167 stars. In contrast to the printed
bilingual version of the 4th GCVS edition (Kholopov et al. 1985-1988),
all remarks in the file are given only in English and generally
correspond to the English text of the remarks in the printed edition.
The remarks contain, in particular, information on variable stars in
double systems, on period variability, on secondary minima of
eclipsing variables, and on proximity to star clusters and nebulae in
the sky. For unique variable stars, the remarks give detailed
descriptions of the variability pattern.
The preliminary version of bibliographic references (ref.txt) for
volumes I-III of the 4th edition contains 12979 references to the
literature from the main table and remarks. All references in Cyrillic
alphabet in the printed version were transliterated into the Latin
alphabet in this file.
File Summary:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
vol1.dat 162 10583 New electronic version of volume I of the GCVS4
vol1_pos.dat 77 10353 Positional information for the stars of volume I
of the GCVS4
rem.dat 80 3716 List of remarks to volume I
refs.dat 294 12998 List of references for volumes I-III
vartype.txt 79 1404 Description of variability types
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See also:
II/250 : Combined General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Samus+ 2004)
www.sai.msu.su/groups/cluster/gcvs : GCVS Home Page
www.sai.msu.su/groups/cluster/gcvs/gcvs/vol1/ : Vol. 1 Home Page
ftp.sai.msu.su/pub/groups/cluster/gcvs/gcvs/vol1/ : Vol. 1 Home Page
Byte-by-byte Description of file: vol1.dat
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 2 I2 --- Constell [1/88] Constellation numeric code
3- 6 I4 --- Number Star number within the constellation
7 A1 --- Component Component identification
9- 18 A10 --- GCVS Variable star designation
19 A1 --- n_GCVS [*] Notes in rem.dat file
21- 22 I2 h RAh ? Hours RA, equinox J2000.0
23- 24 I2 min RAm ? Minutes RA, equinox J2000.0
25- 28 F4.1 s RAs ? Seconds RA, equinox J2000.0
29 A1 --- DE- Sign Dec, equinox J2000.0
30- 31 I2 deg DEd ? Degrees Dec, equinox J2000.0
32- 33 I2 arcmin DEm ? Minutes Dec, equinox J2000.0
34- 35 I2 arcsec DEs ? Seconds Dec, equinox J2000.0
36 A1 --- u_DEs *[:*] position accuracy flags
38- 47 A10 --- VarType Type of variability (see file vartype.txt)
49 A1 --- l_magMax [<>(] ">" if magMax is a faint limit
"<" if magMax is a bright limit
"(" if magMax is an amplitude
50- 55 F6.3 mag magMax ? Magnitude at maximum brightness
56 A1 --- u_magMax Uncertainty flag (:) on magMax
59 A1 --- l_magMin [<(] "<" if magMin is a bright limit
"(" if magMin is an amplitude
60- 65 F6.3 mag magMin ? Minimum magnitude or amplitude
66 A1 --- u_magMin Uncertainty flag (:) on magMin
67- 68 A2 --- n_magMin Alternative photometric system for magMin
69 A1 --- f_magMin [)] ")" if magMin is an amplitude
71- 72 A2 --- magCode The photometric system for magnitudes
74- 84 F11.5 d Epoch ? Epoch for maximum light, Julian days
85 A1 --- q_Epoch [:±] Quality flag on Epoch
87- 90 A4 --- YearNova Year of outburst for nova or supernova
91 A1 --- q_YearNova [:] Quality flag on Year of outburst
93 A1 --- l_Period [<>(] Code for upper or lower limits
94-109 F16.10 d Period ? Period of the variable star
110 A1 --- u_Period Uncertainty flag (:) on Period
111-112 A2 --- n_Period [*/N) ]
114-116 A3 % M-m/D Rising time (M-m) or duration of eclipse (D)
117 A1 --- u_M-m/D Uncertainty flag (:) on M-m/D
118 A1 --- n_M-m/D [*] Note for eclipsing variable
120-136 A17 --- SpType Spectral type
138-142 A5 --- ref(1) Reference to a study of the star in refs.dat
144-148 A5 --- ref(2) Reference to a chart or photograph in refs.dat
150-161 A12 --- Exists Cases of non-existence of the variable etc.
