The Catalogue of Fundamental Stars is a series of six astrometric catalogues of high precision positional data for a small selection of stars to define a celestial reference frame, which is a standard coordinate system for measuring positions of stars.

Publication history[edit]

The six volumes in the fundamental catalogue series are as follows:

The Fundamental-Catalog (FC) was compiled by Auwers and published in two volumes. The first volume, published in 1897, contains 539 stars and the second, published in 1883, contains 83.^[1]

The Neuer Fundamentalkatalog (NFK) was compiled by J. Peters and contained 925 stars.^[1]

The Third Fundamental Catalogue (FK3) was compiled by Kopff and published in 1937, with a supplement in 1938.^[1]

The Fourth Fundamental Catalogue (FK4) was published in 1963, and contained 1,535 stars in various equinoxes from 1950.0 to 1975.0.^[1]

The Fourth Fundamental Catalogue's Supplement (FK4S) was an amendment to FK4 that contains a further 1,987 stars.^[1]

The Fifth Fundamental Catalogue (FK5) was a 1988 update of FK4 with new positions for the 1,535 stars. It was superseded by the quasar-based International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF).

The Fifth Fundamental Catalogue Extension (FK5), published in 1991, added 3,117 new stars.

The Sixth Fundamental Catalogue (FK6) is a 2000 update of FK5 correlated with the ICRF through the Hipparcos satellite. It comes in two parts: FK6(I) and FK6(III). FK6(I) contains 878 stars, and FK6(III) contains 3,272 stars. Both are updated and amended versions of FK5, using Hipparcos catalogue data.^[2]

Examples[edit]

• 
  Iota Arietis is located in FK5 as item 2132


• 
  Alpha Arietis is FK5 item 74


• 
  Kappa Aurigae is FK5 item 1168

See also[edit]

Astronomical Calculation Institute

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• 
  Fifth fundamental catalogue part I Basic FK5 (1988)


• 
  Fifth fundamental catalogue part II FK5 extension

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