Description of star.dat

From Dan Welch

Revised by Angela Shiflet

 

 

Each object occupies one line, and objects can be in any order.. Fields are separated with commas. Some fields are further subdivided into subfields with vertical bars (|) or colons (:).  Each record contains twelve (12) subfields.

 

The first field abbreviates the constellation's name.  For example, AND is the abbreviation for Andromeda.

 

The second field is the object's name, such as the star name within the constellation.

 

The third field is the Type, which in this file is always f for fixed (no proper motion)

 

         For fixed type, an object class code follows in the next subfield:

               D: Star, double

               S: Star

               V: Star, variable

 

         The spectral class and the numerical subclass designation follow in the next subfield:

               O, B, A, F, G, K, M, N, C, S.

 

Following Type, the remaining fields are defined as follows for fixed types:

         hours:minutes:seconds  (3 subfields)

         degrees:seconds  (2 subfields)

         magnitude

         reference_epoch