Description
This page focuses on the identification of Hevelius's catalog entries. The corresponding page for Ptolemy's catalog explains in detail the general principles that have been followed for all catalogs regarding these identifications.
Identifications
The cross-references collected from various editions of the catalog in the cross_*.dat files on the catalog page as well as the ones provided by VizieR J/A+A/516/A29 (in the form of HIP numbers) have been resolved and expanded here in their respective ident_*.dat files.
| File name | Description |
|---|---|
| ReadMe | File descriptions |
| ident_b.dat | Identifications according to Baily's edition |
| ident_z.dat | Identifications according to Flamsteed's edition |
| ident_a.dat | Identifications according to VizieR J/A+A/516/A29 |
| ident_o.dat | Identifications retained for the maps etc. |
| notes_id.dat | Explanation of some identification choices in ident_o.dat |
The file ident_o.dat contains the identifications that I have retained for the maps and to establish cross-references with other catalogs. The file notes_id.dat flags difficult cases and comments on some of my identification choices.
Cross-references
The files below cross-reference Hevelius's catalog with a few others (Ptolemy, Tycho, Flamsteed) and with the reference star set, according to the identifications in ident_o.dat and similar identification files for the other catalogs (and found on their respective pages). They are described in ReadMe.
| File name | Explanation |
|---|---|
| hevpto_oo.dat | Cross-references to Ptolemy's catalog |
| hevtyc_oo.dat | Cross-references to Tycho's catalog |
| hevflm_o.dat | Cross-references to Flamsteed's catalog |
| hevref_o.dat | Cross-references to the reference star set |
Explanations about the structure of these files can be found on the corresponding Ptolemy page.
Accuracy of the catalog
The file dists_o.dat gives the differences between Hevelius's positions and the modern positions of the corresponding stars (according to ident_o.dat) from the Hipparcos catalog (or the SAO or HD catalog if there is no Hipparcos match) adjusted to Hevelius's epoch and equinox. Its file format is described in ReadMe.
| File name | Explanation |
|---|---|
| dists_o.dat | Differences between Hevelius's positions and modern ones |
The file gives the differences in ecliptic longitude (multiplied by the cosine of the latitude for normalization), the differences in ecliptic latitude, and the great circle distances, all in minutes of arc. The corresponding histograms below give a general idea of the overall accuracy of the catalog (data outside the range of the x axis has been discarded).
| Longitude | Latitude | Distance |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
The numbers suggest a slight improvement over Tycho's positions in Hevelius's catalog. Verbunt & van Gent [1] provides a detailed analysis.
References
[1] F. Verbunt & R. H. van Gent, The star catalogue of Hevelius, Astronomy & Astrophysics 516, A29 (2010).