- HEASARC Director: Dr. Alan P. Smale
- HEASARC Associate Director: Dr. Roger Brissenden
- NASA Official: Phil Newman
- Web Curator: Meredith Gibb
- Last Modified: 11-Dec-2012
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GCVS - General Catalog of Variable Stars, March 2012 Version |
HEASARC Archive |
The total number of designated variable stars has now reached 45835. Errors detected in the printed Volumes I-III and in the Name-Lists have been corrected.
There are 157 stars for which no positions are listed as they are now considered to be duplicates of other stars in the GCVS.
The present improved electronic version of the GCVS 4th Edition, Volumes I-V, combined with the Name-Lists of Variable Stars Nos. 67 - 79, is also available from the Sternberg Institute of Moscow University via at ftp://ftp.sai.msu.su/pub/groups/cluster/gcvs/gcvs/ or http://www.sai.msu.su/gcvs/gcvs/.
General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS database, Version 2012Apr)
Samus N.N., Durlevich O.V., et al.
<Institute of Astronomy of Russian Academy of Sciences and Sternberg
State Astronomical Institute of the Moscow State University >
Variable_Star_Number
The GCVS numeric designation of the variable star, made from the constellation
and star names codes. The numeric code for the constellation name is in
alphabetic order of the full constellation name, so, for example, Cancer
or CNC has a code value of 12 which precedes the code value of 16 for
Capricornus or CAP). The codes are as follows:
Constellation Constell_code Constellation Constell_code
Name Name
And 1 Ant 2
Aps 3 Aqr 4
Aql 5 Ara 6
Ari 7 Aur 8
Boo 9 Cae 10
Cam 11 Cnc 12
CVn 13 CMa 14
CMi 15 Cap 16
Car 17 Cas 18
Cen 19 Cep 20
Cet 21 Cha 22
Cir 23 Col 24
Com 25 CrA 26
CrB 27 Crv 28
Crt 29 Cru 30
Cyg 31 Del 32
Dor 33 Dra 34
Equ 35 Eri 36
For 37 Gem 38
Gru 39 Her 40
Hor 41 Hya 42
Hyi 43 Ind 44
Lac 45 Leo 46
LMi 47 Lep 48
Lib 49 Lup 50
Lyn 51 Lyr 52
Men 53 Mic 54
Mon 55 Mus 56
Nor 57 Oct 58
Oph 59 Ori 60
Pav 61 Peg 62
Per 63 Phe 64
Pic 65 Psc 66
PsA 67 Pup 68
Pyx 69 Ret 70
Sge 71 Sgr 72
Sco 73 Scl 74
Sct 75 Ser 76
Sex 77 Tau 78
Tel 79 Tri 80
TrA 81 Tuc 82
UMa 83 UMi 84
Vel 85 Vir 86
Vol 87 Vul 88
The star number within the constellation, which typically corresponds to the
order in which the variables were found. For historical reasons, the first
designated variable star in a constellation was given the name 'R
constellation', e.g., 'R CMa', the second the prefix 'S', etc, the ninth 'Z',
the tenth 'RR', etc., the 55th 'AA', etc, until the 334th 'QZ', at which
point the letters have been exhausted, and the 335th variable is given the
'V0335' (or V335) prefix, e.g., 'V0335 And', and so on for all subsequent
discoveries in the constellation.
Variable_Star_Cpt
The component identification, 'A', 'B', etc., i.e., the
designations of components of double/multiple stars. Usually, only one
component of the binary is variable, but there are 2 cases (CE Cas A and B,
and EQ Peg A and B) where both components are variable and are listed as
separate entries in the catalog.
