Durchmusterung

The Bonner Durchmusterung (BD ) is a star catalog (or derived from an atlas of 36 sheets) on the basis of visual Star measurements of the northern night sky, which undertook Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander at the Observatory of the University of Bonn. They were carried out 1852-1862 with the support of Adalbert Krüger and Eduard Schönfeld.

A total of around 325,000 stars were ( partially to 10) measured in Deklinationsbereich between 89 ° and -2 ° up to size 9.5. Served a purpose made ​​by Joseph von Fraunhofer comet finder with 7.7 cm aperture and 65 cm focal length as an instrument. The right ascension is 0.1 seconds and the declination at 0.1 arcmin and the visual apparent magnitude of 0.1 may clearly stated. The spatial data refers to the epoch 1855.

Eduard Schönfeld 1875 Argelanders successor as head of the Bonn observatory. Between 1875 and 1881 he expanded the Bonner Durchmusterung to the southern part of all barely visible in Bonn Stars. This Southern survey also contains 133 659 stars.

In the period 1892-1914, the expansion was taken to the southern celestial pole in attack at the Observatory of Córdoba (Argentina ). The Córdoba - screening includes more around 578,000 stars.

This " three surveys " make a systematic catalog of over one million stars to just tenth size. They are the last great created by visual observation collection from the period before the photographic Himmelskartografierung.

In the Bonner Durchmusterung the individual stars were given consecutive numbers according to the scheme " declination " " serial number ". So, for example, has. the star Betelgeuse - according to the scheme of Johann Bayer "Alpha Orionis " - the designation BD 7 ° 1055 This means that the 1055ste star at 7 degrees north latitude.