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B. D. Mason, W. I. Hartkopf (USNO)
The double star catalogs of the U.S. Naval Observatory have, for the past ~40 years, been a wellspring of astronomical data. While these are continuously maintained and updated, the past several years have seen significant changes in them all. Although current versions will continue to be accessible online, many users find CDs very convenient for their applications. A CD containing the following four catalogs has, therefore, been produced.
The Washington Double Star Summary Catalog: The 2001 edition of this catalog contains summary data (first and last observation dates and positions for these dates) for 84,489 systems based on 563,326 means (8% more components and 25% more means than the 1996.0 edition). The catalog also includes numerous cross reference files, lists of neglected doubles, finder charts, and lists of single stars.
The Fifth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars: While this contains 1,465 orbits of 1,430 systems (58% more orbits than the 4\it th Catalog), one of the most significant changes is the application of a new (but consistent with the previous) grading scheme. The catalog also includes a list of doubles suitable for calibration purposes.
The Third Catalog of Interferometric Measurements of Binary Stars: Maintained at Georgia State University by CHARA for many years, this version includes 64,779 measures of 25,076 resolved pairs as well as unresolved pairs and measures with photometry only. It is over six times the size of the 2\it nd Catalog and now includes double star measures from both the Hipparcos and Tycho-2 Catalogues.
The Photometric Magnitude Difference Catalog: This is the first publication of what was for many years an internal USNO product. In it are what we consider reliable magnitude difference estimates for which no astrometry is quoted (and thus, inappropriate for inclusion in the WDS). It contains 19,589 measures of 10,473 systems.