Name
The variable star designation. For a brief explanation of the variable
star naming convention, see the help entry for the variable_star_number
parameter. Notice that stars which have Bayer designations,
e.g. Alpha Ori, which have been discovered to be variable stars have not been
given a new variable star designation but are listed by their Bayer designation
in the GCVS, e.g., as 'alf Ori'. (The traditional transliterations of Greek
letters are used, e.g., 'alf' for alpha). There are also a small number
of historical variable stars which were named using lower-case latin
characters, e.g. g Her and u Her. The lower- and upper-case latin letters must
be distinguished, notice, because in some cases, e.g., u Her and U Her,
there are names for completely different stars using the alternate naming
conventions.
Note_Flag
This flag is set to 'Y' if there are notes on this star in
the published version of the catalog: these comments can be found in
ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/cats/B/gcvs/gcvs_rem.dat.
RA
The Right Ascension of the star in the specified equinox. This was given
to no better than a precision of 0.1 seconds of time in the originating table.
Dec
The Declination of the star in the specified equinox. This was given
to a precision of 1 arcsecond in the originating table.
LII
The Galactic Longitude of the star.
BII
The Galactic Latitude of the star.
Position_Flag
This is a code flag describing the positional accuracy,
as follows:
':' means the position is uncertain
'Y' means that the coordinates could not be improved and that they
were recalculated from old coordinates to the J2000.0 equinox
with allowance for precession
Variability_Type
The type of variability according to the GCVS variability
classification scheme. The system of variable star classification corresponds
to the GCVS, 4th edition, with six additional classes (ZZO, AM, R, BE, LBV, and
BLBOO) that were introduced in the Name-Lists 67 - 72 and in the GCVS vol. V.
The full scheme is described in the file:
ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/cats/B/gcvs/vartype.txt. The HEASARC has made
one change to the schema therein described: unique variable stars outside
of the range of the GCVS classification scheme are designated as 'Unique',
rather than by '*' as in the reference, so as to avoid confusion with the
wild-card asterisk character.
Limit_Max_Mag
This parameter is a limit [<>] or amplitude flag [(] for the
maximum magnitude, where '>' indicates that the latter is a faint limit, '<'
that it is a bright limit, and '(' that it is an amplitude rather than an
observed magnitude.
Max_Mag
The apparent magnitude at maximum brightness, or, if the value of
limit_max_mag is '(', the amplitude of variation.
Max_Mag_Flag
This flag is set to ':' if the maximum magnitude is
considered uncertain.
Limit_Min_Mag
This is a limit flag for the minimum magnitude, '>'
indicating that the latter is a bright limit., and '(' that it is an
amplitude rather than an observed magnitude.
Min_Mag
This parameter is either the apparent magnitude at minimum
brightness, or, if the value of limit_min_mag is '(', the amplitude of
variation.
Min_Mag_Flag
This flag is set to ':' if the minimum magnitude is
considered uncertain.
Min_Mag_Alt_Sys
This is a code which is non-blank when the minimum magnitude
or amplitude (min_mag) is given in an alternative photometric system to the
one for the maximum magnitude (max_mag) which is given by the mag_system
parameter. These codes are described in the parameter help for the mag_system
parameter.
Mag_System
The photometric system in which the maximum and minimum
(unless min_mag_altsys is non-blank) magnitudes are reported. The main codes
used are p (photographic magnitudes) and V (visual, photovisual, or Johnson V).
Several stars from the 68th Name-List have values of '1.' designating the
1.04 micrometer band of the system introduced by G.W. Lockwood. The
designations u, v, b, and y refer to the Stroemgren system, the symbols
'Ic'and 'Rc' mean magnitudes in Cousins' RI system, 'g' designates magnitudes
in the system of Thuan and Gunn, 'T' stands for broad-band Tycho magnitudes
formed from B and V measurements, while 'r' indicates red magnitudes that are
not tied to a particular system. Observations made in 'white light' are
indicated by 'w' (rather than '*' as in the original table).
Epoch
This is generally the epoch for maximum light, in Julian Days, except
for all eclipsing and ellipsoidal variables, as well as for RV Tau and
RS CVn types, where it is the epoch for minimum light. This rule may
occasionally be broken, but this is explained only in the remarks to the
catalog.
