Astronomical Catalogues and the ICHB

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The International Catalogue of Heavenly Bodies (ICHB.ORG) does not work in isolation. We build upon centuries of astronomical observation, integrating data from thousands of catalogues worldwide into a single, unified register of names for objects beyond the Solar System.

Why Catalogues Matter for ICHB

Every named star, exoplanet, galaxy, or surface feature in the ICHB register can be traced back to one or more original catalogues. Some of these catalogues are centuries old; others are modern digital surveys. Our mission is to preserve this heritage while creating a seamless, accessible system for the global community.

ICHB by the Numbers

1,000+
source catalogues integrated
100,000+
named objects
2,000+ years
of astronomical heritage preserved

Our Gratitude

We extend our deepest gratitude to the compilers, observers, and institutions behind the catalogues listed below. Their work — often painstakingly done by hand, through long nights of observation — forms the very foundation of the International Catalogue of Heavenly Bodies. By unifying this data, we ensure it remains accessible for future generations of researchers, educators, and enthusiasts.

Below is a partial list of catalogues incorporated into the ICHB. Each represents countless hours of dedication to mapping the universe.

 

🌉 A Name as the Bridge Between Catalogues

One Star — Many Designations

HD 39801
SAO 113271
HIP 27989
BD+7°1055
HR 2061
58 Orionis

All of these are Betelgeuse

A single celestial body can have dozens of catalogue numbers. Every survey, every telescope, every era assigned its own designations.

But it has only one name.

The proper name of a celestial body is the one constant anchor among thousands of catalogue identifiers. It ties together:

  • ✨ Ancient observations — Babylonian, Greek, Arabic
  • 📜 Historical records — medieval monks, early observatories
  • 🔭 Modern data — space telescopes, digital surveys
  • 🌍 Cultural heritage — names in every language of the world

“A catalogue number may change from survey to survey. But the name remains — it is the thread stretching through millennia of observations. This is why ICHB preserves and unites them all.”

ICHB is where all names meet. We do not just store catalogues — we connect them into a single story of each heavenly body.

Catalogues
⬇️
NAME
⬇️
Unified Register

📜 Historical Treasures: Ancient and Medieval Catalogues

Long before telescopes, astronomers mapped the stars with remarkable accuracy. ICHB preserves these names as cultural heritage.

🏛️ Hipparchus Catalogue (129 BC)

Region: Mediterranean

The first known star catalogue in Western astronomy. Hipparchus compared his observations with earlier Babylonian records and discovered the precession of the equinoxes. His work formed the basis for Ptolemy’s Almagest.

📖 Ptolemy’s Almagest (150 AD)

Region: Alexandria

The most influential astronomical text for over 1,000 years. Organized into 48 constellations, many still used today. Translated into Arabic, Latin, and all major languages of learning.

🕌 Al-Sufi’s Book of Fixed Stars (964 AD)

Region: Persia

masterpiece of Islamic astronomy. Combined Greek and Arabic traditions with original observations. First to describe the Andromeda Galaxy (“Little Cloud”) and Large Magellanic Cloud. Star names like Aldebaran and Betelgeuze come from this tradition.

🏯 Ancient Chinese Star Catalogues

Earliest: 4th century BC

Attributed to Shi Shen and Gan De. Independent tradition with 28 lunar mansions. Continuous records from Han Dynasty (202 BC) onward. Preserved in texts like the “Book of the Grand Historian” (Sima Qian).

🕌 Ulugh Beg’s Zij-i Sultani (1437)

Region: Samarkand

The most accurate star catalogue of the 15th century. Compiled at the Samarkand Observatory by the astronomer-king Ulugh Beg. More precise than any European catalogue until Tycho Brahe.

🌌 Tycho Brahe’s Star Catalogue (1598)

Region: Denmark

The most accurate pre-telescope catalogue. Tycho’s observations at Uraniborg were 5x more precise than any before. Used by Kepler to derive laws of planetary motion.

🪐 Exoplanet Catalogues: Worlds Beyond

ICHB integrates names for exoplanets and their host stars, preserving discoverer priority while ensuring unique identification.

🔭 NASA Exoplanet Archive

The definitive source for exoplanet data. Includes stellar parameters, transit/eclipse data, radial velocities, and links to discovery papers. Essential for exoplanet nomenclature.

📚 Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia

The oldest and most comprehensive exoplanet database. Maintained by the Paris Observatory. Includes unconfirmed candidates and detailed bibliographic data.

