1. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
BRIEF
Boyce Astro:

2. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
Overview: This lesson will highlight the various online catalogs that can be useful in the course of your Astronomical Research. While not mandatory for the introductory paper, these resources should be considered for developing an above average paper and should be included in subsequent research projects.
In Astronomy, there are many (MANY) different catalogs. Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg astronomical Data Center was developed to provide quick access to major catalogs and provide a means to research an individual item with multiple references in a simplified fashion.
For this lesson, access CDS Strasbourg at: and Stelle Doppie at
Boyce Astro:

3. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
Stelle Doppie
Boyce Astro:

4. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
Go to:
The page below will appear. Click “Search the database”
Boyce Astro:

5. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
Search page will appear.
Type in the WDS identifier here: Ex
Boyce Astro:

6. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
The search results page will appear. There will be multiple lines if there are multiple stars in the system.
Click on “Show”
Boyce Astro:

7. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
The following will display:
WDS Name & Discoverer
WDS Summary
Actions
Components
In order to obtain more data on this system, click “Go To Simbad” under the Actions tab.
NOTE: Stelie Doppie may not always match the Washington Double Star Catalog. In such cases, the WDS is the master document.
Boyce Astro:

8. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
The following page will appear.
Summary of the star and surrounding stars
AladinLite gives an image of the Double Star with each red square corresponding to one of the stars in the table under the “Identifier” header.
Boyce Astro:

9. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
SiMBAD search page legend: Note, except for Otype, clicking on any of the above headers will reorganize the table per that header. For example, to reorganize the table for Mag B, click on that header and the entire table will change.
N – Number of the entry on that page
Identifier – Other stellar catalog designations for the same star
Dist (asec) – Distance in arcseconds from the N 1 (as identified in the table) star
Otype – Object Type. Click here for all types:
ICRS (J2000) RA & DEC – International Celestial Reference System coordinates in RA and Dec as of Julian year 2000 (12th hour on January 1, 2000). It is important to note that precession has affected these coordinates since J2000. Consideration to this fact should be given in a paper.
Mag U, B, V, R, I – The magnitudes when observed through these light filters: Ultraviolet, Blue, Visual, Red, Infrared
Sp type – Spectral Type
#ref – The number of publication references in SiMBAD between the years of
#notes – Notes contained in the WDS for this star
Boyce Astro:

10. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
Click on the N 1 star HD
Boyce Astro:

11. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
A summary page of all materials in SiMBAD will appear:
Basic Data: Coordinates, proper motion, radial velocity, parallax, spectral type, and flux
Identifiers: all other names of this same star in other catalogs
Plots and Images
References to publications
Measurements
External Archives
Annotations
Boyce Astro:

12. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
Review of Basic Data:
Mouse over each header on the right side of the page. A legend will appear detailing how to read that particular line.
Boyce Astro:

13. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
Review of Identifiers:
Each line identifies the same star in different catalogs.
Clicking on each hyperlink will take you to a reference for that star referenced by that catalog
Boyce Astro:

14. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
Review of Plots and Images:
Each circle represents different means of reviewing the star through those various catalogs
Boyce Astro:

15. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
Review of References:
Click on “Display” and each of the references to the particular star will appear
Boyce Astro:

16. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
Review of Measurements:
Select the types of measurements you wish to review and press “display all measurements”.
A page similar to the following with links to references will appear
Boyce Astro:

17. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Stelle Doppie:
Review of External Archives:
Click on individual links to review the data contained within that particular archive
Boyce Astro:

18. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
SiMBAD
Boyce Astro:

19. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
How to use Online Catalogs:
When you click on the CDS link (previous slide), you will see a page that appears like the image below.
The four major collections of data are: CDS Portal, SiMBAD, VizieR, and Aladin
SiMBAD & VizieR will be our focus
Boyce Astro:

20. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - SiMBAD
How to use SiMBAD:
SiMBAD is principally used to access published papers that are referenced in your WDS historical data such as this example:
Click on the SiMBAD link.
Boyce Astro:

21. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - SiMBAD
How to use SiMBAD:
When you click on the SiMBAD link, you will see a page like below. Our attention will focus on the red area: “Queries”
Boyce Astro:

22. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - SiMBAD
How to use SiMBAD:
Click on “reference query”
You will see a page like the screen capture on the right.
Boyce Astro:

23. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - SiMBAD
How to use SiMBAD:
If you were to click on the link for “Journals” you would get a list of the various Journals that can be queried by SiMBAD. See image right. These names may also be in your references from the USNO. Scroll through the list.
Boyce Astro:

24. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - SiMBAD
How to use SiMBAD:
We will now process an example using the reference below, extracted from the historical file of a Double Star.
In the “Enter a bibcode or a DOI:” section, we added this info in the “bibcode or DOI” line:
To be repetitive, it was also added in the separate blocks in the “or reference items” line.
Hit “Submit bibcode”
Boyce Astro:

25. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - SiMBAD
How to use SiMBAD:
Here is the page that was displayed as a result of the query:
The following data is provided:
Abstract
Abstract Copyright
Journal Keywords
Simbad Comments
VizieR on-line data (VizieR to be discussed later)
Simbad Objects
Links, and
CDS Status
Now, click on “Full Paper” located on the “Links” line.
Boyce Astro:

26. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - SiMBAD
How to use SiMBAD:
After clicking on the “Full Paper” link, this is displayed. NOTE: This format of this page will vary by catalog.
Search the page for the link to the full paper. In this case, it is here.
Click on it.
Boyce Astro:

27. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - SiMBAD
How to use SiMBAD:
The paper in which the star was referenced will appear.
Save the paper.
Review the paper for your star.
Make references as appropriate in your research paper.
Boyce Astro:

28. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - SiMBAD
How to use SiMBAD:
Remember in step 10 where we mentioned VizieR? If you clicked on that link, here is what would appear:
Now, let’s look at VizieR…
Boyce Astro:

29. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
VizieR
Boyce Astro:

30. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - VizieR
How to use VizieR:
This section will cover how to use VizieR for research.
Enter the following into the search window: b/wds/wds
This sets the WDS to the database to be searched.
Boyce Astro:

31. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - VizieR
How to use VizieR:
To research a particular Double Star, enter the WDS identifier in the search box.
Select any checkboxes for data that you want to receive from the search.
This example will use:
Click SUBMIT when ready.
Boyce Astro:

32. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - VizieR
How to use VizieR:
The following search page will appear. Note how similar it is to the WDS entry.
There are two options available to select:
Plot of B/wds/wds in this region with Aladin-Java
Optical Image of this region with Aladin-Java (Best choice)
Boyce Astro:

33. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - VizieR
How to use VizieR:
The following will appear:
This is an image of the area in standard, negative image, scientific format.
This is from the Digital Sky Survey, as indicated on the lower right.
Boyce Astro:

34. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - VizieR
How to use VizieR:
To review more images of this region, click this folder icon:
Boyce Astro:

35. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - VizieR
How to use VizieR:
The following window will appear.
Click on Aladin Images in the upper left.
Hit the green SUBMIT button on the bottom.
Boyce Astro:

36. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - VizieR
How to use VizieR:
A choice of available images will appear.
Here is how to read this page:
The Survey is the name where the image originated.
The Color shows what filter was used. Each will display different results.
The Size displays the overall area of sky that is covered.
OBS ID names the particular image file used.
RESOL shows the scale of the image. For Double Stars, RESOL of 1.1”/px (1.1 arcseconds per pixel) works well for research.
DATE indicates the EPOCH when this was taken. When using more current images, these can be used for a historical perspective
Boyce Astro:

37. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - VizieR
How to use VizieR:
To select an image to review, click in the checkbox and verify a red checkmark appears.
Hit SUBMIT when ready.
Close this window by clicking the X in the upper right.
Boyce Astro:

38. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - VizieR
How to use VizieR:
The images will download and will show available when complete.
To view each image, click on the checkbox adjacent to the image name.
When browsing each image, note how each changes. This is due to the different light filter that was used for each image.
Boyce Astro:

39. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs - VizieR
How to use VizieR:
To download these images for analysis, click this icon:
This window will appear. Click “Export Some Planes”
This window will appear.
Select the desired files
Set the export directory
Click EXPORT.
Perform analysis on BARC.
Boyce Astro:

40. Boyce Astro: http://www.boyce-astro.org
Online Catalogs
Questions?
Boyce Astro: