Catalogues & databases
Catalogues & databases
The following catalogues and databases may be of assistance when planning observations.
AAVSO International Database (AID)
The AAVSO International Database has over 28 million variable star observations going back over one hundred years. It is the largest and most comprehensive digital variable star database in the world. Over 1,000,000 new variable star brightness measurements are added to the database every year by ov...
All-Sky Automated Survey (ASAS)
The All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) is a low-cost project dedicated to constant photometric monitoring of the whole available sky, which is approximately 10^7 stars brighter than 14 magnitude. The project’s ultimate goal is detection and investigation of of any kind of the photometric variability. O...
Exoplanet Transit Database (ETD)
This site will give predictions of transits visible in your skies at any time and has excellent software tools to help analyse your data. It has become the major clearing house for amateur transit detections, so if you observe a transit post it here.
General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS)
The only comprehensive catalogue of variables: often wrong, incomplete or out of date but always a first port of call and standard reference.
GCVS4 is the current catalogue, NSV for unconfirmed VS data, Name Lists for newly entered stars since publication of GCVS IV. Download or use query form, an...
Member Contributed Catalogues
Following are a series of catalogues produced by VSS participants (largely Mati Morel) that may be of use to you.
Variable Star Index (VSX)
Data on variable stars are constantly changing. New and ongoing surveys are locating new variable stars every day. Corrections to errors in the data are always coming in. But all of this work to refine what we know about these stars is happening at different times and in different places. The missio...
VSS Eclipsing Binary Database (EBD)
Compiled by Tom Richards.
The VSS Eclipsing Binary Database (EBD) is a running compilation of times of minima, light elements and spectral classifications derived from observational research in the SEB Programme. These data are combined into a downloadable data table, which is updated approxim...