162 A1 --- --- [|]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note on u_DEs:
Position accuracy flags:
(*) - So far we have failed to determine accurate coordinates for 207
variable stars, because there are no finding charts and because the
information for star identification is insufficient. The coordinates
that could not be improved were recalculated from old rough coordinates
to the equinox J2000.0 with allowance for precession.
(:) - A flag indicating that the coordinates are actually rougher than
the new accuracy standard adopted in the table vol1_pos.dat (see below)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: rem.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 12 A12 --- GCVS *Variable star designation
14- 82 A69 --- Text Text of remark
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note on GCVS:
When more than one line is required, this field is repeated.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: refs.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 5 A5 --- Ref Reference number
7-306 A300 --- Text Text of the reference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: vol1_pos.dat
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 2 I2 --- Constell [1/88] Constellation numeric code
3- 6 I4 --- Number Star number within the constellation
7 A1 --- Component Component identification
9- 18 A10 --- GCVS Variable star designation
20- 21 I2 h RAh Hours RA, equinox J2000.0
22- 23 I2 min RAm Minutes RA, equinox J2000.0
24- 28 F5.2 s RAs Seconds RA, equinox J2000.0
30 A1 --- DE- Sign Dec, equinox J2000.0
31- 32 I2 deg DEd Degrees Dec, equinox J2000.0
33- 34 I2 arcmin DEm Minutes Dec, equinox J2000.0
35- 38 F4.1 arcsec DEs Seconds Dec, equinox J2000.0
39 A1 --- u_DEs *[:] position accuracy flag
41- 46 F6.3 arcsec/yr PMa ? Proper motion RA
48- 53 F6.3 arcsec/yr PMd ? Proper motion DE
55- 62 F8.3 yr Epoch *? Epoch
64 A1 --- u_Ident *[?] Uncertainty flag on identification
66- 77 A12 --- Ident *The source of astrometric data
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note on u_DEs:
Position accuracy flag:
(:) - indicating that the coordinates are actually rougher than the new
accuracy standard adopted in the catalog, because we failed to
determine better coordinates and to find them in source catalogs
or in publications. In comparatively numerous cases, such
coordinates were obtained by transforming B1950.0 coordinates
from the IRAS Point Sorce Catalog (see below).
Note on Epoch:
Epoch of the given coordinates. No epoch is provided when using the
coordinates from the literature if the epoch was no specified in the
publication and cold not be established;
Note on u_Ident:
Flag (?) on identification - the variable star's identification with the
source catalog is uncertain;
Note on Ident:
The source of astrometric data:
A brief designation of the source of astrometric data. In several cases,
the catalog designation is followed by the symbol "+pm"; it implies that
the position for a certain epoch was taken from the catalog and reduced
to the epoch 2000.0 using information on the star's proper motion from a
different source.
Below, we give a list of the major catalogs and other data sources used,
roughly in the order of our preference in identifying variable stars (see
also the description of the catalogs provided for A.A. Volchkov's
visualization code we used at www.simfov.ru).
Hip - The Hipparcos Catalogue (ESA 1997), Cat. I/239
Tyc2 - The Tycho Catalogue (Hog et al., 2000, Cat. I/259). In isolated
instances where the star is absent in the second Tycho catalogue but
is present in the first catalogue (ESA 1997, Cat. I/239),
the source is indicated as Tyc1.
PPM - The Positions and Proper Motions (Roser et al. 1991-1993,
PPM North, Cat. I/146, PPM south, Cat. I/193).
NPM - The Lick Northern Proper Motion Program
(Klemola et al. 1987, Cat. I/199).
AC - The Four-Million Star Catalog (see Gulyaev and Nesterov 1992).
ACT - The ACT Reference Catalog (Urban et al., 1997, Cat. I/246).
GSC - The Guide Star Catalog (Lasker et al., 1990, Cat. I/220).
The symbol "ns" accompanying a GSC reference implies that the entry is
marked as a nonstellar object in the cited catalog.
GSC 2.2 - The Guide Star Catalog, Version 2.2.01, 2001, Space Telescope
Science, Institute and Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino.
A2.0 - A Catalog of Astrometric Standards (Monet et al., 1998, Cat. I/252).
There are rare cases where the star could be found only in the previous
version of the catalog (Cat. I/243); they are marked as A1.0.
IRAS - The Infrared Astronomical Satellite Catalogue of Point Sources
(Neugebauer et al., 1988, Cat. II/125). We used it only when it was
impossible to identify a star with positional catalogs or to find a
star at optical wavelengths and independently measure its coordinates.
