Subject: HELP: general star data wanted.

From: cad16 at icaen.uiowa.edu (Rex Smith (CADSI))
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 13:17:47 GMT

I'm looking for the following information concerning stars:

	1.	Location in spherical (elevation and azimuth) coordinates.  
		Distance is not important to me.
	2.	Magnitude.

I am an inexperienced user of the net, so if this message is being sent to 
the wrong newsgroup, let me know.  I have tried searching some of the 
databases mentioned in the FAQ list and the data I want is probably there, but 
the task of pinpointing it looks monumental.  I am trying to write a program
that simulates a virtual planetarium.  Please e-mail any information you can
provide to cadsi at cadfx.ccad.uiowa.edu.  Thanks!

---

From: bon at lte.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de (Uwe Bonnes)
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 14:10:19 GMT

In article <1993Jul14.131747.13433 at news.uiowa.edu>, cad16 at icaen.uiowa.edu (Rex Smith (CADSI)) writes:
|> I'm looking for the following information concerning stars:
|> 
|> 	1.	Location in spherical (elevation and azimuth) coordinates.  
|> 		Distance is not important to me.
|> 	2.	Magnitude.
|> 
|> I am an inexperienced user of the net, so if this message is being sent to 
|> the wrong newsgroup, let me know.  I have tried searching some of the 
|> databases mentioned in the FAQ list and the data I want is probably there, but 
|> the task of pinpointing it looks monumental.  I am trying to write a program
|> that simulates a virtual planetarium.  Please e-mail any information you can
|> provide to cadsi at cadfx.ccad.uiowa.edu.  Thanks!

If you want to write something new, do so!
But have a look too at what exists : xephem, xsky, starchart. 

E.g. xephem exists on  export.lcs.mit.edu in /pub/contrib/xephem and has much of the data you wanted: ephem.db and the different saoxxxxx.db 

Uwe