NOTICE TO OUR USERS Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, is consolidating the command's web presence in accordance with Department of Defense (DoD) and Navy guidance. The U.S. Naval Oceanography portal will be the single access point for all public facing Meteorology and Oceanography products and services. This publicly-accessible portal is currently online at http://www.usno.navy.mil, and is being populated. In the near future, non-DoD users will be redirected to this portal. DoD customers can access all operational data, products and services via the NIPRnet Naval Oceanography Portal site at https://oceanography.navy.mil (CAC required). Questions or comments can be submitted here.

Welcome to the

Double Star Library

Recent Updates:

• 2009 November: latest Circular added
• 2009 November: new meeting announcement

Jump to: Purpose of the Library |  IAU Commission 26 |  Meeting Announcements |  Bibliography |  Catalogs |  Databases & Newsletters |  Feedback

IAU Commission 26: Binary and Multiple Stars
(Etoiles Doubles et Multiples)

• Commission Membership
  • Commission 26 Members and Other Binary Star Astronomers
  • Commission 26 Officers
  • Commission 26 Historical Information
  
  
• Commission Reports
  • Triennial Report for 2002 - 2005: pdf
  • 2005 Triennial Report for Circulars: html , pdf
    
  • Report of July 2003 business meeting at Sydney General Assembly: html , postscript
    
  • Triennial Report for 1999 - 2002: pdf
  • Report of August 2000 business meeting at Manchester GA: html , postscript (Inf. Circ. #142)
  
  
• Information Circulars
  • Introduction and older circulars
  • Circular No. 166 (Oct 2008) : html , postscript , pdf
    
  • Circular No. 167 (Feb 2009) : html , postscript , pdf
    
  • Circular No. 168 (Jun 2009) : html , postscript , pdf
    
  • Circular No. 169 (Oct 2009) : html , postscript , pdf
    
  
  
• IAU Division IV (Stars) Links:
  • IAU Division IV : main division webpage
  • IAU Commission 29 : Stellar Spectra
  • IAU Commission 35 : Stellar Constitution
  • IAU Commission 36 : Theory of Stellar Atmospheres
  • IAU Commission 45 : Stellar Classification
  
  
• Other IAU Links:
  • International Astronomical Union : main IAU webpage
  • IAU Commission 8 : Astrometry
  • IAU Commission 27 : Variable Stars
  • IAU Commission 30 : Radial Velocities
  • IAU Commission 42 : Close Binary Stars

Meeting Announcements

Please let me know of other meetings you feel should be added, as well as corrections or additional information on the ones listed below. A list of international astronomy meetings covering all topics is available here .

• Workshop: "Double and Multiple Stars: Dynamics, Physics, and Instrumentation",
  10-11 December 2009, Santiago de Compostella, Spain
  contact: Jose Docobo
  web: http://www.usc.es/astro/ds/ds.html
  
  
• IAU Colloquium 191 proceedings are now available online!
  Proceedings from the February 2003 Merida meeting, The environment and evolution of binary and multiple stars are now available in electronic form on the website http://www.astroscu.unam.mx/%7Ermaa/rmaa.html, under Conference Series, Volume 21. Individual papers are available in both PDF and gzipped PS file formats.
  
  
• IAU Symposium 240 proceedings are now available !
  Proceedings of the August 2006 Prague symposium, Binary Stars as Critical Tools and Tests in Contemporary Astrophysics have been published by Cambridge University Press. The printed volume includes 59 talks, 2 posters, and 115 poster abstracts, while the publisher's website includes 103 posters. The Table of Contents for these proceedings is available in pdf form here. For more information please see the publisher's website at http://www.journals.cambridge.org/jid_IAU.
  
  Also, video recordings of all talks given at symposia during the 2006 Prague General Assembly can now be viewed on the web or downloaded. This includes our own Symposium 240: Binary Stars as Critical Tools & Tests in Contemporary Astrophysics. The website http://www.astronomy2006.com will be in operation until the 2009 General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro.
  
  
• IAU Symposium 248 (sponsored by Commission 8 and supported by Commission 26) held on October 15-23 2007 in Shanghai, China was a very important event for astrometry in 2008. A short summary of this meeting was written by Alexandre Andrei and can be found here.
  
