<p>You can probably extract the data from <A HREF="http://www.stellarium.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Stellarium</A>. Also, does it need to be all sky, or not? What Wavelength? If you want an all sky visible catalogue, the United States Navy produced the <A HREF="http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astrometry/optical-IR-prod/nomad" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NOMAD</A> catalog by combining <A HREF="http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/2mass.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2MASS</A>, <A HREF="http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astrometry/optical-IR-prod/ucac" rel="nofollow noreferrer">UCAC</A>, and the <A HREF="http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astrometry/optical-IR-prod/usno-b1.0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">USNO-B</A> catalog. You could also use the <A HREF="https://www.aavso.org/apass" rel="nofollow noreferrer">APASS</A> all sky catalog, meant for helping astronomers with photometric calibration.</p>

<p>If you don't care about whether the wavelength is in the visible, CalTech's <A HREF="http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/frontpage/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">IRSA</A> has a bunch of infrared source catalogs (the smallest/shallowest one being the IRAS catalog). The deepest all sky infrared catalogs are the <A HREF="http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/wise.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">WISE</A> sets.</p>

<p>Other good databases to dig in to include the <A HREF="https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/hipparcos.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Hipparcos</A> set of parallaxes, or some part of the <A HREF="http://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Gaia catalog</A>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-07-12T19:53:25.190Z
Unfortunately, the http://www.usno.navy.mil/ web site seems to have gone bye-bye.
Edward Falk
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-22T06:23:33.537Z
2017-09-24T18:44:15.077Z
2017-09-24T18:44:15.077Z
Sean Lake
<p>If you are looking for stars that are visible to the unaided eye, the <a href="http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/catalogs/bsc5.html" rel="noreferrer">Yale Bright Star Catalog</a> is a good source. It includes 9100 stars to approximately magnitude 7 and is available in ASCII and binary formats -- perfect for your database project. Based on the date, time, latitude and longitude, you can calculate which stars are above the horizon.</p>

<p>As someone pointed out, the planets move day-to-day, week-to-week, or month-to-month through the constellations. (The Moon moves much faster than that, going through the complete zodiac in about 27.3 days.) You would need to calculate the position of the planets in order to determine if they are visible or not. That might be beyond the scope of your "database" project.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-07-12T19:53:08.620Z
I've downloaded the SAO and PPM databases as well, but the Yale database is frankly the most practical for my purposes. I had an earlier version of it that included the actual names of the stars, which I really liked. The most recent version (bsc5) has the names in a separate file, but they're kind of useless because a lot of them are just comments like "See HR 1543". Is there a relatively simple database that includes the basic names?
Edward Falk
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-22T16:47:15.663Z
2017-09-22T16:47:15.663Z
JohnHoltz
<p>I'm trying to do a project for a databases class where I have a user enter their current location and I tell them what constellations/planets/etc are visible in their area. I've seen this data compiled into images, PDFs, and website entries, but I can't seem to find a csv for it. I get that this data is bound to be massive or extremely complex, but I feel like there should be something out there. Any clues?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-22T12:36:08.643Z
Did you try  googling "catalog of visible stars" ?  lots of hits there
Carl Witthoft
<data-analysis><constellations><night-sky>
Where can I find a visible star dataset?
lmotl3
# Where can I find a visible star dataset?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-09-22)

I'm trying to do a project for a databases class where I have a user enter their current location and I tell them what constellations/planets/etc are visible in their area. I've seen this data compiled into images, PDFs, and website entries, but I can't seem to find a csv for it. I get that this data is bound to be massive or extremely complex, but I feel like there should be something out there. Any clues?

**Tags:** data-analysis, constellations, night-sky

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Did you try  googling "catalog of visible stars" ?  lots of hits there  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2017-09-22. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

If you are looking for stars that are visible to the unaided eye, the [Yale Bright Star Catalog](http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/catalogs/bsc5.html) is a good source. It includes 9100 stars to approximately magnitude 7 and is available in ASCII and binary formats -- perfect for your database project. Based on the date, time, latitude and longitude, you can calculate which stars are above the horizon.

As someone pointed out, the planets move day-to-day, week-to-week, or month-to-month through the constellations. (The Moon moves much faster than that, going through the complete zodiac in about 27.3 days.) You would need to calculate the position of the planets in order to determine if they are visible or not. That might be beyond the scope of your "database" project.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: I've downloaded the SAO and PPM databases as well, but the Yale database is frankly the most practical for my purposes. I had an earlier version of it that included the actual names of the stars, which I really liked. The most recent version (bsc5) has the names in a separate file, but they're kind of useless because a lot of them are just comments like "See HR 1543". Is there a relatively simple database that includes the basic names?  

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### Answer by username_2 on 2017-09-22. Score: 4

You can probably extract the data from [Stellarium](http://www.stellarium.org/). Also, does it need to be all sky, or not? What Wavelength? If you want an all sky visible catalogue, the United States Navy produced the [NOMAD](http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astrometry/optical-IR-prod/nomad) catalog by combining [2MASS](http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/2mass.html), [UCAC](http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astrometry/optical-IR-prod/ucac), and the [USNO-B](http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astrometry/optical-IR-prod/usno-b1.0) catalog. You could also use the [APASS](https://www.aavso.org/apass) all sky catalog, meant for helping astronomers with photometric calibration.

If you don't care about whether the wavelength is in the visible, CalTech's [IRSA](http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/frontpage/) has a bunch of infrared source catalogs (the smallest/shallowest one being the IRAS catalog). The deepest all sky infrared catalogs are the [WISE](http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/wise.html) sets.

Other good databases to dig in to include the [Hipparcos](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/hipparcos.html) set of parallaxes, or some part of the [Gaia catalog](http://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/).

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Unfortunately, the http://www.usno.navy.mil/ web site seems to have gone bye-bye.  

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