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Main
Date: 02 Jun 2007 00:15:16
From: MGA
Subject: Star Database?
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Hi,
Is there a "searchable" database of stars online or that can be
purchased anywhere? I want something where I can enter in the start
relative distance from earth, it's size, and type and return a list.
Thanks,
MGA
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Date: 04 Jun 2007 08:33:51
From: Odysseus
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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In article <1180743316.766681.40320@j4g2000prf.googlegroups.com >,
MGA <ckrummell@gmail.com > wrote:
> Is there a "searchable" database of stars online or that can be
> purchased anywhere? I want something where I can enter in the start
> relative distance from earth, it's size, and type and return a list.
Didn't you post a similar question in alt.astronomy? When asking a
question in more than one group it's preferable to "cross-post" one
message to all of them, rather than "multi-posting" to each of them
separately. That way replies get consolidated into a single thread,
avoiding some duplication, and those who read both/all groups only see
the message once.
--
Odysseus
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 15:19:37
From: thad@thadlabs.com
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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On Jun 2, 7:37 am, Greg Crinklaw <theskyhoundyour...@yahoo.com > wrote:
> [...]
> Those French who run the IAU eh?
Huh?
I've nothing against the French; my first car was French (Citroen
DS-19)
which my Dad and I picked up in Paris, and my second car would have
been, too (a Citroen SM) had it debuted in time.
> The
> denigrating comments about the IAU all seem to come from the bitter
> people who wanted Pluto to remain a planet and I think they should be
> ashamed of themselves for some of the things they have said!
Not bitter people but those who were astonished at the sneaky way the
definition and vote was conducted: last day of the meeting from which
most
the attendees had already left after having failed to develop a
consensus
definition by the members originally and previously in attendance.
That's
why it's (the definition) a minority opinion, hence not shared or
embraced
by most people.
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Date: 04 Jun 2007 12:22:44
From: Greg Crinklaw
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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thad@thadlabs.com wrote:
> Not bitter people but those who were astonished at the sneaky way the
> definition and vote was conducted:
Regrettable, yes. Sneaky, no. Regardless, it isn't something to get all
worked up about. If those who felt left out thought it was so
important, they would have either been there or stayed until the vote
was completed.
--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)
SkyTools: http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html
Observing: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html
Comets: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html
To reply take out your eye
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 16:19:23
From: MGA
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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Thanks for the replies. I guess I should have been more definitive in
my request. I'm looking for basically a table of star data with
fields roughly like this:
Star name
XYZ position relative to earth
Magnitude
Absolute magnitude
Solar mass compared to sun
Spectral type (O,B,A,F, Etc)
Binary star?
Known planets
Age
Anyway, I saw in one of the replies that the distance to many stars is
not really known - how far out can we accurately know the distance to
stars within our Solar System?
Thanks for any help!
MGA
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 09:24:11
From: Brian Tung
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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MGA wrote:
> Thanks for the replies. I guess I should have been more definitive in
> my request. I'm looking for basically a table of star data with
> fields roughly like this:
>
> Star name
> XYZ position relative to earth
> Magnitude
> Absolute magnitude
> Solar mass compared to sun
> Spectral type (O,B,A,F, Etc)
> Binary star?
> Known planets
> Age
>
> Anyway, I saw in one of the replies that the distance to many stars is
> not really known - how far out can we accurately know the distance to
> stars within our Solar System?
One--the Sun. :) Assuming you mean the Milky Way, we only know
accurate distances to a tiny fraction of the stars. The Hipparcos
database, for instance, contains accurate parallaxes for about 120,000
stars; the Milky Way, on the other hand, contains a few hundred billion
stars.
The error in stellar distances increases faster than the distances
themselves. Thus, we know the distances to the nearest stars, a few
light-years away, to an accuracy of perhaps a hundredth of a light-year;
stars a few dozen light-years away are accurate to around a light-year;
and those several hundred light-years away are accurate to maybe 100
light-years. You can predict, therefore, that stars that are thousands
of light-years away are at best educated guesses as far as their
distances are concerned.
There isn't a database I know of that contains all of that data; it's
spread out over multiple databases. You'll probably have to do some
collating of your own.
Perhaps the best place to start is the Hipparcos database. I don't have
the link handy, but it shouldn't be too hard to find with a Google
search. It will have a catalogue number (which can then be correlated
with names), the RA/declination and parallax of the star (which can then
be converted into XYZ position), apparent magnitude (which can then be
converted into absolute magnitude), spectral type, multiplicity (whether
it's a multiple star). Stellar mass is derived based on absolute
magnitude and spectral class. In principle, so is age, but most stars
change relatively slowly over time until they become red giants. This
may be difficult to find.
Most stars do not have known planets; you're better off finding a
dedicated list of stars with known planets. I think there are still
just a few hundred of these, as compared to hundreds of thousands of
stars with decent parallaxes.
>
> Thanks for any help!
> MGA
>
>
--
Brian Tung <brian@isi.edu >
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.html
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 13:51:43
From: Sam Wormley
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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MGA wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is there a "searchable" database of stars online or that can be
> purchased anywhere? I want something where I can enter in the start
> relative distance from earth, it's size, and type and return a list.
> Thanks,
>
> MGA
>
Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipparcos
The Hipparcos (for High Precision Parallax Collecting Satellite) was
an astrometry mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) dedicated to
the measurement of stellar parallax and the proper motions of stars.
The project was named in honor of Hipparchus. Ideas for such a
mission dated from 1967, with the mission accepted by ESA in 1980.
The satellite was launched by an Ariane 4 on 8 August 1989. The
original goal was to place the satellite in a geostationary orbit
above the earth, but failure of the apogee boost motor resulted in a
highly elliptical orbit from 507 to 35,888 km altitude. Despite this
difficulty, all of the scientific goals were accomplished.
Communications were terminated on 15 August 1993.
The program was divided in two parts: the Hipparcos experiment whose
goal was to measure the five astrometric parameters of some 120,000
stars to a precision of some 2 to 4 milli-arcsec and the Tycho
experiment, whose goal was the measurement of the astrometric and
two-colour photometric properties of some 400,000 additional stars to
a somewhat lower precision.
The final Hipparcos Catalogue (120,000 stars with 1 milliarcsec level
astrometry) and the final Tycho Catalogue (more than one million
stars with 20-30 milliarcsec astrometry and two-colour photometry)
were completed in August 1996. The catalogues were published by ESA
in June 1997.
The Hipparcos and Tycho data have been used to create the Millennium
Star Atlas: an all-sky atlas of one million stars to visual magnitude
11, from the Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues and 10,000 nonstellar
objects included to complement the catalogue data.
The Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues Search facility
http://www.rssd.esa.int/hipparcos/HIPcatalogueSearch.html
SIMBAD: Query by identifiers
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-fid
-Sam
http://edu-observatory.org/eo/starcharts.html#databases
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 02:13:04
From: thad@thadlabs.com
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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On Jun 1, 9:49 pm, Greg Crinklaw <theskyhoundyour...@yahoo.com > wrote:
> t...@thadlabs.com wrote:
> > See the editorial of the July 2007 SKY&TELESCOPE to note the IAU's
> > decision and flawed definition of "planet" is not shared by most
> > people.
>
> Actually, it says no such thing. Petty politics and the absurd myths it
> can generate aside, the IAU *is* the professional astronomical community.
Oh? No such thing?
On the assumption you either don't have the July 2007 issue or you
read
the editorial from a different issue, here's the July 2007 editorial
for your
perusal:
<http://media.skytonight.com/documents/200707008008.pdf >
Richard Fienberg, the Editor in Chief of SKY&TELESCOPE, is quite clear
and writes well.
And, as Chris replied, few belong to the IAU, and its "planet
definition" is
flawed and a minority opinion embraced by few in case you've
forgotten.
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 08:37:43
From: Greg Crinklaw
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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thad@thadlabs.com wrote:
> On Jun 1, 9:49 pm, Greg Crinklaw <theskyhoundyour...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> t...@thadlabs.com wrote:
>>> See the editorial of the July 2007 SKY&TELESCOPE to note the IAU's
>>> decision and flawed definition of "planet" is not shared by most
>>> people.
