Bright Star Catalogue

The Bright Star Catalogue contains 9110 entries of all stars brighter than magnitude 6.5 (the naked eye visible stars). It's one of the most widely used star catalogues and provides detailed basic astronomical and astrophysical data. Alcyone Ephemeris provides the data of the 5th Revised Ed. (Preliminary Version) (Hoffleit+, 1991, Yale University Observatory) as distributed by the Astronomical Data Center at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. For more information on the Bright Stars Catalogue see: http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/star-catalog/bsc5p.html.

 

To open the Bright Star Catalogue select Tools->Bright Star Catalogue. The Bright Star Catalogue window appears.

While the table on the left side shows the results of the current search operation, in the boxes of the right side detailed information on the currently selected star are given. The Notes section provides additional information, organized in 12 categories. The meanings of the abbreviations used for the categories are:

C - Colors; D - Double and multiple stars; DYN - Dynamical parallaxes; G - Group membership; M - Miscellaneous. N - Star names; P - Polarization; R - Stellar radii or diameters; RV - Radial and/or rotational velocities; S - Spectra; SB - Spectroscopic binaries; VAR - Variability

The Bright Star Catalogue window is used for fixed star selection (see Body Selection) too.

 

Searching in the Bright Star Catalogue

Use the Search for box to search for individual entries:

 

1. Search by constellation name

Enter the name of a constellation (choose a constellation name from the drop down list or enter a constellation abbreviation ) and press Enter.

Example: 'Tau' will find all stars of Taurus (brighter mag 6.5)

2. Search for common star names

Enter the common star name (or the first characters of the star name) and press Enter.

Example: 'Alc' will find Alcyone, Alcor, and Alchiba

3. Search by use of Bayer designation

Enter the Bayer designation (use the transcription of the Greek letter and the constellation abbreviation ) and press Enter.

Example: 'eta tau' will find h Tau (Alcyone)

4. Search by Flamsteed number

Enter the Flamsteed number and the constellation abbreviation.

Example: '25 tau' will find Alcyone

5. Search by HR (Harvard Revised) number

Enter 'HR' followed by the HR number.

Example: 'HR 1165' will find Alcyone.

6. Search by SAO (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog) number

Enter 'SAO' followed by the SAO number.

Example: 'SAO 76199' will find Alcyone.

7. Search by FK5 (Fifth Fundamental Catalogue) number

Enter 'FK5' followed by the FK5 number.

Example: 'FK5 139' will find Alcyone.

 

Keywords are defined to search for stars of a specific star catalogue. In the field Search for enter 'FK5' to search for all stars of the Fifth Fundamental Catalogue, enter 'SAO' to search for stars from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog, or enter 'HR' to search for all stars of the Bright Star Catalogue.

To sort the table click the corresponding column header.

Alcyone Ephemeris Documentation
(C) 2007 Alcyone Software