List of objects for observation as MySQL database

[Vroobel]

To be honest, I'm not an author of the original list. I think I should write a few words about it's origins.

 Over ten years ago one Polish enthusiast of astronomy came up with an idea to create a list of objects for observation, that should be easy to understand for absolute beginners, usually having simple and small scopes or binoculars. This way he created document of about hundred DSO, many asterisms and also multiple systems worthy of the observation. The Table contained the Messier's, NGC, some Mel and IC numbers, a range of months when you can observe the objects, constellations, a maginitude, Ra and Dec positions, pictograms represents: difficulty of the observation, size of the objects (whether you have to use small or bigger magnification), binocular (the object is attractive by the bino or not), sign of "must see it" and "must show it to others" and last one like "show it to larger group". That was really great job! Thousands people, beginners or not, downloaded it and had pleasure to use it. The masterpiece have got a name "The Wimmer's Table", as his nickname is Wimmer. Presently we can use the 3.2 version of the list. Unfortunately the masterpiece is written in Polish language, but hopefully will be translated. If you want to look at content of the Table, you can visit his website, where it's "electronic version" is located. There is language switch in a top right corner.

http://picios.pl/wimmer/

OK, but I wrote something about database in the title...

About one and half year ago, in summer 2017, as a DIY enthusiast I wondered about a future of my telescope. I knew something about GoTo, so considered a kind of database of objects. Any objects, even several stars for a beginning, which I could use for calibration purposes. I was absolutely surprised by "The Wimmer's Table" when I found it! That's it, I thought! Thus I created a MySQL database, but when I started entering data from the Table, I realised, that something else could be there as well. You can find a full list of fields of the database with descriptions below.

nr | A number of the object in the list, as it is in the original "paper" version of the Table. After DSO, asterisms and multiple systems I placed a few stars needed (I think so) for a calibration of GoTo system, and a first of them is the Polaris. The stars have 4-digits numbers. Last group includes objects of Solar System (for my own system based on Raspberry Pi), but I wrote software for following the Sun and the Moon, planets have to wait. The US objects have numbers based on 5 digits.

XXXXX and XXXXX_pl - different fields like for example a name of the object in English language and it's equivalent in Polish language, so:

name / name_pl | A name of the object, that is obvious.

messier | A number in the Messier's Catalogue.

ngc | A number in the NGC Catalogue.

others | A numbers taken from other catalogues, if found. That is optional, but I can improve it, if have list of the numbers.

type and type_full / type_pl and type_full_pl | A category of the objects. As it is database, users can group a result of a query and use it finally to prepare a journey on the night sky in range of the selected category.
Ast – asterism,
Ga – galaxy,
GC – globular cluster,
MS – multiple system,
N(D)+OC – nebula (diffuse n.) + open cluster,
N(E) – nebula (emission n.),
N(E)+OC – nebula (emission n.) + open cluster,
N(E+R) – nebula (emission n. + reflection n.),
N(P) – nebula (planetary n.),
OC – open cluster,
OC+N(E) – open cluster + nebula (emission n.),
OC+N(E+R) – open cluster + nebula (emission n. + reflection n.),
S – star,
SS – Solar System,
SC – stars cloud.
(n. = nebula, an abbreviation because of limited space in my LCD 4×20)

season_1 and season_2 | A range of months in which you can observe the object from our location.

constellation / constellation_pl | Obviously, name of the constellation.

w_magnitude | A value of an apparent magnitude. This is a real number with dot as an decimal point. The "w_" as a prefix here and below means that the value is taken from the Wikipedia, because I found some differences between "The Wimmer's Table" values and the Wikipedia. We agreed together, that a future show what is the truth. They are not big differences, often seconds only.

w_ra | A right ascension expressed in a decimal value of hour angle. It is real number in format 11,9 that means 2 significant digits and 9 decimal places.

w_dc | A declination expressed in a decimal value of angle. It is real number in format 11,9 that means 2 significant digits and 9 decimal places.