  

Bibliographies of recent binary star papers

• 2006
• 2007
• 2008

Binary and Multiple Star Catalogues

Astrometric Systems

• Washington Double Star Catalog (WDS)
  (Mason, Wycoff, & Hartkopf 2001; updated nightly)
  see also "Neglected Doubles" Observing Lists
  
• Fourth Catalog of Interferometric Measurements of Binary Stars
  (Hartkopf, Mason, Wycoff, & McAlister 2001; updated frequently)
  
• Sixth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars
  (Hartkopf & Mason 2001; updated frequently)
  see also list of "Calibration Candidates"
  
• Catalogue of Orbits and Ephemerides of Visual Double Stars
  (Docobo, Ling, Prieto, Costa, Costado & Magdalena 2001)
  The catalog is also available in Galego and Castellano.
• USNO Third Photometric Magnitude Difference Catalog
  (Mason & Wycoff 2001; updated nightly)
  
• Catalog of Rectilinear Elements
  (Hartkopf et al. 2006, preliminary version; updated occasionally)
  

Combined Analyses

• An Astrometric/Spectroscopic Survey of O stars
  (Mason et al. 1998; last update August 2004)
• Washington Multiplicity Catalog homepage
  WMC Sample Catalog

Spectroscopic Systems

• Ninth Catalogue of Spectroscopic Binary Orbits
  (Pourbaix et al. 2002; updated frequently)
• Fifteenth Complementary Catalog of Spectroscopic Binaries
  (Pedoussaut, A. et al. 1988, A&AS 75, 441; also Malkov, O.Y. 1989, Bull. Inform. CDS 36)
  on-line data query
  

Close (Interacting and Eclipsing) Systems

• A Catalogue and Atlas of Cataclysmic Variables - Living Edition
  (Downes, R. et al. 2001, PASP 113, 764)
• Catalogue of Cataclysmic Binaries, Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries and Related Objects (6th ed.)
  (Ritter, H. & Kolb, U. 1998, A&AS 129, 83)
• A Finding List for Observers of Interacting Binary Systems (5th ed.)
  (Wood, F.B. et al. 1980, Pub. Dept of Astron., Univ of Florida, vol 1)
  on-line data query
  
• Catalog of Orbital Elements, Masses, and Luminosities of Close Double Stars
  (Svechnikov, M.A. & Bessonova, L.A. 1984, Bull. Inform CDS 26, 99)
  on-line data query
  
• A Catalogue of Parameters for Eclipsing Binaries
  (Brancewicz, H.K. & Dworak, T.Z. 1980, Acta Astron. 30, no. 4, pp 501-524)
  on-line data query
  
• A Catalogue of Classical (Evolved) Algol-Type Binary Candidate Stars
  (Budding, E. 1984, Bull. Inform. CDS 27, 91)
  on-line data query
  
• Catalogue of Algol Type Binary Stars
  (Budding, E. et al. 2004, A&A 417, 263-268)
  on-line data query
  

Links:

• CDS (Centre de Donnees astronomiques de Strasbourg)
• Hipparcos
• SIMBAD Astronomical Database
• SIDONIe (the double star website of Nice Observatory)
• ADS (NASA's Astrophysical Data System bibliographic database)
• CHARA (GSU's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy)
• Optical Long Baseline Interferometry Newsletter
• Michelson Interferometry Summer School,
  Talks from the 2005 MSC Astrometry Workshop
• The General Catalogue of Photometric Data
  
  
• The Journal of Double Star Observations
  a new quarterly journal of amateur astronomy dedicated to the study of double and binary stars
• The Webb Deep-Sky Society (Double Star Section)
  an amateur/professional society specializing in double stars and 'deep sky' objects
  (There is also a direct link to the Webb Deep-Sky Society Circulars.)
• Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (Double Star Section)
  another fine society for amateur double star observers
• The "Spirit of 33"
  an international network of amateur double star observers, based in Spain
• The Double Star Section of LIADA",
  the Spanish American League of Astronomy
• The Double Star Club of the Astronomical League"
  an association of local amateur astronomical societies across the United States
• The Double Star Commission of the French Astronomical Society"
  an amateur/professional double star group whose members publish in the SAF journal Observations et Travaux
• Garraf Astronomical Observatory
  Located near Barcelona, Spain and headed by Tofol Tobal, this organization has published over 10,000 visual double star observations in its "OAG General Catalog" and remains a significant contributor to the WDS through its supplements to that catalog.
• "El Observador de Estrellas Dobles"
  the newest electronic double star journal is a Spanish language publication begun in 2009

Your feedback, please ...

Your reactions to the Double Star Library are appreciated. Please send your comments (reports of errors, suggestions for additional catalogues or web links, etc.) to dsl@usno.navy.mil