Epoch_Precision
The precision of the quoted epoch value, i.e., the number
of digits after the decimal point in the original table. Thus, a precision
of 4 means that the epoch was given to 10-4 days in the original table.
Epoch_Flag
This parameter is a flag qualifying the epoch according to the
following codes:
':' epoch is uncertain; '+' epoch may be later than that reported; '-' epoch may be earlier than that reported.
Nova_Year
The year of outburst for a nova or supernova. The exact date of
maximum light is given in JD in the epoch parameter.
Nova_Year_Flag
This parameter is set to ':' to indicate that there is
uncertainty in the year of the nova or supernova outburst.
Limit_Period
A code qualifying the period, as follows: '>' or '<' if the
period is a lower or upper limit, respectively, or '(' if the period is the
mean cycle time of a U Gem or recurrent nova.
Period
The period of the variable star, in days. This is given with
a range of precisions up to a possible maximum of 1.E-10 days in the
original table.
Period_Precision
The precision of the quoted period value, i.e., the number
of digits after the decimal point in the original table. Thus, a precision
of 4 means that the period was given to 10-4 days in the original table.
Period_Note
This is another flag that contains information if the
actual period may be either a multiple ('MN' or 'M2') or a fraction ('FN') of
the quoted period value.
Rise_Eclipse_Time
This parameter contains either the rise time (M-m) for
intrinsic variables, or the duration of the eclipse (D) for eclipsing binaries.
These values help to define the shape of the light curve. The value is given
as a percentage of the period of the star.
Rise_Eclipse_Time_Flag
This flag is set to ':' if the rise time or eclipse
duration given in the rise_eclipse_time parameter is considered uncertain.
Eclipse_Var_Note
This is a note used for eclipsing variables that is set
to '0' when the duration of the light constancy phase at minimum light (d)
is equal to zero, or to ':' if the value is considered uncertain.
Spect_Type
The spectral type of the variable star.
Ref_Star
This is a reference code referring to a major study of the star,
as follows: (the codes and their corresponding references can be found in
ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/pub/cats/B/gcvs/refs.dat)
"00002" - "09148" - Vol. I GCVS (see Kholopov et al., 1985-1988) "09149" - "09558" - Vol. II GCVS "09559" - "10200" - Vol. III GCVS "67001" - "77229" - Name-Lists Nos.67-77References from Vol. V (extragalactic variables) start with the letter 'V', and references to the suspected variables start with 'N' (first part) or 'S' (supplement). References may also be abbreviations of catalog names (BD, CPD, CoD, GSC, HIP, USNO).
Ref_Chart
This is a reference code referring to a reference containing a
chart or photograph of the star field, as follows: (the codes and their
corresponding references can be found in the file
ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/pub/cats/B/gcvs/refs.dat)
"00002" - "09148" - Vol. I GCVS (see Kholopov et al., 1985-1988) "09149" - "09558" - Vol. II GCVS "09559" - "10200" - Vol. III GCVS "67001" - "77229" - Name-Lists Nos.67-77References from Vol. V (extragalactic variables) start with the letter 'V', and references to the suspected variables start with 'N' (first part) or 'S' (supplement). References may also be abbreviations of catalog names (BD, CPD, CoD, GSC, HIP, USNO), if no chart is available for the variable, but the star is contained in one of the Durchmusterung catalogs, the Hubble Space Telescope Guide Star Catalog (GSC), the Hipparcos (HIP) Catalog, or the USNO Catalog.
Comment_Flag
This parameter is a miscellaneous flag with the following meanings:
'=' indicates the star is also known under another variable name '+' indicates the star is in other catalogs (e.g. Hipparcos or Name Lists) 'N' indicates the star does not exist
Alt_Name
An alternative designation for the variable.
Class
The HEASARC Browse object classification, based on the spectral type
parameter (spect_type), if there is information in this field, else
based on the variability type parameter (variability_type).