ACDS V10.0 - Detailed Description of III/43

ACDS V10.0 - Sun Jan 19 09:04:25 CET 2025

| # Detailed Description of III/43 : Luminous Stars in the Southern Milky Way (Stephenson+ 1971) |

Note : this is the description file of the original catalog. This HTML page corresponds well to the original description, but some minor changes in the format may have been introduced in the FITS output files in order to allow for arithmetic operations on quantities such as coordinates and times. h:m:s and d:m:s units are normally converted into degrees, and YYYY-MM-DD into julian days.
Similarly, some slight changes may have been introduced in the units; the value given in the HTML files supersedes the value indicated in the ReadMe file for this catalogue.

    III/43              Luminous Stars in the Southern Milky Way  (Stephenson+ 1971)
    ================================================================================
    Catalogue of Luminous Stars in the Southern Milky Way
         Stephenson C.B., Sanduleak N.
        <Publ. Warner & Swasey Obs. 1 (1971)>
        =1971PW&SO...1a...1S
    ================================================================================
    ADC_Keywords: Milky Way ; Stars, luminous ; Spectral types

    Description (adapted from the Introduction of the Catalogue):
        This Catalogue represents an extension to the entire Southern Milky
        Way of the objective-prism survey for intrinsically luminous stars in
        the Northern Milky Way III/76 that was carried out jointly by the
        Hamburg and Warner and Swasey observatories.

        The object has been to survey the Southern Milky Way with plates as
        similar as possible to the plates used for the Northern Milky Way,
        including similarity of limiting magnitude. To this end the objective
        prism that was used with the Warner and Swasey Schmidt telescope for
        the Northern survey was sent to Cerro Tololo, Chile, where it was used
        by Sanduleak to photograph the Southern Milky Way with the Schmidt
        telescope of the University of Michigan.

        The survey was planned to have a minimum extent in galactic latitude
        of ±10deg. On each field three spectral plates were taken, all
        intended to have spectral widening near 0.2 mm. One blue-region
        (Kodak IIa-O) plate was given an exposure of 11 minutes, and another
        was double-exposed for 3 minutes and 10 seconds. A red plate
        (Kodak 103a-F plus Schott GG 14 filter) was also taken for the
        detection of any appreciable H{alpha} emission, with three exposures
        nominally 9 minutes, 1 minute and 10 seconds. The dispersion is 580
        Angstroems/mm at H{gamma} and about 1000 Angstroems/mm near H{alpha};
        a Michigan objective prism of 4deg angle, was used to obtain the
        H{alpha} plates.

        The spectral classification system is that discussed by Slettebak and
        Stock (1957) and Nassau and Stephenson (1960). An important result of
        the generally excellent quality of the new survey plates is that the
        ce stars (OB stars apparently having the Balmer continuum in emission)
        are easily recognised.

        The magnitudes are based upon eye estimates of image density on the
        blue-region spectral plates, calibrated by published magnitude
        sequences, and are generally characterised by a probable error of
        1/3 to 1/4 mag.

        The equatorial coordinates for the stars have been derived from
        measurements of the objective-prism plates, using the SAO I/131
        catalogue for reference stars.  The positions derived in this way are
        accurate to 1" to 2" of arc, providing spectral lines are visible for
        measurement. When spectral lines are not visible, the coordinate
        parallel to the spectral dispersion -- always the declination --
        becomes 10" or somewhat more uncertain.

    File Summary:

           FileName      Lrecl  Records   Explanations

    ×                   80        .   This file
    × ReadMe            80        .   This file
    × main.dat         117     5132   The LSS Catalogue
    × rem.dat           80      357   Remarks and Notes

    See also:
        III/76 : Luminous Stars in the Northern Milky Way (Hardorp+ 1959-1965)
          V/92 : Photometric and Spectroscopic Databases for LSS Stars (Reed+ 1997)
        II/154 : Individual UBV Observations of LSS Stars (Drilling 1989)
         V/125 : Photometry and Spectroscopy for Luminous Stars (Reed 2005)

