Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog

The SAO catalog ( Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog ) is a star catalog of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. It was created around 1966 for the astrometric Measurements of photographic plates and for satellite geodesy. It contains 259,000 stars in the standard epoch 1950.0 down to the apparent brightness 9m.

The catalog was from the best sources available at the time compiled ( AGK1 and AGK2 catalogs FK4, General Catalogue GC, Cape Zone and some other star catalogs ) and has the northern sky accuracies by 0.5 ", the south poorer something.

The four -volume work is complemented by a set of 152 star maps that represent the entire sky in overlapping 20 × 20 ° parts. You are plotted exactly on the scale of special satellite cameras.

In the latest edition is the epoch of the position data J2000.0. The SAO catalog since the first edition contains the star numbers in the HD and BD catalog and proper motions of all stars. Therefore, it can serve many other purposes except for astrometry and geodesy, including for stellar statistics to back to the 19th century.

The names in the SAO star catalog start with the letters SAO, followed by a number. The numbers are assigned eighteen 10 ° bands, the stars are ordered within a band by right ascension.