The Hipparcos catalog for the HNSKY planetarium
program
This web page contains the converted HNSKY file made from the Hipparcos star
catalog as free available from the
CDS (Centre de Données
astronomiques de Strasbourg) webpage. The Hipparcos contains 118.000 stars.
This converted HNSKY file and this webpage have been created only
to prevent that you have to download and convert the original
Hipparcos ASCII files to the format as used in the HNSKY planetarium
program yourself. All legal obligations/conditions/rules as described in
the CDS. webpages are still
applicable/valid. As long the Hipparcos can be downloaded free, I will provide
this converted file. By downloading this file you agree to all conditions/rules
as described/defined in CDS.
The stars in the HNSKY file are sorted from bright to faint with an
accuracy of 0.1 magnitude. The file format is described in the HNSKY.HLP
file. Put the file in the same map/directory as the program HNSKY.EXE.
Clear skies, Han Kleijn
Hipparcos Description:
The Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues are the primary
products of the European Space Agency's astrometric mission, Hipparcos. The
satellite, which operated for four years, returned high quality scientific
data from November 1989 to March 1993. Each of the catalogues contains a
large quantity of very high quality astrometric and photometric data. In
addition there are associated annexes featuring variability and double/multiple
star data, and solar system astrometric and photometric measurements. In
the case of the Hipparcos Catalogue, the principal parts are provided in
both printed and machine-readable form (on CDROM). In the case of the Tycho
Catalogue, results are provided in machine-readable form only (on CDROM).
Although in general only the final reduced and calibrated astrometric and
photometric data are provided, some auxiliary files containing results from
intermediate stages of the data processing, of relevance for the more-specialised
user, have also been retained for publication. (Some, but not all, data files
are available from the Centre de Donnees astronomiques de Strasbourg.) The
global data analysis tasks, proceeding from nearly 1000 Gbit of raw satellite
data to the final catalogues, was a lengthy and complex process, and was
undertaken by the NDAC and FAST Consortia, together responsible for the
production of the Hipparcos Catalogue, and the Tycho Consortium, responsible
for the production of the Tycho Catalogue. A fourth scientific consortium,
the INCA Consortium, was responsible for the construction of the Hipparcos
observing programme, compiling the best-available data for the selected stars
before launch into the Hipparcos Input Catalogue. The production of the Hipparcos
and Tycho Catalogues marks the formal end of the involvement in the mission
by the European Space Agency and the four scientific consortia. For more
complete and detailed information on the data, the user is advised to refer
to Volume 1 ("Introduction and Guide to the Data", ESA SP-1200) of the printed
Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues.