Stellar Spectral Classification catalogue

[bomberbaz]

Hello all.

Just starting out in spectroscopy, the learning curve is steep but not as daunting as I first feared.

I am currently watching a huge number of video's from Rspec as I think their software seems the most user friendly for a novice such as I. The video are in a very simple guide format so this is most pleasing to me as I am ok but not brilliant with tech.

The recommendation is to start out with A stars for their well defined and identifiable profile and I know there are plenty. But is there a resource for all stars that is readily available.

Ideally I would be hoping for one with spectral data accompanying the stars referenced so I can cross reference all my own data with known reliable data.

It's all quite exciting this, my grating should be with me just in time for the next lack of clear skies. 🙄

regards

steve

[Zermelo]

Is this one any good to you?

https://britastro.org/specdb/data.php

[robin_astro]

Hi Steve,

There are many professional catalogues of spectra but  probably the easiest way for "normal" stars is to use Brian skiff's magnum opus "Catalogue of stellar spectral classifications" which has the published spectral types for almost a million  stars.

http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR?-source=B/mk

You can then use the classification there to call up the typical spectrum of that type from the Pickles catalogue which is included with several software packages like Visual Spec, RSpec ISIS etc.

Cheers

Robin

[robin_astro]

If you want  spectra of stars measured using the Star Analyser then this database might be useful. There are thousands of stars there but I have not checked it for quality

https://sdc.cab.inta-csic.es/sasdaba/

Also the ELODIE archive which has professional spectra (but at much  higher resolution than the Star Analyser) for many stars

(A bit of Trivia:- ELODIE was the spectrograph used to detect the first exoplanet 51 Peg b in 1995)

http://atlas.obs-hp.fr/elodie/

Cheers

Robin

Edited April 24, 2022 by robin_astro
typo

[robin_astro]

7 minutes ago, robin_astro said:

If you want  spectra of stars measured using the Star Analyser then this database might be useful. There are thousands of stars there but I have not checked it for quality

https://sdc.cab.inta-csic.es/sasdaba/

 

Note though that these appear to be the raw spectrum images, not the calibrated spectra so you haver to process them your self which limits their usefulness

[robin_astro]

17 minutes ago, robin_astro said:

Note though that these appear to be the raw spectrum images, not the calibrated spectra so you haver to process them your self which limits their usefulness

Looking more closely at these, I would forget it. They are not particularly good, for example they have made a fundamental mistake of not aligning the grating horizontally which produces artifacts. Also most of the stars are boring and interesting unusual stars for low resolution spectroscopy like Wolf Rayet stars which show up really well with the Star Analyser seem to be missing. A pity because it must have been a massive project

[robin_astro]

For stars to test my equipment and processing though I use MILES stars which is a catalogue of stars measured using professional equipment. Here are examples where I have  used them with the Star Analyser and the ALPY600 

http://www.threehillsobservatory.co.uk/astro/spectroscopy_21.htm

(The spectra are as measured ie not corrected for interstellar extinction so what we want) They are included in the ISIS software database but I don't think they are in RSpec. They can be downloaded from the references there though

Cheers

Robin

Edited April 24, 2022 by robin_astro
typo