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HIC: The Hipparcos Input Catalogue

Contents

Table name: 	hic
Records:  	118209
Spectral Band: 	visible
Kind of Object: stars
Mode:
PreView: 	no
Coordinates: 	J2000

Reference

A complete description of all aspects of the preparation of the Hipparcos Input Catalogue can be found in the proceedings of two Colloquia on `Scientific Aspects of the Input Catalogue Preparation' (Aussois, June 1985, ESA-SP 234, Turon & Perryman eds; and Sitges, January 1988, Torra & Turon eds), in ESA-SP 1111, Volume II (The Hipparcos Mission: Pre-Launch Status, Perryman & Turon 1989), and in a series of papers in Astronomy & Astrophysics covering : The performances of the Input Catalogue, as tested by the first results from the satellite, are presented by Crifo et al. (1992) and Turon et al. (1992b). All aspects of the link of the Hipparcos reference frame to an extragalactic reference frame are described by Argue (1989) and Jahreiss et al. (1992). The data on double and multiple systems will be contained in the `Catalogue of the Components of Double and Multiple Stars' (CCDM, Dommanget et al., in preparation). Annex 1 is a subset of a preliminary version of this catalogue. The improved orbital elements of the relevant minor planets, along with predicted ephemerides for the years 1991 and 1992, have been given by Bec-Borsenberger (1990, 1992b).

Description

The Hipparcos Input Catalogue was constructed as the observing programme for the European Space Agency's Hipparcos astrometry mission. The requirements of the project in terms of completeness, sky coverage, astrometric and photometric accuracy, as well as the necessary optimisation of the scientific impact, resulted in an extended effort to compile and homogenize existing data, to clarify sources and identifications and, where needed, to collect new data matching the required accuracy.

This has resulted in an unprecedented catalogue of stellar data including up-to-date information on positions, proper motions, magnitudes and colours, and (whenever available) spectral types, radial velocities, multiplicity and variability information. The catalogue is complete to well-defined magni-tude limits, and includes a substantial sampling of the most important stellar categories present in the solar neighbourhood beyond these limits. As explained below, the magnitude limits vary from 7.3 to 9 mag as a function of galactic latitude and spectral type, and there are no stars fainter than about V = 13 mag.

There are 3 screens for the Hipparcos Input Catalogue. :

Fields

Screen	Name	Meaning

1,2,3	hic_no	Hipparcos Input Catalogue (HIC) running number 
	cpt	Component(s) considered 
1	sattarg	Satellite target in case of joint entry: 
		component, photocentre (j), or geometric centre (g) 
1,2,3	ra	Right ascension (hours, minutes, seconds; 
		equinox J2000.0)
1,2,3	dec	Declination (degrees, arcmin, arcsec; equinox J2000.0)
1	ep	Epoch for the position (years) 
1	e_ra	Mean error of the right ascension, 15cos(del) 
		m.e. in (alp) (arcsec)
     	e_dec	Mean error of the declination (arcsec) 
1	r_pos	Source of position (see Table B1)
1	pma	Proper motion in RA, 15(mu )(alp)cos(del) 
		(arcsec per year,equinox J2000.0) 
1	pmd	Proper motion in dec, (mu )(del) (arcsec per year,
		equinox J2000.0)
1	e_pma	Error of the proper motion in RA (arcsec per year)
1	e_pmd	Error of the proper motion in dec (arcsec per year)
1	r_pm	Source of proper motion (see Table B1) 
1	Hmag	Hp, magnitude in the Hipparcos photometric system
1	var_code
		1st char: Variability code (range 1-5; see TableV1)
		2nd char: 
		   C = photoelectric standard star with confirmed 
		       long-term stability 
		   S = secondary photoelectric standard star 
1	Vmag	V magnitude 
1	e_Vmag	Error of V magnitude
1	B-V	B - V
1	e_B-V	Error of B - V
1	r_phot	Source of photometry (see Table B2) 
1	sp	Spectral type and luminosity class 
1	r_sp	Source of the spectral type data (see Table B3) 
1	plx	Parallax (milli-arcsec) 
1	e_plx	Probable error of parallax (milli-arcsec) 
1	n_plx	Type of parallax: T for trigonometric, D for dynamical
1	rv	Radial velocity (km/s) 
1	q_rv	Quality of radial velocity (range a-e) 
1	r_rv	Source of radial velocity (see Table B4) 
3	Name	Variable star name (GCVS or NSV) 
3	Type	Type of variability (see Table V2)
3	Period	Period of variation (days)
3	Vmax	V magnitude at maximum luminosity
3	Vmin	V magnitude at minimum luminosity
3	e_mag	Coded error of the V magnitudes in Vmax and Vmin
3	n_mag	Code specifying the magnitudes and colour given in
		Hmag, Vmag and B-V (range 1-5; see Table V4)
2	CCDM	CCDM number
2	comp	Components considered
2	theta	Position angle (degrees) between the components 
		considered;`N', `S', `F', `P', `NP', `SP', `NF', `SF' 
		may also be used
2	rho	Separation (arcsec) between the components considered
2	dmag	Magnitude difference between the components considered
2	type	`|O' for system with known orbit; `A' or `*' for 
		astrometric binary
2	BD	BD number. Last char: suffix to BD
2	CaD	CD number
2	CpD	CPD number
1,2,3	HD	HD/HDE_numbe
2	FK	FK5/FK5 Ext/FK4 Sup or IRS (AGK3R/SRS) (see Table|I1)
2	agk3	AGK3/CPC number (see Table I2)
2	sao	SAO number
2	id1	First of two selected identifiers
2	id2	Second of two selected identifiers

		Identifiers in fields id1-id2 are selected from:

		GL, GJ, G, LHS, LTT, LP, L, BPM, CF, McC 
		(see Table I3)

2	id3	Identifier for stars in:

		- galactic open clusters (see Table B5)
		- LMC/SMC (see Table I4)
		- C*, IRC, PK, WD (see Table I5)
1	survey	1st char: S = survey star
			  C = identification chart provided within the 
			      faint star Atlas (Annex 2 of printed version)
			  T = S + C
		2nd_char: N = Note to entry provided