This is a collection of files in xephem database format. Included here are
asteroids, comets, stars, deep-sky objects, earth satellites and spacecraft.
Work on the databases is a major project in itself. There are bound to be
errors. Authoritative contributions welcome.

YBS.edb are all of the entries in the Yale Bright Star Catalog which have
a Bayer and/or a Flamsteed number. A few with common names have been renamed.
Contact the author if you would like the remaining stars (ecdowney@noao.edu).

Messier.edb is the Messier catalog.

Minor planets which can ever be at least mag 13 are in asteroids.edb. Those
which are never as bright are in asteroids_dim.edb. They are named with their
sequence number followed by their common name, if one has been assigned. 
These were created using mpcorb2edb.pl on the file described below which is
courtesy Minor Planet Center. Follows is the text from their orginal
catalog file they asked to be included with with each usage:

    This file contains published orbital elements for all numbered and
    unnumbered multi-opposition minor planets for which it is possible to
    make reasonable predictions.  It also includes published elements for
    recent one-opposition minor planets and is intended to be complete
    through the last issued Daily Orbit Update MPEC.  As such it is intended
    to be of interest primarily to astrometric observers.

	Software programs may include this datafile amongst their datasets, as
	long as this header is included (it is acceptable if it is contained
	in a file separate from the actual data) and that proper attribution
	to the Minor Planet Center is given.  Credit to the individual orbit
	computers is implicit by the inclusion of a reference and the name of
	the orbit computer on each orbit record.  Information on how to obtain
	updated copies of the datafile must also be included.

	The work of the individual astrometric observers, without whom none of
	the work of the Minor Planet Center would be possible, is gratefully
	acknowledged.

    New versions of this file, updated on a daily basis, will be available at:

	    ftp://cfa-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/MPCORB/MPCORB.DAT

Much the same information is also available from Lowell Observatory. See
ftp://ftp.lowell.edu/pub/elgb/astorb.html. The script astorb2edb.pl can
be used in exactly the same way as mpcorb2edb.pl, described above.

Deep-sky entries from the Saguaro Astronomy Club database Version 6.0 are in
These entries are included but have special magnitude values of 99.9 or 79.9;
99.9 means no magnitude was available and 79.9 applies to dark nebulae. These
are mapped here to 19.99 and 19.98, respectively.

NGC, IC and Messier are Steinicke's version from Project NGC/IC, see
http://www.ngcig.org.

UGC is the Uppsala General Catalog extracted from RC3, the Third Reference
Catalog of Bright Galaxies, available from ftp://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/adc/
archives/catalogs/7/7155. N.B. magnitudes for which no entry existed in the RC3
have been set to 19.99.

PGC.edb is the Catalogue of Principal Galaxies, Georges Paturel 1989 at
ftp://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/adc/archives/catalogs/7/7119/pgc.gz
Updated with Galaxy Coordinates II, Paturel 1999 at
ftp://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/adc/archives/journal_tables/A+AS/140/89/table2.dat.gz
Entries with no Magnitude or no Major Axis have been removed.

bs.edb is the Bright Star catalog.

gcvs.edb is the General Catalog of Variable Stars.

AAVSO.edb is a list of all stars for which light curves are available from
the AAVSO. There is significant overlap with gcvs.edb but the names here
are guaranteed to be exactly suitable for the AAVSO tool database queries.

qso.edb is from "Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei (7th Ed.)", Veron-Cetty
M.-P., Veron P. ESO Scientific Report 17 (1996).

lbn.edb is Lynds' Catalogue of Bright Nebulae, 1965.

ldn.edb is Lynds' Catalogue of Dark Nebulae, 1962.

sh2.edb is the Sharpless catalogue of HII regions, 1959.

cgcg.edb is CGCG (Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies) Catalog Converted from
CGCG Catalog on the CD-ROM from the Astronomical Data Center "Selected
Astronomical Catalogs" by Matthias Cramer <cramer@freestone.net>

ppm.xe2 is the Position in Proper Motion catalog. Converted from
ftp://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/adc/archives/catalogs/1/1146, 1193 and 1208.
For completeness this also includes the 1,926 SAO stars not in the PPM,
marked as having no proper motion.

WashDouble.edb is the Washington Visual Double Star Catalog, Worley+, 1996.

hiptyc2.xe2 is a combined Hipparcos and Tycho2 catalog from the ESA
Hipparcos/Tycho mission. Converted from
ftp://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/adc/archives/catalogs/1/1259 and
ftp://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/adc/archives/catalogs/1/1239.

Orbital elements for several spacecraft are in spacecraft.edb. Updated by
Vance Haemmerle, vance@toyvax.Tucson.AZ.US.

Several comets are in comets.edb. This file is available courtesy the Minor
Planet Center at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Soft03.html.

A typical Mir element set is in mir.edb just to serve as a handy example for an
earth satellite to try out.

VLA radio calibrator sources for several wavelength bands are in vla*cm.edb.

nav.edb is the navigational stars listed in the Nautical Almanac. The names
have been changed to match the Almanac. Contributed by
mike.wescott@columbiasc.ncr.com.

hickson.edb is a list of 100 compact galaxy groups from a paper by
Paul Hickson, "Systematic properties of compact groups of galaxies",
The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 255, #2, pp. 382-391, 1982.

gsc is the GSC-ACT catalog.

usno is the USNO SA2.0 image.

IIS.edb is a typical orbital element set for the International Space Station.
Get the latest from http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/orbit/ISS/SVPOST.html and decode with tle2ebd.pl.
