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(Mermilliod 1987)
Documentation for the Computer-Readable Version
Anne C. Raugh
September 1987
Doc. No. STX-T-25-3002-0016-87
Contract NAS 5-28752
Prepared for:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Prepared by:
ST Systems Corporation
4400 Forbes Blvd.
Lanham, Maryland 20706
This document describes the computer-readable version of the UBV Photoelectric Photometry Catalogue (1986)
(Mermilliod 1987) distributed by the Astronomical Data Center, NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center. This catalog is a compilation of UBV photoelectric
photometry in the Johnson and Morgan system and in closely related systems
published between 1953 and the end of 1985. Listed are identification, V,
B–V, U–B, number of measurements, and references for 136,719 entries
concerning 87,267 stars.
The catalog is in seven files: the first lists data for stars published in the
system of Johnson and Morgan (1953); the second file lists the same information
for measurements in several closely related systems; the third file combines
the data of the first two into a single file; the fourth file lists the full
forms of the references cited by code number in the first three files; the
fifth file contains a list of the references of the fourth file sorted by
journal and volume; the sixth file lists data and additional comments for 933
stars not known to be variable but which have shown a significant difference in
magnitude between two observations; and the seventh file contains a description
of the numbering system of Mermilliod (1978) used to identify objects in this
catalog. The present document describes the overall file structure and the
individual data fields.
A copy of this document should be distributed with every copy of the computer-readable catalog.
The UBV Photoelectric Photometry Catalogue (1986) (UBV86; Mermilliod 1987) is a compilation of UBV photoelectric photometry in the system of Johnson and Morgan (1953) and closely related systems published between 1953 and the end of 1985. Listed are identification, V, B–V, U–B, number of measurements, and references for a total of 136,719 entries concerning 87,267 stars.
The catalog is in seven files: the first lists data for stars published in the system of Johnson and Morgan (1953); the second file lists the same information for measurements in closely related systems; the third file combines the data of the first two into a single file; the fourth file lists the full forms of the references cited by code number in the first three files; the fifth file contains a list of the references of the fourth file sorted by journal and volume; the sixth file lists data and additional comments for 933 stars not known to be variable but which have shown a significant difference in magnitude between two observations; and the seventh file contains a description of the numbering system of Mermilliod (1978) used to identify objects in this catalog.
The UBV86 consists of seven files. Table t:filtab gives the tape-file attributes that are the same no matter what computer the catalog is copied for. All records are of fixed length. The first file lists measurements in the system of Johnson and Morgan (1953); the second file lists measurements in closely related systems; the third file lists the combined data of the the previous two (Table t:dattab); the fourth file lists the full forms of the references cited by code number in the first three files (Table t:reftab); the fifth file lists the references sorted by journal and volume number; the sixth file lists data and comments for stars with inconsistent measurements (Table t:inctab); and the seventh file contains a description of the numbering system of Mermilliod (1978) used to identify objects in this catalog. Detailed descriptions of each file are given in the following sections.
Quotations in any of the following descriptions come from Mermilliod (1987) unless otherwise noted.
There are also attributes that will change from computer to computer. You will probably have to know these in order to use your copy of the catalog; therefore, they should have been supplied with your tape. These attributes are as follows:
You may wish to write down the values for your tape in the list above.
The format for these three files is identical. The first file includes data in the standard system of Johnson and Morgan (1953):
The second file includes measurements ``through UBV filters in closely related systems.'' Mermilliod (1987) lists the follwing sources for these data:
The third file contains the merged data of the first two files.
Suggested | |||
Bytes | Units | Format | Data |
1-11 | I11 | Identification | |
12 | A1 | Multiplicity flag | |
13 | A1 | Variability flag | |
14-20 | mag | F7.3 | V |
21-27 | mag | F7.3 | B-V |
28-34 | mag | F7.3 | U-B |
35-36 | 2X | Blank | |
37 | A1 | Count flag | |
38-40 | A3 | Number of obs. | |
41-43 | 3X | Blank | |
44-48 | I5 | Reference number |
[byte 37, format A1]
[bytes 44-48, format I5]
This file lists the full forms of the references cited by code number in the first three files, sorted by number. Each reference has three or more records: the first record contains the reference number and authors; the second record holds the year, journal name, volume and page number; and the third and following records contain the full title of the paper.