>> Actually, it says no such thing. Petty politics and the absurd myths it
>> can generate aside, the IAU *is* the professional astronomical community.
>
> Oh? No such thing?
I have it right here and just reread it. I can't find where it says rhe
definition is "not shared by most people." Of course it's flawed, but
most people I know either don't care, criticize the "wording not the
intent" (as Fienberg actually does) or... are still bitter about Pluto
being demoted (like Chris). Regardless, your snipe at the IAU appears
to me to be less considered opinion than the sort of thing you'd hear on
a late night radio show. Those French who run the IAU eh? The
denigrating comments about the IAU all seem to come from the bitter
people who wanted Pluto to remain a planet and I think they should be
ashamed of themselves for some of the things they have said!
Clear skies,
Greg
--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)
SkyTools: http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html
Observing: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html
Comets: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html
To reply take out your eye
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 04:54:33
From: Chris L Peterson
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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On Sat, 02 Jun 2007 00:15:16 -0000, MGA <ckrummell@gmail.com > wrote:
>Is there a "searchable" database of stars online or that can be
>purchased anywhere? I want something where I can enter in the start
>relative distance from earth, it's size, and type and return a list.
Only a very small percentage of stars have known distances. And in many
cases, size can only be estimated from type. The most accurate
information is for nearby stars, and there's an interesting search tool
at http://nstars.nau.edu/ .
There are many stellar catalogs available online, and I suppose you
could download one or more of these, import them into your own database
structure, and sort or search according to your criteria (to the extent
that the information exists).
Try http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR for a good example of the
type of online catalog tools that are available.
_________________________________________________
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
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Date: 01 Jun 2007 21:21:22
From: thad@thadlabs.com
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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On Jun 1, 8:45 pm, Sam Wormley <sworml...@mchsi.com > wrote:
> [...]
> "Among the other tasks of the IAU are the definition of fundamental
> astronomical and physical constants; unambiguous astronomical
> nomenclature; promotion of educational activities in astronomy; and
the demotion of planets for capricious reasons with a minority vote.
See the editorial of the July 2007 SKY&TELESCOPE to note the IAU's
decision and flawed definition of "planet" is not shared by most
people.
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Date: 01 Jun 2007 22:49:38
From: Greg Crinklaw
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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thad@thadlabs.com wrote:
> See the editorial of the July 2007 SKY&TELESCOPE to note the IAU's
> decision and flawed definition of "planet" is not shared by most
> people.
Actually, it says no such thing. Petty politics and the absurd myths it
can generate aside, the IAU *is* the professional astronomical community.
Clear skies,
Greg
--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)
SkyTools: http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html
Observing: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html
Comets: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html
To reply take out your eye
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 04:59:06
From: Chris L Peterson
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:49:38 -0600, Greg Crinklaw
<theskyhoundyoureye@yahoo.com > wrote:
>Actually, it says no such thing. Petty politics and the absurd myths it
>can generate aside, the IAU *is* the professional astronomical community.
Very few professional astronomers are IAU members. For the most part,
most professionals have agreed to abide by IAU definitions, because
standardization is useful and very few definitions are controversial.
But it isn't accurate to say that the IAU _is_ the professional
astronomical community, and the organization did itself great damage
with the whole Pluto fiasco. This was the first case I'm aware of where
a significant percentage (more than half by most counts) of the
professional community simply refused to accept a definition.
_________________________________________________
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 08:39:59
From: Greg Crinklaw
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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Chris L Peterson wrote:
> On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:49:38 -0600, Greg Crinklaw
> <theskyhoundyoureye@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Actually, it says no such thing. Petty politics and the absurd myths it
>> can generate aside, the IAU *is* the professional astronomical community.
>
> Very few professional astronomers are IAU members. For the most part,
> most professionals have agreed to abide by IAU definitions, because
> standardization is useful and very few definitions are controversial.
> But it isn't accurate to say that the IAU _is_ the professional
> astronomical community, and the organization did itself great damage
> with the whole Pluto fiasco. This was the first case I'm aware of where
> a significant percentage (more than half by most counts) of the
> professional community simply refused to accept a definition.
You can write with with an air of authority all you want, as if I'm some
newbie who doesn't get it. Maybe that will sway a few people. But I
stand by what I said in the context in which it was said.
Clear skies,
Greg
--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)
SkyTools: http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html
Observing: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html
Comets: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html
To reply take out your eye
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 03:20:16
From: Sam Wormley
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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MGA wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is there a "searchable" database of stars online or that can be
> purchased anywhere? I want something where I can enter in the start
> relative distance from earth, it's size, and type and return a list.
> Thanks,
>
> MGA
>
See: http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/starnames.html
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 04:45:52
From: Chris L Peterson
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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On Sat, 02 Jun 2007 03:20:16 GMT, Sam Wormley <swormley1@mchsi.com >
wrote:
> See: http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/starnames.html
I don't think the request had anything to do with buying stars...
_________________________________________________
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
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Date: 03 Jun 2007 02:47:54
From: Sam Wormley
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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Chris L Peterson wrote:
> On Sat, 02 Jun 2007 03:20:16 GMT, Sam Wormley <swormley1@mchsi.com>
> wrote:
>
>> See: http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/starnames.html
>
> I don't think the request had anything to do with buying stars...
>
> _________________________________________________
>
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
My apologies.
-Sam
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Date: 01 Jun 2007 22:44:52
From: Greg Crinklaw
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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Sam Wormley wrote:
> MGA wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Is there a "searchable" database of stars online or that can be
>> purchased anywhere? I want something where I can enter in the start
>> relative distance from earth, it's size, and type and return a list.
>> Thanks,
>>
>> MGA
>
> See: http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/starnames.html
Sam, if you don't mind my saying so you seem to have an rather hair
trigger on the "hot button" issues lately. The OP said nothing about
buying stars. He was asking about astronomical databases.
To the OP: you need to better understand the question you are asking
before it can be easily answered. For instance, what do you mean by
star type? Spectral-luminosity class? Also, you will discover that
distances and sizes for most stars are poorly known at best. Catalogs
do exist of stars with magnitudes (how bright they are) and apparent
position in the sky. Perhaps if you explained what you need this
listing for someone can better help you.
Clear skies,
Greg
--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)
SkyTools: http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html
Observing: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html
Comets: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html
To reply take out your eye
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Date: 03 Jun 2007 02:47:30
From: Sam Wormley
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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Greg Crinklaw wrote:
> Sam Wormley wrote:
>> MGA wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Is there a "searchable" database of stars online or that can be
>>> purchased anywhere? I want something where I can enter in the start
>>> relative distance from earth, it's size, and type and return a list.
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> MGA
>>
>> See: http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/starnames.html
>
> Sam, if you don't mind my saying so you seem to have an rather hair
> trigger on the "hot button" issues lately. The OP said nothing about
> buying stars. He was asking about astronomical databases.
>
> To the OP: you need to better understand the question you are asking
> before it can be easily answered. For instance, what do you mean by
> star type? Spectral-luminosity class? Also, you will discover that
> distances and sizes for most stars are poorly known at best. Catalogs
> do exist of stars with magnitudes (how bright they are) and apparent
> position in the sky. Perhaps if you explained what you need this
> listing for someone can better help you.
>
> Clear skies,
> Greg
>
Sorry about that!
-Sam
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Date: 02 Jun 2007 03:45:21
From: Sam Wormley
Subject: Re: Star Database?
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Sam Wormley wrote:
> MGA wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Is there a "searchable" database of stars online or that can be
>> purchased anywhere? I want something where I can enter in the start
>> relative distance from earth, it's size, and type and return a list.
>> Thanks,
>>
>> MGA
>>
>
> See: http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/starnames.html
>
"Among the other tasks of the IAU are the definition of fundamental
astronomical and physical constants; unambiguous astronomical
nomenclature; promotion of educational activities in astronomy; and
early informal discussions on the possibilities for future
international large-scale facilities. Furthermore, the IAU serves
as the internationally recognized authority for assigning designations
to celestial bodies and surface features on them".
You can discover a comet--it gets named after you... but you cannot
"buy" a star that has recognition in the astronomical community.
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