GCVS AUTHORS - For some 200 stars (1.8% of all the stars in the new version),
we measured their coordinates using Digitized Sky Survey images,
plates from various collections, or other images. As a rule, we used
A2.0 catalog stars as the reference stars in our measurements using
the Digitized Sky Survey. The rectangular coordinates of stars were
measured by an eye-pointing of the cursor at their photometric centers
in commercially available image processing applications with a large
magnification. The measurements were reduced by Turner's linear
method. The accuracy of our measurements was typically about 0.5" both
in right ascension and in declination.
LITERATURE - The coordinates taken from current astronomical periodicals.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History:
Copied at www.sai.msu.su/groups/cluster/gcvs
Acknowledgments:
We are grateful to A.A. Volchkov and J. Manek for providing us with
the necessary software. We wish to thank S.V. Antipin for assistance,
L.N. Berdnikov for providing unpublished finding charts for several
southern Cepheids, C. Lopez (Argentina), N.T. Ashimbaeva, and G.V.
Romanova for making their results available to us prior to their
publication. We also wish to thank the researchers, primarily D.
Williams (USA), who helped us to identify the "lost" variable stars
using plates of other observatories. This study was supported in part
by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 99-02-16333),
the Program of Support for Leading Scientific Schools of Russia
(project no 00-15-96627), the Federal Program "Astronomy', and the
American Association of Variable Star Observers. We used the Digitized
Sky Survey images provided by the Hubble Space Telescope Science
Institute under support from grant NAG W-2166 of the USA Government.
References:
1. E. Hog, C. Fabricius, V. V. Makarov, et al., The Tycho-2 Catalogue,
CD-ROM (Copenhagen, 2000).
2. P. N. Kholopov, N. N. Samus', M. S. Frolov, V.P. Goranskii, N. A.
Gorynya, E. A. Karitskaya, E. V. Kazarovets, N. N. Kireeva, N. P.
Kukarkina, N. E. Kurochkin, G. I. Medvedeva, N. B. Perova, A. S.
Rastorguev, and S. Yu. Shugarov, General Catalogue of Variable Stars
(Nauka, Moscow, 1985-1988), Vols. I-III.,
3. P. N. Kholopov, N. N. Samus, N. M. Artiukhina, O. V. Durlevich, M. S.
Frolov, V. P. Goranskij, N. A. Gorynya, E. A. Karitskaya, E. V.
Kazarovets, N. N. Kireeva, N. P. Kukarkina, N. E. Kurochkin, N. A.
Lipunova, G. I. Medvedeva, E. N. Pastukhova, N. B. Perova, A. S.
Rastorguev, S. Yu. Shugarov, and T. M. Tsvetkova, Centre de Donnees
Astronomiques de Strasbourg, Cat. II/214 (1998).
4. A. R. Klemola, R. B. Hanson, and B. F. Jones, Centre de Donnees
Astronomiques de Strasbourg, Cat. <I/199∼ (1987).
5. B. M. Lasker, C. R. Sturch, B. J. McLean, et al., Astron. J. 99, 2019 (1990)
Cat. I/220>
6. C. Lopez, private communication (1998).
7. D. Monet, A. Bird, B. Canzian, et al., USNO-A V2.0. A Catalog of Astrometric
Standards (US Naval Observatory, Washington, 1998), Cat. I/252
8. G. Neugebauer, R. J. van Duinen, H. J. Habing, et al., IRAS Point
Source Catalog (NASA, Washington, 1988), Cat. II/125
9. On the Four-Million Star Catalog, Ed. by A. P. Gulyaev and V. V.
Nesterov (Mosk. Gos. Univ., Moscow, 1992).
10. S. Roeser, U. Bastian, L. I. Yagudin, and V. V. Nesterov, PPM
Star Catalogue. Positions and Proper Motions (Astronomisches
Rechen-Institut, Heidelberg, 1991-1993).
PPM North, Cat. I/146, PPM South, Cat. I/193
11. The Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues (European Space Agency, 1997),
ESA SP-1200, Cat. I/239
12. S. E. Urban, T. E. Corbin, and G. L. Wyckoff, The ACT Reference
Catalog (US Naval Obs., Washington, 1997), Cat. I/246
13. A. A. Volchkov and O. A. Volchkov, http://www.simfov.ru, 2001.
(End) Patricia Bauer [CDS] 21-Jun-2002