Bright Star Catalogue

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The

Bright Star Catalogue

, also known as the

Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars

Yale Bright Star Catalogue

, or

just

YBS

, is a

that lists all stars of

6.5 or brighter, which is roughly every star

visible to the naked eye from Earth. The catalog lists 9,110 objects, of which 9,095 are stars, 11 are

(which were "bright stars" only at the time when they were at their peak),

and four are non-stellar

objects which are the

(designated HR 95) and

(HR 3671), and the

(HR 2496) and

(HR 3515).

The catalogue is fixed in number of entries, but its data is maintained, and it is appended with a comments section

about the objects that has been steadily enhanced. The abbreviation for the catalog as a whole is

YBS

but all

citations of stars it indexes use

before the catalog number, a homage to the catalog's direct predecessor,

published in 1908, named the

Harvard Revised Photometry Catalogue

History

[

]

The earliest predecessor of the

YBSC

, titled

Harvard Photometry

, was published in 1884 by the

under the supervision of

, and contained about 4,000 stars.

Following its

release, Pickering promoted a broader stellar survey for the southern celestial hemisphere, equally as thorough as the

Harvard Photometry

of 1884. This

work was carried out by

between 1889 and 1891, leading to

the publication of the

Revised Harvard Photometry

in 1908. The new catalogue contained stars down to

6.5 in

both hemispheres, for which

continued work through the 1920s.

The

Yale Bright Star Catalogue

has been steadily enhanced since the Yale astronomer

published the

first version in 1930; even though the YBS is limited to the 9110 objects already in the catalog, the data for the

objects already listed is corrected and extended, and it is appended with a comments section about the objects. The

edition of 1991 was the fifth in order, a version that introduced a considerable enhancement of the comments section,

to a little more than the size of the catalogue itself. This most recent edition, in addition to several previous

editions, was compiled and edited by

The Harvard Revised Photometry, based on visual observations, has been superseded by photo-electric measurements using

band pass filters, most prominently the

. This can differ substantially (up to 1.8 magnitudes

) from the older system. Hence many stars brighter than V=6.50 are not in the YBSC (and hundreds of stars in the

YBSC are fainter than V=6.50). Dorrit Hoffleit with Michael Saladyga and Peter Wlasuk published in 1983 a Supplement

with an additional 2603 stars for which a V magnitude of brighter than 7.10 had been measured at that time.

Editions

[

]

There have been one predecessor, and five editions of the YBS Catalog:

predecessor –

Revised Harvard Photometry

(1908)

1st edition –

Catalogue of Bright Stars

(1930)

2nd edition –

Catalogue of Bright Stars

(1940)

3rd edition –

Catalogue of Bright Stars

(1964)

4th edition –

The Bright Star Catalogue

(1982)

Supplement –

A Supplement to the Bright Star Catalogue

(1983)

5th edition –

The Bright Star Catalogue

(1991),

which exists only in electronic form, not in book form.