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| 1 | +# Big Sky Star Catalog |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +The Big Sky Star Catalog contains 2,557,499 stars compiled from the following catalogs: Hipparcos, Tycho-1, and Tycho-2. The position of each star is normalized to the J2000 Epoch, using the wonderful Python library [Skyfield](https://github.com/skyfielders/python-skyfield). |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +For complete details of how the Big Sky Star Catalog is created, check out [`bigsky/builders/stars.py`](../src/bigsky/builders/stars.py). |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +## Column Descriptions |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +### `tyc_id` |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +- _String_ |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +- Tycho ID, formatted as a string with hyphens (e.g. 6-1005-1) |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +### `hip_id` |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +- _Integer_ |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +- Hipparcos ID |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +### `ccdm` |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +- _String_ |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +- CCDM Component Identifier (if applicable) |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +### `magnitude` |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +- _Float_ |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +- Visual apparent magnitude (Johnson V) |
| 32 | +- Rounded to two decimal places |
| 33 | +- The Johnson V value is not in the Tycho-2 catalog directly, so the value in Big Sky is taken from Tycho-1 if available. For stars that are in Tycho-2 but not Tycho-1, then the following formula is used to convert Tycho-2's BT/VT magnitudes to Johnson V: |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | + V = VT - 0.090 * (BT-VT) |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | + \* Formula obtained from the Tycho-2 Readme |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | + \* _if BT or VT magnitude is not available for the star in Tycho-2, then the magnitude in Big Sky is listed as VT if that's available, otherwise it's listed as BT (one of these is always available in Tycho-2)_ |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +### `bv` |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +- _Float_ |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +- BV Color Index |
| 46 | +- Rounded to two decimal places |
| 47 | +- This is a calculated value from each star's VT/BT magnitudes, using the following formula: |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | + B-V = 0.850 * (BT-VT) |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | + \* Formula obtained from the Tycho-2 Readme |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | + \* If the star does not have a BT or VT value, then the B-V is listed as `null` in Big Sky |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +### `ra_degrees_j2000` |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +- _Float_ |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | +- Right Ascension in degrees (0 to 360) and Epoch J2000.0 |
| 60 | +- Rounded to four decimal places |
| 61 | +- For stars from Tycho-2, this is the observed RA converted to the J2000 Epoch |
| 62 | +- For stars from Hipparcos/Tycho-1, this is the listed RA from Tycho-2's supplement file, and converted to the J2000 Epoch |
| 63 | + |
| 64 | +### `dec_degrees_j2000` |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | +- _Float_ |
| 67 | + |
| 68 | +- Declination in degrees (-90 to 90) and Epoch J2000.0 |
| 69 | +- Rounded to four decimal places |
| 70 | +- For stars from Tycho-2, this is the observed DEC converted to the J2000 Epoch |
| 71 | +- For stars from Hipparcos/Tycho-1, this is the listed DEC from Tycho-2's supplement file, and converted to the J2000 Epoch |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | +### `ra_mas_per_year` |
| 74 | + |
| 75 | +- _Float_ |
| 76 | + |
| 77 | +- Rounded to two decimal places |
| 78 | +- This value is from Tycho-2 if available for the star, otherwise it's taken from Tycho-1 if available there. If it's not listed in either catalog, then it will be listed as `0` in Big Sky. |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | +### `dec_mas_per_year` |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | +- _Float_ |
| 83 | + |
| 84 | +- Rounded to two decimal places |
| 85 | +- This value is from Tycho-2 if available for the star, otherwise it's taken from Tycho-1 if available there. If it's not listed in either catalog, then it will be listed as `0` in Big Sky. |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +### `parallax_mas` |
| 88 | + |
| 89 | +- _Float_ |
| 90 | + |
| 91 | +- Rounded to two decimal places |
| 92 | +- This value is not available for any star in Tycho-2, so it's taken from Tycho-1 if available |
| 93 | + |
| 94 | +## References |
| 95 | +- [Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues - VizieR](https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/I/239) |
| 96 | +- [Tycho-2 Catalogue of the 2.5 Million Brightest Stars - VizieR](https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/I/259#/article) |
| 97 | +- [Tycho-2 Catalogue Homepage](https://www.astro.ku.dk/~erik/Tycho-2/) |
| 98 | +- [Construction and verification of the Tycho-2 Catalogue](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000A%26A...357..367H/abstract) |
| 99 | + |
| 100 | +## Spot an error? |
| 101 | +If you see an error in any of this documentation or in the data itself, please open a GitHub issue about it. Your help is greatly appreciated! |
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