<p>There are <em>lots</em> of galaxy catalogs.</p>

<p>If you're only interested in nearby galaxies, there are things like the <a href="https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/w3browse/all/neargalcat.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Updated Nearby Galaxy Catalog</a>; downloadable versions can be found <a href="http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/145/101" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>.</p>

<p>A classic all-sky galaxy catalog is the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3, published in the early 1990s), which you can query <a href="http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR?-source=VII/155" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>; if you follow
the "FTP" links, you can find links to download the actual catalog.</p>

<p>(The HyperLEDA catalog that Dr. Chuck mentioned started as the RC3, but has various
bits of data and re-classifications added more or less continuously since.)</p>

<p>A more recent catalog, based on the near-infrared observations of the 2 Micron All-Sky
Survey (2MASS) is the <a href="http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/2mass/XSCz/index.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2MASS Galaxy Redshift Catalog</a>, with about one million galaxies.</p>

<p>Even larger catalogs (though not covering the whole sky) can be found among the data
products of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, e.g. <a href="https://www.sdss.org/dr14/data_access/value-added-catalogs/?vac_id=large-scale-structure-galaxy-catalogs" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a></p>

<p>Many more catalogs exist, though some do not have accurate redshift information (meaning their distance from us is unknown or uncertain), and many are only for parts of the sky, sometimes very small regions (e.g., catalogs from <em>Hubble Space Telescope</em> observations).</p>

<p>(As for that video, I suspect very little is based on real data once you get beyond the Andromeda Galaxy...)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T19:56:55.910Z
Wondering where that nearby galaxy catalog data table can be downloaded, if it is [this](ftp://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/heasarc/dbase/dump/).
Lance Pollard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T19:59:29.180Z
I am assuming the second link data download is [here](http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/ftp/I/348), though I wonder what that number 348 is, as there are a lot of numbers in the parent directory [here](http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/ftp/I/), not sure which one is the right one, if they are just updates, or they each contain a latest release sort of thing.
Lance Pollard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T20:00:40.070Z
Thanks for the note on the video, good to know I'm not missing something there.
Lance Pollard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T20:03:06.990Z
There are 8 links to data on the last link [here](http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/2mass/XSCz/links.html). I'm assuming the data you're mentioning is scattered throughout those places.
Lance Pollard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T20:07:15.373Z
File to download some stuff https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/Planck/release_2/all-sky-maps/scripts/get_planck_maps_primary.sh
Lance Pollard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-22T09:39:57.440Z
@LancePollard -- You may be right about the 2MASS Galaxy Redshift Catalog, in that it may not have ever been released as a downloadable (or even searchable) catalog. I'll see about amending my answer.
Peter Erwin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-22T09:44:33.907Z
@LancePollard -- I added a link to the Vizier page for the Updated Nearby Galaxy Catalog; if you click on the "FTP" tab, you get links to the files.
Peter Erwin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T19:37:54.613Z
2018-11-22T09:43:18.120Z
2018-11-22T09:43:18.120Z
Peter Erwin
<p>There is the <a href="https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/db-perl/W3Browse/w3table.pl?tablehead=name%3Dugc&amp;Action=More+Options" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Uppsala General Catalog of Galaxies</a> </p>

<p>It has galaxies down to 19 magnitude. It doesn't have distances, but it does have radial velocity.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T09:22:14.853Z
Nice, wondering if you wouldn't mind explaining how to download the data. It lead me [here](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/cookbook/finding.html), so it seems the ASCII representation is all [here](ftp://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/heasarc/dbase/dump/) I'm guessing.
Lance Pollard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T08:49:11.847Z
2018-11-21T08:49:11.847Z
James K
<p>There is the HyperLeda catalog <a href="http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/</a>, which has about 5 million galaxies, with redshift for about 3 million (if I understand the summary).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T09:16:35.860Z
Awesome! So here's where I went from there (clicking in "Basic Data"): [1](http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/a113/) -> [2](http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/B.cgi?n=a101&b=51966), [3](http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/search.html?PGC982565), [4](http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/aladin/aladin.html?B233750.4-102145) (nice picture, but don't see where the data is yet). Please explain how to download _all_ of the data at once, maybe there is an FTP site or something, though it [doesn't look like it](https://www.google.com/search?q=ftp+site%3Aleda.univ-lyon1.fr&oq=ftp+site%3Aleda.univ-lyon1.fr) :/
Lance Pollard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T09:45:05.697Z
Lance, I don’t have any experience using the data. Sorry I can’t help.
Dr Chuck
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T09:03:13.563Z
2018-11-21T09:03:13.563Z
Dr Chuck
<p>I have seen the Gaia project from <a href="https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/3668/where-can-i-find-a-catalog-of-all-stars-in-the-milky-way">here</a> which is about mapping the <em>stars</em> in the Milky Way galaxy. But I'm wondering if there is any open data on the positions (or something like "positions" since it probably not calculable now), or "coordinates", of the <em>galaxies</em> in the visible universe, as opposed to the stars. I wonder how animations such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiN6Ag5-DrU" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a> (a time=1m30s point it shows the galaxies zooming out from the Milky Way) get their data on the positions of the galaxies.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T20:40:29.850Z
The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (aka NED) might be what you are looking for. It is fully searchable/queryable.
ProfRob
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T21:09:26.483Z
@RobJeffries Thank you. Wondering if you know if they have an FTP or download or anything. It looks like NED might be an aggregation of other datasets ([here](https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/Documents/Holdings/Sets)), but maybe they offer this aggregated data in a nicer downloadable format somewhere.
Lance Pollard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-21T23:15:02.707Z
It contains half a billion objects.
ProfRob
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-22T09:22:00.820Z
The problem with entities like NED (and, to a slightly lesser degree HyperLEDA) is that they aggregate data from many different, heterogeneous sources. Big, nearby galaxies may have hundreds or even thousands of different types of data, including dozens of actual images and spectra and hundreds of literature references; very small, faint, and/or high-redshift galaxies might have little more than coordinates and a handful of brightness measurements. It's not something that can be organized into a single table for downloading.
Peter Erwin
<galaxy><data-analysis>
Catalog of Galaxies in the Visible Universe
Lance Pollard
# Catalog of Galaxies in the Visible Universe

