Astronomical Catalogs

TheSky Serious Astronomer Edition provides an extensive set of astronomical catalogs and the tools to quickly access information from them. TheSky's "core" databases include industry-standard astronomical catalogs. They should meet your needs whether you're star hopping with your telescope, taking CCD images of faint galaxies, or computing sub-arcsecond astrometric positions of minor planets.

 

Database Category

Solar System Objects

Core Databases

Sky Databases (SDBs)

My Chart Elements

Catalog Cross References

 

Core Databases

 

TheSky contains databases of celestial objects from the following standard astronomical catalogs. The information in these catalogs has been stored in an optimized file format so that TheSky6 plots and accesses information quickly.

 

Use TheSky's Edit > Find to locate any object from any of these catalogs.

 

Catalog Type

Astronomical Database

Object Count

Stars

 

Hipparcos/Tycho Stellar Catalog

 

1.2 million (complete to 12th magnitude)

 

Hubble Guide Star Catalog (GSC) Version 1.2

19 million objects total; 15 million are classified as stars (complete to approximately 13th magnitude with some 16 magnitude and brighter stars).

 

Double Stars

Washington Catalog of Double Stars (WDS)

99,068

 

Struve Double Star Catalog

4,307

Variable Stars

General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS)

37,383

Suspected Variable Stars

New Suspected Variable Star Catalog (NSV)

14,812

Non-Stellar Objects

New General Catalog (NGC) from the NGC/IC Project

 

NGC/IC Database Copyright Notice

 

7,840

Index Catalog (IC) from the NGC/IC Project

 

NGC/IC Database Copyright Notice

 

5,382

 

Tomm Lorenzin 2000+ Catalog

2,088

 

Herschel Catalog

400

 

Caldwell Catalog

109

Messier Catalog

110

Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) Database

10,580

 

Galaxies

Catalog of Principle Galaxies (PGC)

98,087

Catalog of Principle Galaxies (PGC)

900,000

 

Arp Peculiar Galaxies

 

338

Planetary Nebula

PK Planetary Nebula Catalog (PLN)

1,455

 

Clusters of Galaxies

Abell Clusters of Galaxies

2,712

 

Globular Clusters

Galactic Globulars

2,495

 

Solar System Objects

Sun

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Earth's Moon

Mars

Jupiter

Io

Ganymede

Europa

Callisto

Saturn

Enceladus

Mimas

Tethys

Dione

Rhea

Titan

Hyperion

Iapetus

Uranus

Neptune

Pluto

22

Comets

 

Up to 1100, updated from the web using TheSky.

Asteroids

All known asteroids.

 

Satellites

Up to 10,000 at a time.

 

 

 

The Hipparcos-Tycho Catalogs are the primary stellar databases used to display information by TheSky for stars to about 12 magnitude and brighter.

 

TheSky also cross-references stars from:

 

  • the Bayer/Flamsteed Catalog

  • the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Catalog (SAO)

  • the Positions and Proper Motion catalog (PPM)

  • Henry Draper Catalog (HD)

 

and other stellar catalogs, where applicable.

 

 

Cross Referenced Catalogs

TheSky cross-references the following catalogs. Use TheSky Edit > Find command to locate them.

 

Cross-Referenced Catalogs  

Prefix

Object Count

Arakelian Catalog of Galaxies

ARAK

595

Bayer/Flamsteed Designations

n/a

n/a

Bonner Durchmusterung Number

B+nn nnnnn

-

Caldwell Catalog

Caldwell + Cn

109

Cape Durchmusterung Number

P-nn nnnn

-

Catalog of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies

CGCG

29,809

Common Non-Stellar Object Names

name of object

 

Common Star Names

name of object

 

Constellations

name of constellation

88

Cordoba Durchmusterung

C-nn nnnnn

-

David Dunlop Observatory Catalog of Galaxies

DDO

242

Fairall Catalog of Galaxies

FAIR

1,185

Henry Draper number

HD

359,083

Infrared Astronomical Survey

IRAS

9,347

Karachentseva Catalog of Galaxies

KARA

183

Kazaryan UV Galaxies

KAZ

581

Kiso UV Galaxies

KUG

5,455

Messier Catalog

M

110

Positions and Proper Motions Number

PPM

-

Second Byurakay Survey

SBS

259

Smithsonian Astrophysical Catalog (SAO)

