The Tycho-2 Catalogue Information and Links

- in inverse chronological sequence

Last updated 26 January 2010
Author Erik Høg

Frequently asked questions, with answers.

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Tycho-2 Catalogue

an astrometric and photometric reference catalogue
of the 2.5 million brightest stars on the entire sky.
See here an area of the sky with Hipparcos and Tycho stars.

• 25 January 2010:
  Celebrating ten years since the release of the Tycho-2 Catalogue, a mail was widely distributed:
  Mail on ten years Tycho-2.
  

• 9 May 2009:
  Commentary by Catherine Turon on the scientific impact of the Tycho-2 Catalogue since its publication nine years ago. The commentary accompanies the letter in A&A in a special issue of the journal containing the most cited 40 papers from the 40 years since the journal was started :
  Tycho-2, a reference catalogue for astrometry and photometry. Combining the most modern and the oldest astrometric data. Astron. Astrophys., special issue Vol. 500, No.1, June II, 2009, p.583.
  

• 11 February 2002:
  Catalogue with results for 105259 components, astrometry and two-colour photometry:
  The Tycho Double Star Catalogue. Astron. Astrophys., 384, 180-189 (2002 March II)
  

• 13 March 2000:
  The accepted version of paper submitted to Astron. Astrophys., 27 December 1999, with only minor differences from the one on the CD-ROM
  Construction and verification of the Tycho-2 Catalogue.

• 16 Mar. 2000:
  E. Høg, C. Fabricius, V.V. Makarov, S. Urban, T. Corbin, G. Wycoff, U. Bastian, P. Schwekendiek, and A. Wicenec in:

  Astron. Astrophys. 355.2, P L19-L22 (2000) :
  The Tycho-2 Catalogue of the 2.5 Million Brightest Stars.

  Here the final version of the paper, the same as on the CD-ROM.

• Tycho-2 was released on 8 Feb. 2000, and widely distributed on a
  CD-ROM containing the catalogue and documentation.
  Included was, e.g., Guide to the Tycho-2 Catalogue
  as guide.pdf which is also available as .ps: guide.ps.
  
  
• Tycho-2 is available at CDS where the 500 Mbyte catalogue file is divided into smaller files. Stars in fields may be extracted at CDS in VizieR , at ESA, and at ESO. See also the readme.htm, or Sect. 1 in the guide.pdf or guide.ps.

• 10 Jan. 2000:
  The Tycho-3 project is described, a planned study of duplicity and variability using the raw Tycho observations:
  Close-up of 2.5 million Tycho stars.

• July 1998:
  Presentation at the colloquium in Vienna, May 25-26, 1998:
  Progress on the Tycho-2 Catalogue.

General information

• April 1999: Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics
  The Tycho Star Catalogues.

• The Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues, 1997, ESA SP-1200, 17 Volumes - with 14 contributions by C. Fabricius, E. Høg, V.V. Makarov. --- See HIPPARCOS

Tycho-1 Catalogue

• November 1998: Astron. Astrophys.
  Construction of the Tycho Reference Catalogue (TRC).

• April 1998: Letter to the editor of Astron. Astrophys. The Tycho Reference Catalogue (TRC). The catalogue contains high-quality positions and proper motions for nearly one million stars. The median accuracy of the TRC position component is 40 mas at J1991.25. The median accuracy of the proper motion is about 2.5 mas/yr. The systematic errors are less than about 1.0 mas(/yr). It is available HERE.

  - but TRC and Tycho-1 are replaced completely by Tycho-2.