Sixth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars

 (catalog updated frequently)

 

This catalog continues the series of compilations of visual binary star orbits previously published by Finsen (1934, 1938), Worley (1963), Finsen & Worley (1970), Worley & Heintz (1983), and most recently by Hartkopf, Mason, & Worley (2001) in their Fifth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars. That catalog, containing orbits published through 1 January 2001, was one of four double star catalogs maintained at the USNO that were written to CD-ROM in 2001 and distributed. The 30 June 2006 edition of the Sixth Catalog was included on the second USNO Double Star CD-ROM, which is available upon request. The Fifth Catalog was removed from the web in August 2007, as it had long been supplanted by the Sixth Catalog.

 

As of 1 January 2012, the Sixth Catalog included 2,298 orbits of 2,187 systems (from a "master file" currently containing 6,892 orbits). All orbits have been graded on a 1 - 5 scale, as in earlier catalogs; the grading scheme has been modified, however, as described below. Ephemerides are included for all orbits with complete elements, as are plots including all associated data in the current Washington Double Star database.

 

Note: The format of the catalog was extensively modified as of 1 March 2005. A description of the new format is given here. Also, in August/September 2007 the orbit catalog notes were merged with those of the Washington Double Star Catalog and later the Fourth Interferometric Catalog, in order to create a common notes file (and file format) for all USNO double star catalogs. Cleanup of old notes is never really completed, of course - we welcome notification of any errors you may run across.

 

 

 

Contents:

• Introduction
• Orbit grading method
• Description of the catalog
• Catalog statistics
• Acknowledgments and references
  
  
• Orbital elements (frames version)
• Orbital elements (noframes version)
• Orbital elements (text version)
• Ephemerides
• Notes
• References
  
  
• Calibration Candidates

 

Your comments regarding either style or substance are welcome. Please inform the authors of any errors you run across in the catalog, as well as missing orbits, etc. We would also welcome notification (and/or copies) of any newly published elements.