Re: [warning: off-list] celestial bodies information

Bill J Gray Feb 15, 2011

> I want to access the full information of all known celestial bodies in
> the skies, like as stars, planets, nebulas,... .
> and i know that there are several catalogs with different properties
> that include this information. like as UCAC, USNO-B1.0, USNO-A2.0,
> NOMAD, ... .
> My problem is that how can access the full version of all existent
> catalogs and celestial bodies information in my personal external hard
> drive, and can use them in windows OS, and can update them when the
> contents of them is modified.

Hmmm... much depends on what you want to do. (This is a bit off-topic
for this list, by the way; we discuss orbit determination, usually in
connection with the Find_Orb software. But I'll take a shot at answering
your question anyway.)

You can get UCAC-3 on a double-sided DVD from the USNO. The other
catalogs are only available on-line. They tend to be very large; B1.0
and NOMAD consume more than 80 GBytes. Therefore, access is limited to
bits and pieces, where one can request data covering a given area of sky.

There are various commercial programs to use these datasets. I write
and sell one of them, Guide 8.0, and am strongly biased in its favor...
but depending on your projects, you may want to look elsewhere. Other
popular choices are SkyMap Pro, Starry Night, and TheSky. I _think_
that some freeware programs such as Hallo Northern Sky and Cartes du Ciel
can also access these catalogs, but don't know for sure.

Hope this helps. If you've other questions about all this, please
contact me... but off-list!

-- Bill