SAO

258,997

Struve Catalog

STRUVE

3,100

Tololo Galaxies

TOL

111

University of Michigan Catalog of Galaxies

UM

652

unnamed

1SZ

26

unnamed

2SZ

32

unnamed

ARP

560

unnamed

ESO

16,239

unnamed

LGS

5

unnamed

VV

1,161

Uppsala General Catalog of Galaxies

UGC

13,073

Virgo Cluster Catalog of Galaxies

VCC

2097

Weinberger Catalog of Galaxies

WEIN

207

Zwicky1

1ZW

238

Zwicky2

2ZW

199

Zwicky3

3ZW

159

Zwicky4

4ZW

203

Zwicky5

5ZW

531

Zwicky6

6ZW

238

Zwicky7

7ZW

1,145

Zwicky8

8ZW

645

 

Optional Sky Databases (SDBs)

TheSky includes additional astronomical catalogs as optional Sky Databases.

 

Additional Astronomical Catalogs as Sky Databases

Object Count

6C Survey of Radio Sources (I)

1,761

6C Survey of Radio Sources (II)

8,278

6C Survey of Radio Sources (III)

8,749

6C Survey of Radio Sources (IV)

5,421

6C Survey of Radio Sources (V)

2,229

6C Survey of Radio Sources (VI)

6,752

Abell Clusters

2712

Arp Peculiar Galaxies

338

Binocular Asterism Labels

9

Catalog of 1.4 GHz Radio Sources

31,524

Catalog of Pulsars

558

Catalog of Abell and Zwicky Clusters of Galaxies

9,134

Catalog Of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies

29,363

Catalog of Galaxies Behind the Milky Way (1)

2,411

Catalog of Galaxies Behind the Milky Way (2)

4,533

Catalog of Galactic Supernova Remnants

182

Catalog of Galaxies with UV Continuum>

1,525

Catalog Of H II Regions (Sharpless)

313

Catalog of POSS Plates with Additional Data

1,037

Catalog of Rich Clusters of Galaxies (North)

2,712

Catalog of Rich Clusters of Galaxies (South)

1,364

CfA Redshift Catalog (November 1993 version)

53,447

Constellation Lines - Levy

n/a

Constellation Lines - Patrick Moore

n/a

Covington Catalog

200

Digitized Sky Survey Plate Positions Catalog

1540

Einstein Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey

835

ESO/Uppsala Survey of the ESO(B) Atlas

18,422

IRAS 1.2 Jy IRAS Redshift Survey

9,897

IRAS Small Scale Structure Catalog

16,740

Kiso Survey for UV-Excess Galaxies (XVIII)

8,162

Lynds' Catalog of Bright Nebula

1,125

Lynds' Catalog of Dark Nebula

1,791

Meade LX200 Alignment Stars

33

Merged Catalog of Galaxies

31,917

Meteor Shower Radiant Catalog

64

Molonglo Reference Catalog of Radio Sources

12,141

Morphological Catalog Of Galaxies (MCG)

29,003

Navigational Stars

58

NexStar Telescope Catalog

10,384

Palomar Globular Clusters

15

Parkes Radio Sources Catalog (Version 1.01)

8,264

Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei (6th Edition)

7,437

RealSky North and South Plate Positions Catalog

1662

Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog of Bright Galaxies

1,246

Second Reference Catalog of Bright Galaxies

4,364

Southern Redshift Catalog

12,844

Terzian Globulars

11

Third Catalog of Nearby Stars

3,802

Uppsala General Catalog of Galaxies

12,940

Weedman's List of Seyfert Galaxies

121

Zwicky Catalog

9,134
 

Ephemeral Data

TheSky can display the positions of comets and minor planets. Serious Astronomer Edition and Professional Edition can also display the positions of man-made satellites.

 

The data required to accurately display these objects changes frequently and must be updated from different sources on the worldwide web. Use the links below to download updated orbital element data.

 

TheSky can automatically download selected ephemeral data from the web.  Use the Edit > Find command to locate any object from any of these catalogs.

 

Object Type

Object Count

Web Site Address to Obtain Updated Orbital Element Data

Comets

Up to 1100 at a time

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/Ephemerides)

Satellites

Up to 10,000 at a time

http://celestrak.com/ (T.S. Kelso's Website)

Large Database Asteroids

All known asteroids. (The total number is limited by the amount of memory in your computer.)

http://asteroid.lowell.edu

My Chart Elements

TheSky allows you to add objects to the Sky Chart (such as stars, galaxies, labels or reference lines) so that you can generate your own databases from source catalogs.  

 

Want More Data?

There are literally millions of astronomical catalogs, so we cannot include them all.  If TheSky's supplied databases of objects are not enough, and you wish to access a database that is not currently included, please let us know, and we'll try to add it to future updates.