Washington Double Star Catalog: Astrometric Data for ~100,000 Systems

The Washington Double Star Catalog (WDS) is the world's principal database of astrometric double and multiple star information, maintained by the United States Naval Observatory (USNO). It contains positions, discoverer designations, epochs, position angles, separations, magnitudes, and spectral types for the components of close to 100,000 systems based on approximately 600,000 means. The catalog is updated weekly by NASA HEASARC and is intended to contain all known visual double stars for which at least one differential measure has been published.

Use Cases

• Analyzing stellar orbits and dynamics based on position angles and separations.
• Studying stellar populations and characteristics based on magnitudes and spectral types.
• Validating new astrometric observations against a historical catalog of published measures.
• Researching the evolution of double star systems using epoch and proper motion data.

Strengths

• Contains information for close to 100,000 double and multiple star systems.
• Based on approximately 600,000 individual astrometric measures.
• Updated weekly by NASA HEASARC, derived from the USNO's primary database.
• Covers the entire sky and is the successor to major historical catalogs like the IDS.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

United States Naval Observatory (USNO), distributed by NASA HEASARC.

Collection Method

Compiled from published astrometric measures; continually updated as new data becomes available.

Freshness

Updated weekly by HEASARC; the source USNO database is potentially updated nightly.

Geography

Covers the entire sky.