    Byte-by-byte Description of file:  main.dat

       Bytes Format  Units   Label    Explanations

       1-  3  A3     ---     Mod      [*] Not blank if modifications have been
                                          done to the original catalogue
       4-  7  I4     ---     LSS      [1/5132]+ Designation in the catalogue
       9- 16  A8     ---     DM       Durchmusterung (BD north of -22deg, or CD)
                                       identification from the original catalogue
      17- 18  A2     ---     n_DM     [NSFP ] Note (North, South, Following,
                                              Preceding) about DM identification
      19- 32  A14    ---     SpType   Spectral type from original catalogue (1)
      34- 36  I3     0.1mag  Pmag     ? Photographic magnitude
          37  A1     ---     u_Pmag   Uncertainty flag (:) on Pmag
      38- 39  I2     h       RAh      Right Ascension 1950 (hours)
      40- 41  I2     min     RAm      Right Ascension 1950 (minutes)
      42- 44  I3     0.1s    RAds     Right Ascension 1950 (deci-seconds)
          45  A1     ---     u_RAds   Uncertainty flag (:) on RA
          46  A1     ---     DE-      Declination 1950 (sign)
      47- 48  I2     deg     DEd      Declination 1950 (degrees)
      49- 50  I2     arcmin  DEm      Declination 1950 (minutes)
      51- 52  I2     arcsec  DEs      Declination 1950 (seconds)
          53  A1     ---     u_DEs    Uncertainty flag (:) on DE
      54- 82  A29    ---     Rem      Remarks (2)
      83- 96  A14    ---     DM1      Durchmusterung identification from CSI (3)
      97-110  A14    ---     DM2      Second DM identification (3)
     111-117  A7     ---     HD       Henry Draper Catalogue identification
                                      (followed by A or B for multiple, or
                                      / for merged HD numbers)

    Note (1): spectral annotations (all reported in uppercase letters):
        ce = the Balmer continuum appears to be in emission;
        le = at least one emission line, nearly always a Balmer line,
             is visible on a blue region plate;
         h = H{alpha} was noted in emission on an independently
             scanned H{alpha} plate;
         r = the spectrum appears distinctly reddened;
        rr = the spectrum appears extremely reddened.
         : = a colon means that everything preceding it is uncertain,
        () = parentheses mean that the data within the parentheses are uncertain;
         ! = an exclamation point denotes that the datum immediately preceding
             it is exceptionally pronounced.
       Ia+ = A luminosity class of Ia+ indicates an apparent luminosity
             brighter than Ia.
         * = newer classifications by Reed and Beatty, 1995ApJS...97..189R
    Note (2): the remarks include:
        * Previously published spectral type given in the catalogue of
          Jaschek et al (1964) for HD stars;
        * designation in the 2d edition of the General Catalogue of
          Variable Stars for stars for which a DM number is given;
        * presence in the Catatogue of Stars Suspected of Variability
          (indicated by "CSV"), for stars with a DM number;
        * designation in the Innes double-star catalogue (SDS) or that
          of Aitken (ADS), for stars with a DM number;
        * designation in the Bright Star Catalogue.
        * the notation "Hbeta wk" means that the Balmer decrement
          (not merely H{beta}) is abnormal, suggesting that there is unseen
          line emission in the blue region.
        * the remark that the ultraviolet is steep or weak usually means
          that there is a suspicion of a Balmer jump.
        * "Flat continuum" refers to an OB star that is unusually intense
          in the ultraviolet and exceptionally lacking in apparent space
          reddening; such stars are sometimes white dwarfs, hot subdwarfs,
          old novae, etc.
        * "R" indicates further remarks in the notes (file "rem.dat") to
          the catalogue; these notes often contain information relevant to
          identifying a star in a crowded region.
    Note (3): designations from the Catalogue of Stellar Identifications
        (CSI developed at CDS) are indicated .. as the first two letters;
        the other designations in the first two letters are BD (Bonn),
        CD (Cordoba), or CP (Cape Photographic)

    Byte-by-byte Description of file:  rem.dat

       Bytes Format  Units   Label    Explanations

       2-  5  I4     ---     LSS      [1/5132]+= Designation in the catalogue
       7- 80  A74    ---     Text     Text of remarks; LSS is repeated when the
                                        text is made of several lines

    See also:
      III/76        : Luminous Stars in the Northern Milky Way.
      J/ApJS/97/189 : A Spectroscopic Database for LSS stars by  Reed and Beatty

    References:
      Jaschek, C., Conde, H., and Sierra, A.C., 1964, Obs. Astron.,
        La Plata, Serie Astronomica, XXVIII (2).
      Nassau, J.J., and Stephenson, C.B, 1960, Astrophys. J., 132, 131.
      Slettebak, A,, and Stock, J. 1957, Zeitschr. Astroph., 42, 67.

    Historical Notes:
      * Errors in the "Luminous Stars in the Milky Way"  reported by
        Bischoff M. (1978BICDS..14...15B)
      * Version 25-Oct-1993: First electronic description.
      * Version 14-Apr-1994: HD number of LSS 1969 reported by S. Nishimura
            changed from 30562G to 305627
      * 05-Oct-1995: Standardized the Documentation at CDS, and added the
        Description and Notes in this file.
    ================================================================================
    (End)                                     Francois Ochsenbein [CDS]  05-Oct-1995