CAOSP abstracts, Volume: 55, No.: 3, year: 2025

Author(s): Mason, B.D.; Matson, R.A.
Journal: Contributions of the Astronomical Observatory Skalnaté Pleso, vol. 55, no. 3, p. 481-483.
Date: 04/2025
Title: The double star catalogs of the USNO
Keyword(s): binary stars, multiple stars
Pages: 481 -- 483
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/caosp.2025.55.3.481
NASA ADS Abstract Service: 2025CoSka..55c.481M
Citation:
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Abstract: Since 1964 the US Naval Observatory (USNO) has been charged with maintaining and distributing double star catalogs. Beginning later in 2025 all four of our catalogs will be available online for the first time. These include:

The Washington Double Star (WDS) Catalog contains the epochs, position angles, separations, magnitudes, spectral types, proper motions and precise positions of classic double and multiple stars.
The WDS Supplement (WDSS) is a database for large duplicity surveys.
The Sixth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars (ORB6) contains 3,655 orbits of 3,539 systems from a master file database of 10,685 orbits.
The Second Catalog of Rectilinear Elements (LIN2) contains 1,288 linear fits for systems whose motions do not appear to be Keplerian.

These last two catalogs are not discussed here.