w_ra_h, w_ra_m, w_ra_s | A right ascension expressed in hours, minutes and seconds of hour angle.

w_dc_st, w_dc_m, w_dc_s | A declination expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds.

ra_apm, dc_apm | A proper motion of some objects (if applicable), useful in calculation of proper position of the objects in relation to J2000.0. The ra_apm is expressed in seconds of hour angle.

difficulty | A simple level of difficulties expressed in values "1", "2" and "3". The "1" means easy, the "3" - hard to observe.

size | Another parameter easily describing an object's size expressed by two values: "L" - large, that means easy to find and observe using small magnification and "S" - small - bigger magnification is required.

app_size_1, app_size_2 | An angular size of the object, such as galaxies, which can be inscribed in a rectangle. Units of the angular size are given by letters: "d" - degree, "m" - minute, "s" - second.

binoculars | A parameter suggesting using of binoculars, if the object has big angular size and an only small magnification can be used in this case to see all the object in a field of view. It can have two values: "1" and "0" as "yes" and "no".

have2see, have2show | This pair of parameters inform about "necessity" of seeing the object and showing that to bigger group, as the object is definitely worthy of that. As above, values are "1" and "0".

details | Additional information taken from Wikipedia like separation of multiple stars or apparent magnitude of their components, etc.

comments i comments_pl | Additional comments such as real number of multiple system's or cluster's components, exact place of the object on another object's background, etc.

page | An original "paper" document contains maps of sky, sketches of objects and descriptions, so this value indicates their location.

checked | This field can be used to mark objects already found and observed to avoid a repetition.

map, sketch_1, sketch_2, picture_1, picture_2 | These field are dedicated for high-capacity binary file such as pictures of maps, sketches, etc. Presently they are empty, but will contain graphics soon. I have planned to develop two versions of database: with and without graphics, second one will be much smaller.

description i description_pl | Descriptions written by Wimmer and taken from original document and also their translations.

The values listed below
 w_ra = w_ra_h + w_ra_m/60 + w_ra_s/3600
and
 w_dc = w_dc_st + w_dc_m/60 + w_dc_s/3600
appeared a bit later to make calculations easier. A programmer had to do it himself in his script earlier.

It is also important to know that as the value of the declination can be negative, it's all elements: w_dc_st, w_dc_m and w_dc_s are negative as well in that case.

Please forgive me any misspellings or translation errors if happen and please, inform me if you find it.

You can download the database in a native format of MySQL here: TabelaWimmera_v3.2.2.sql
or/and it's equivalent in CSV format here: TabelaWimmera_v3.2.2.csv 
 

Edited March 6, 2019 by Vroobel

[heliumstar]

Thumbs up for this! Downloaded CSV.

[Grant]

Very interesting - thanks for sharing ?

[Vroobel]

Thank you, also in behalf of Wimmer.

I will inform about any changes and improvements. 

[Vroobel]

Hi,

Astro-amateurs trying to code their own astro-software can be intrested in a last update of the database described above.

During a work on my own GoTo system I met a problem of calibration, so I had to properly define some stars for this purpose. Because of my location I chose 19 stars (including Polaris) which are visible on the sky over UK within the year. I used an application found on website of AstronomyNow magazine (https://astronomynow.com/uk-sky-chart/) for that.

Similarly to other objects in the database, the stars have range of months of visibility on the sky. It is for avoiding of choice of invisible stars from the list for calibration. The website offers a choice of exact hour of observation, so I chose midnight. Some positions are multiple star, but they are here for calibration only, so I mean them just as single stars. You can find i.e. aparent magnitude for all the system. A difficulty level is of course 1.

A stars' coordinates, their aparent magnitude and proper motion are taken from Wikipedia. Additionaly the coordinates have been merged to a values of hours/degrees in a decimal notation.

SQL and CSV files for download:

http://astro-art.pl/opracowania/TabelaWimmera_v3.2.3.csv.zip
http://astro-art.pl/opracowania/TabelaWimmera_v3.2.3.sql.zip

Pozdrawiam,
Tomek