VizieR Online Data Catalog: Catalogue of Stellar Spectral Classifications (Skiff, 2009- )

This file contains spectral classifications for stars collected from the literature, serving as a continuation of the compilations produced by the Jascheks, by Kennedy, and by Buscombe. The source of each spectral type is indicated by a standard 19-digit bibcode citation. These papers of course should be cited in publication, not this compilation.

The stars are identified either by the name used in each publication or by a valid SIMBAD identifier. Some effort has been made to determine accurate (~1" or better) coordinates for equinox J2000 (and epoch 2000 if possible), and these serve as a secondary identifier. To the extent possible with current astrometric sources, the components of double stars and stars with composite spectra are shown as separate entries.

Magnitudes are provided as an indication of brightness, but these data are not necessarily accurate, as they often derive from photographic photometry or rough estimates.

The file includes only spectral types determined from spectra (viz. line and band strengths or ratios), omitting those determined from photometry (e.g. DDO, Vilnius) or inferred from broadband colors or spectral energy distributions.

The classifications include MK types as well as types not strictly on the MK system (white dwarfs, Wolf-Rayet, etc), and in addition simple HD-style temperature types. Luminosity classes in the early Mount Wilson style (e.g. 'd' for dwarf, 'g' for giant) and other similar schemes have been converted to modern notation. Since a citation is provided for each entry, the source paper should be consulted for details about classification schemes, spectral dispersion, and instrumentation used.

System-defining primary MK standard stars are included from the last lists by Morgan and Keenan, and are flagged by a + sign in column 83. The early-type standards comprise the 1973 "dagger standards" (1973ARA&A..11...29M) and stars from the Morgan, Abt, and Tapscott atlas (1978rmsa.book.....M). Standards from Table I of the Morgan & Abt 'MKA' paper (1972AJ.....77...35M) not appearing in the two later lists are added. Keenan made continual adjustments to the standards lists up to the time of his death. Thus the late-type standards comprise those marked as high-weight standards in the 1989 Perkins catalogue (1989ApJS...71..245K = III/150); the revised S-type standards in collaboration with Boeshaar (1980ApJS...43..379K); plus the carbon standards and class IIIb 'clump giants' in collaboration with Barnbaum (1996ApJS..105..419B and 1999ApJ...518..859K). In addition, I have made use of the final types by Keenan up to January 2000 shown at the Ohio State Web site (http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/MKCool), accessed in autumn 2003. Though the present file contains all the stars in these lists, only those marked as standards are flagged as such. Garrison's list of MK 'anchor points' might also be consulted in this regard (1994mpyp.conf....3G, and http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/~garrison/mkstds.html).

The catalogue includes for the first time results from many large-scale objective-prism spectral surveys done at Case, Stockholm, Crimea, Abastumani, and elsewhere. The stars in these surveys were usually identified only on charts or by other indirect means, and have been overlooked heretofore because of the difficulty in recovering the stars. More complete results from these separate publications, including notes and identifications, have been made available to the CDS, and are kept at the Lowell Observatory ftp area (ftp://ftp.lowell.edu/pub/bas/starcats). Not all of these stars are present in SIMBAD.

As a 'living catalogue', an attempt will be made to keep up with current literature, and to extend the indexing of citations back in time.

(2 data files).