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-11-21)

I have seen the Gaia project from [here](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/3668/where-can-i-find-a-catalog-of-all-stars-in-the-milky-way) which is about mapping the *stars* in the Milky Way galaxy. But I'm wondering if there is any open data on the positions (or something like "positions" since it probably not calculable now), or "coordinates", of the *galaxies* in the visible universe, as opposed to the stars. I wonder how animations such as [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiN6Ag5-DrU) (a time=1m30s point it shows the galaxies zooming out from the Milky Way) get their data on the positions of the galaxies.

**Tags:** galaxy, data-analysis

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (aka NED) might be what you are looking for. It is fully searchable/queryable.  
> **username_0**: @RobJeffries Thank you. Wondering if you know if they have an FTP or download or anything. It looks like NED might be an aggregation of other datasets ([here](https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/Documents/Holdings/Sets)), but maybe they offer this aggregated data in a nicer downloadable format somewhere.  
> **username_1**: It contains half a billion objects.  
> **username_2**: The problem with entities like NED (and, to a slightly lesser degree HyperLEDA) is that they aggregate data from many different, heterogeneous sources. Big, nearby galaxies may have hundreds or even thousands of different types of data, including dozens of actual images and spectra and hundreds of literature references; very small, faint, and/or high-redshift galaxies might have little more than coordinates and a handful of brightness measurements. It's not something that can be organized into a single table for downloading.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-11-21. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

There are *lots* of galaxy catalogs.

If you're only interested in nearby galaxies, there are things like the [Updated Nearby Galaxy Catalog](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/w3browse/all/neargalcat.html); downloadable versions can be found [here](http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/145/101).

A classic all-sky galaxy catalog is the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3, published in the early 1990s), which you can query [here](http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR?-source=VII/155); if you follow
the "FTP" links, you can find links to download the actual catalog.

(The HyperLEDA catalog that Dr. username_4 mentioned started as the RC3, but has various
bits of data and re-classifications added more or less continuously since.)

A more recent catalog, based on the near-infrared observations of the 2 Micron All-Sky
Survey (2MASS) is the [2MASS Galaxy Redshift Catalog](http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/2mass/XSCz/index.html), with about one million galaxies.

Even larger catalogs (though not covering the whole sky) can be found among the data
products of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, e.g. [here](https://www.sdss.org/dr14/data_access/value-added-catalogs/?vac_id=large-scale-structure-galaxy-catalogs)

Many more catalogs exist, though some do not have accurate redshift information (meaning their distance from us is unknown or uncertain), and many are only for parts of the sky, sometimes very small regions (e.g., catalogs from *Hubble Space Telescope* observations).

(As for that video, I suspect very little is based on real data once you get beyond the Andromeda Galaxy...)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Wondering where that nearby galaxy catalog data table can be downloaded, if it is [this](ftp://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/heasarc/dbase/dump/).  
> **username_0**: I am assuming the second link data download is [here](http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/ftp/I/348), though I wonder what that number 348 is, as there are a lot of numbers in the parent directory [here](http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/ftp/I/), not sure which one is the right one, if they are just updates, or they each contain a latest release sort of thing.  
> **username_0**: Thanks for the note on the video, good to know I'm not missing something there.  
> **username_0**: There are 8 links to data on the last link [here](http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/2mass/XSCz/links.html). I'm assuming the data you're mentioning is scattered throughout those places.  
> **username_0**: File to download some stuff https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/Planck/release_2/all-sky-maps/scripts/get_planck_maps_primary.sh  
> **username_2**: @username_0 -- You may be right about the 2MASS Galaxy Redshift Catalog, in that it may not have ever been released as a downloadable (or even searchable) catalog. I'll see about amending my answer.  
> **username_2**: @username_0 -- I added a link to the Vizier page for the Updated Nearby Galaxy Catalog; if you click on the "FTP" tab, you get links to the files.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-11-21. Score: 1

There is the [Uppsala General Catalog of Galaxies](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/db-perl/W3Browse/w3table.pl?tablehead=name%3Dugc&Action=More+Options)

It has galaxies down to 19 magnitude. It doesn't have distances, but it does have radial velocity.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Nice, wondering if you wouldn't mind explaining how to download the data. It lead me [here](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/cookbook/finding.html), so it seems the ASCII representation is all [here](ftp://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/heasarc/dbase/dump/) I'm guessing.  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2018-11-21. Score: 1

There is the HyperLeda catalog <http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/>, which has about 5 million galaxies, with redshift for about 3 million (if I understand the summary).

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Awesome! So here's where I went from there (clicking in "Basic Data"): [1](http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/a113/) -> [2](http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/B.cgi?n=a101&b=51966), [3](http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/search.html?PGC982565), [4](http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/aladin/aladin.html?B233750.4-102145) (nice picture, but don't see where the data is yet). Please explain how to download _all_ of the data at once, maybe there is an FTP site or something, though it [doesn't look like it](https://www.google.com/search?q=ftp+site%3Aleda.univ-lyon1.fr&oq=ftp+site%3Aleda.univ-lyon1.fr) :/  
> **username_4**: username_0, I don’t have any experience using the data. Sorry I can’t help.  

---

