Washington Double Star Catalog

The Washington Double Star Catalog (acronym: WDS) is an astronomical directory of more than 150,000 multiple systems, mostly double stars . It is regularly updated by the United States Naval Observatory .

The distribution of the objects in the catalog across the firmament is fairly even.

content

In its current edition it contains information on

• Number of components
• Data on observations (first, last, number)
• Position ( epoch J2000)
• Possible cross-reference to the Bonn or Cordoba survey

Of the two (main) components:

• Position angle and separation angle
• brightness
• Proper movement

history

The creation of the catalog as a summary of various earlier double star catalogs such as IDS (Jeffers, van den Bos & Greeby, 1963), Burnham (BDS; 1906), Innes, Dawson & van den Bos (SDS; 1927), Aitken & Doolittle (ADS; 1932 ) and various others were decided on August 26, 1964. There were published editions in 1984, 1996, 2001 and 2013.

swell

1. ^ Description of the Washington Double Star Catalog

Web links

• The WDS at VizieR