Suggested | ||
Bytes | Format | Data |
1- 5 | I5 | Number |
6- 8 | 3X | Blank |
9-80 | A72 | Text |
This file contains a list of the references of the fourth file sorted by journal and volume number and includes header records to separate references from different journals. This file is useful for determining the reference number assigned to a given paper. It is formatted as 80-byte lines of text which may be read and printed out with a FORTRAN A80 format.
This file lists data for those stars not known to be variable, but which show a difference of > 0.20 mag in V, B–V, or U–B between two or more different sources. All observations are listed for each of 933 stars. A blank record separates successive objects.
Suggested | |||
Bytes | Units | Format | Data |
1-11 | I11 | Identification | |
12 | A1 | Multiplicity flag | |
13-19 | mag | F7.3 | V |
20-26 | mag | F7.3 | B-V |
27-33 | mag | F7.3 | U-B |
34 | 1X | Blank | |
35 | A1 | Count flag | |
36-38 | A3 | Number of obs. | |
39-40 | 2X | Blank | |
41-45 | I5 | Reference number | |
46 | 1X | Blank | |
47 | A1 | Error flag | |
48 | 1X | Blank | |
49-80 | A32 | Comment |
[byte 35, format A1]
This file contains a description of the numbering system of Mermilliod (1978) used to identify objects in this catalog. It includes references as well as a number of tables listing special code numbers, and is formatted as 80-byte lines of text which may be read and printed out with a FORTRAN A80 format.
Two ranges of object numbers not defined in this file are described below.
The UBV Photoelectric Photometry Catalogue (1986) (UBV86) was received by the Astronomical Data Center (ADC), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, from the Centre de Données Astronomiques, Strasbourg (CDS), in December 1986.
The original tape consisted of eight text files. The first contained a description of the seven catalog files and has been incorporated into this document; the remaining files were formatted as described in the preceding sections.
A FORTRAN program was run to check the validity of each field according to its data type and value. A number of errors were discovered, only some of which could be corrected. A list of all errors and corrections is included in Appendix A: ``Errata.''
During preparation of the data several typographical errors were discovered in the first three files which were corrected where possible by referring to the indicated source reference. The following records were found to be in error in the first file (Johnson system data file). In all cases the identical errors were discovered in the corresponding record of the third file (merged data file):
Johnson | Merged | |
Record | Record | Error and Correction |
Number | Number | |
2350 | 2488 | Number of observations field blank. The value from the reference (``8'') was inserted. |
7695 | 8929 | V, B-V, U-V, and number of observations misaligned. The numbers present were realigned. However, the value for V (.01 mag) is not reasonable. The object could not be located in the indicated reference. The value listed for V in the Bonner Durchmusterung is 9.5; V in this catalog has not been changed. |
11414 | 13065 | Reference number of ``0''. References 1-10 were checked, but the object could not be found. This field was left unchanged. |
61036 | 81238 | Typographical error in B-V. The object was found in the indicated reference and the value changed from ``9.966'' to ``0.966''. |
83783 | 106937 | Non-existent reference number. The object was found in reference 390. Reference number changed from ``3900'' to ``390''. |
83784 | 106938 | Non-existent reference number. The reference number has been changed from ``4010'' to ``401'', but the object could not be located in this reference. References 401-411 were also checked for this object, without success. |
83785 | 106939 | Non-existent reference number. The object was found in reference 411. Reference number changed from ``4110'' to ``411''. |
91036 | 116341 | Number of observations blank. The object was found in the indicated reference and the value ``3'' was inserted into this field. |
104618 | 130715 | B-V value unreasonable (``18.12''). The reference was consulted and it was discovered that this is actually the B magnitude, not B-V. The subtraction was performed and the field changed to ``-0.29''. |
In addition, the following record was found to be in error in the file of related system measurements:
Related | Merged | |
Record | Record | Error and Correction |
Number | Number | |
14822 | 60194 | Misaligned data and non-existent reference number. The object was found in reference 8015. The data were re-aligned and the reference number was changed from ``80150'' to ``8015''. |
Finally, during the course of checking out these problems, two errors were also discovered in the reference files. No attempt has been made to verify the references in these files, but those errors encountered incidentally are listed below. The corrections have been made in both reference files.
Reference | |
Number | Error and Correction |
100 | Page number changed from ``223'' to ``221''. |
1464 | Page number changed from ``1272'' to ``254''. (``1272'' is the number of the issue.) |