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Bright Star Catalog

Metadata Updated: February 6, 2026

The BSC5P database table contains data derived from the Bright Star Catalog, 5th Edition, preliminary, which is widely used as a source of basic astronomical and astrophysical data for stars brighter than magnitude 6.5. The database contains the identifications of included stars in several other widely-used catalogs, double- and multiple-star identifications, indication of variability and variable-star identifiers, equatorial positions for B1900.0 and J2000.0, galactic coordinates, UBVRI photoelectric photometric data when they exist, spectral types on the Morgan-Keenan (MK) classification system, proper motions (J2000.0), parallax, radial- and rotational-velocity data, and multiple-star information (number of components, separation, and magnitude differences) for known non-single stars. This table was created by the HEASARC in 1995 based upon a file obtained from either the ADC or the CDS. A number of revisions have been made by the HEASARC to this original version, e.g., celestial positions were added for the 14 non-stellar objects which have received HR numbers: HR 92, 95, 182, 1057, 1841, 2472, 2496, 3515, 3671, 6309, 6515, 7189, 7539 and 8296. In January 2014, the very incorrect position for HR 3671 = NGC 2808 was fixed (the Declination is -65 degrees not +65 degrees!), and smaller corrections were made to the positions of HR 2496, 3515 and 6515 so as to bring them in better agreement with the positions listed in SIMBAD and NED This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 6, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 6, 2026
Publisher High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Maintainer
Identifier ivo://nasa.heasarc/bsc5p
Data Last Modified 2026-02-03
Category Astrophysics
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id bda7e876-feaf-4f3e-a763-3de9789c6617
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/bsc5p.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash c55ed3f857ba11fd9ca0b2b08dbdda495bf2ae640156f62c7b6cea081cad7423
Source Schema Version 1.1

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