| Name: | XZ Catalog of Zodiacal Stars |
| Contributor: | Jeff Medkeff (medkeff@c2i2.com) |
| Date submitted: | Feb 6, 1998 |
Comments
The XZ catalog was created at the U. S. Naval Observatory in 1977 by Richard
Schmidt and Tom Van Flandern, primarily for the purpose of generating predictions of lunar
occultations, and for analyzing timings of these events. It was designed to include all
stars from Robertson's Zodiacal Catalog (ZC), the SAO catalog, and the AGK3 catalog that
are within 6d 40' of the ecliptic, which is as far as the Moon's limb can ever get as seen
from anywhere on the Earth's surface, leaving some margin for stellar proper motions and
change in the obliquity of the ecliptic over the course of three centuries. The original
version contained 32,221 entries. Since that time, a number of changes have been made in
succeeding versions, including better positions and proper motions, and the elimination and
addition of stars. The catalog contains visual magnitudes and radial velocities as well as
astrometric data.
Last Modified May 11, 2006