🔍 Exoplanet Orbit Database

Detailed orbital solutions for confirmed exoplanets. Includes eccentricity, period, mass, and discovery method. Curated by the Exoplanet Orbit Database project.

🛰️ Kepler/K2 Catalogues

NASA’s Kepler mission revolutionized exoplanet science.

🌍 TESS Objects of Interest (TOI)

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is finding exoplanets around nearby bright stars. TOI catalogue is the primary source for new discoveries in the northern and southern sky.

📡 Open Exoplanet Catalogue

A community-maintained, open-source catalogue. Includes multi-planet systems and detailed references. Machine-readable and frequently updated.

🌌 Galaxy & Deep Sky Catalogues

📡 Messier Catalogue (M)

Charles Messier’s list of “things to avoid” while comet-hunting became the most famous deep-sky catalogue. Includes galaxies (M31), nebulae (M42), and clusters (M45).

🔭 New General Catalogue (NGC/IC)

The standard reference for deep-sky objects. Compiled by J.L.E. Dreyer from Herschel’s observations. Two Index Catalogues (IC) added later. Every galaxy has an NGC number.

📊 Uppsala General Catalogue (UGC)

Comprehensive catalogue of galaxies north of declination -02°30′. Includes morphological types, diameters, and magnitudes. Often used alongside NGC.

🌌 Morphological Catalogue of Galaxies (MCG)

Boris Vorontsov-Velyaminov’s monumental work. Detailed morphological classification of galaxies, including interacting and peculiar systems.

📡 Principal Galaxies Catalogue (PGC)

One of the largest galaxy catalogues. Combines data from major surveys. The “PGC number” is often used when no NGC/IC designation exists.

🔴 Abell Catalogue of Galaxy Clusters

George Abell’s catalogue of rich galaxy clusters. Based on Palomar Sky Survey plates.

📡 Modern Digital Surveys

🔄 Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)

The most influential survey in modern astronomy. Multi-color imaging and spectroscopy. Created 3D maps of the universe.

🌠 2MASS (Two Micron All-Sky Survey)

Infrared survey covering 99.998% of the sky. Revealed brown dwarfs, hidden star clusters, and distant galaxies. Point Source Catalog and Extended Source Catalog.

🛰️ WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer)

All-sky infrared survey.

📡 ROSAT All-Sky Survey

The first imaging X-ray survey of the entire sky.

🔴 Gaia Mission

ESA’s revolutionary astrometry mission. Creating the most precise 3D map of the Milky Way. Data Release 3 (2022) includes spectra, radial velocities, and astrophysical parameters.

📡 VLSS (VLA Low-Frequency Sky Survey)

Low-frequency radio survey revealing steep-spectrum sources: old supernova remnants, giant radio galaxies, and cluster halos.

🌍 One Register to Connect Them All

ICHB doesn’t replace these catalogues — we unite them. Every name, every designation, every historical observation finds its place in our unified register.

1,000+
Catalogues integrated
100,000+
Named objects
2,000+ years
Astronomical heritage

🔍 Search the ICHB Register →

0–9

  • 0ES — Einstein Slew Survey, version 0
  • 1A, 2A, 3A — Lists of X-ray sources from the Ariel V satellite
  • 1C — First Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources
  • 1ES — Einstein Slew Survey
  • 1FGL, 2FGL — Lists of gamma-ray sources from the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
  • 1RXH — ROSAT HRI Pointed Observations
  • 1RXS — ROSAT All-Sky Bright Source Catalogue, ROSAT All-Sky Survey Faint Source Catalog
  • 1SWASP — SuperWASP
  • 2A — see 1A
  • 2C — Second Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources
  • 2E — The Einstein Observatory Soft X-ray Source List
  • 2MASS — Two Micron All Sky Survey
  • 2MASP — Two Micron All Sky Survey, Prototype
  • 2MASSI — Two Micron All Sky Survey, Incremental release
  • 2MASSW — Two Micron All Sky Survey, Working database
  • 2MUCD — Ultracool Dwarfs from the 2MASS Catalog
  • 2MASX — Two Micron All Sky Survey, Extended source catalogue
  • 3A — see 1A
  • 3C (and 3CR) — Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources (and revised)
  • 4C — Fourth Cambridge Survey of celestial radio sources
  • 5C — Fifth Cambridge Survey of Radio Sources
  • 6C — Sixth Cambridge Survey of radio sources
  • 7C — Seventh Cambridge Survey
  • 8C — Eighth Cambridge Survey
  • 8pc — 8 parsec listing, all stars within 8 parsec
  • 9C — Ninth Cambridge survey at 15 GHz

A

  • Abell — Abell catalogue of galaxy clusters  
  • AC — Astrographic Catalogue
  • ADS — Aitken Double Star Catalogue
  • AG, AGK, AGKR — Astronomische Gesellschaft Katalog
  • Al-Sufi — Book of Fixed Stars (964 AD)  
  • ALS — UBV beta database for Case-Hamburg Northern and Southern Luminous Stars
  • APM — Automatic Plate Measuring machine
  • Arp — Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies (includes famous interacting galaxies)
  • ASCC — N.V. Kharchenko, All-Sky Compiled Catalogue (2001)

B

  • B — E. E. Barnard’s List of Dark Nebulae
  • BAC — Bordeaux Astrographic Catalog
  • BAY — Uranometria (Bayer designation, 1603)   
  • BCVS — Bibliographic Catalogue of Variable Stars
  • BD — Bonner Durchmusterung (1863, first major modern catalogue)
  • BDS — Burnham Double Star Catalogue
  • Be — Berkeley open cluster list
  • BEN — Jack Bennett Catalog
  • BPM / L — Bruce Proper Motion Survey (Luyten)
  • BRI — Bj, R, I survey

C

  • C — Caldwell catalogue
  • Catalog of Nearby Habitable Systems
  • CCDM — Catalog of Components of Double and Multiple Stars
  • CCO — Catalogue of Cometary Orbits
  • CCS — General Catalogue of Cool Carbon Stars
  • CCS2 — General Catalog of S Stars, second edition
  • CD / CoD — Cordoba Durchmusterung
  • CDIMP — Catalogue of Discoveries and Identifications of Minor Planets
  • CEL — Celescope Catalogue of Ultraviolet Magnitudes
  • CGO — Catalogue of Galactic O Stars
  • CGSS — Catalogue of Galactic S Stars
  • CIO — Catalog of Infrared Observations
  • CMC — Carlsberg Meridian Catalogue
  • Col — Collinder catalog
  • CoRoT — CoRoT Catalogue
  • CoRoT-Exo — CoRoT Catalogue
  • CPC — Cape Photographic Catalogue
  • CPD — Cape Photographic Durchmusterung
  • CSI — Catalog of Stellar Identifications
  • CSV — Catalog of Suspected Variables
  • CSS — General Catalogue of S Stars

D

  • D — James Dunlop catalogue of nebulae and clusters in the southern hemisphere
  • DA — Dominion Observatory List A
  • DCld — A catalogue of southern dark clouds
  • DENIS — Deep Near Infrared Survey
  • DENIS-P — Deep Near Infrared Survey, Provisory designation
  • DM — Durchmusterung (BD, CD, CPD)
  • DO — Dearborn Observatory
  • DoDz — Dolidze-Dzimselejsvili open clusters catalogue
  • Dolidze — Dolidze clusters list
  • DR — Downes and Rinehart microwave sources

E

  • EC — Edinburgh-Cape Blue Object Survey
  • EGGR — Eggen-Greenstein proper motion star
  • EMP — Ephemerides of Minor Planets
  • ESO — European Southern Observatory Catalog
  • Exoplanet Catalogue — NASA Exoplanet Archive
  • Exoplanet Data Explorer — exoplanets.org
  • Exoplanet Orbit Database
  • Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia — Paris Observatory

F

  • FCC — Fornax Cluster Catalogue
  • FK4 — Fourth Fundamental Catalogue
  • FK5 — Fifth Fundamental Catalogue
  • FLM — Historia coelestis Britannica (Flamsteed designation)
  • FSC — Faint Source Catalogue

G

  • G — Lowell Proper Motion Survey (Giclas)
  • GD — Lowell Proper Motion Survey (Giclas dwarf)
  • GR* — Lowell Proper Motion Survey (Giclas red star)
  • HG — Lowell Proper Motion Survey (Giclas Hyades)
  • Gaia — Gaia Catalogue
  • GC — General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters
  • GC (Boss) — Boss general catalogue
  • GCRV — General Catalogue of Stellar Radial Velocities
  • GCTP — General Catalogue of Trigonometric Parallaxes
  • GCVS — General Catalog of Variable Stars
  • Gl / GJ — Gliese–Jahreiß catalogue (nearby stars)
  • GOS — Galactic O Star Catalogue
  • GOSSS — Galactic O-Star Spectroscopic Survey
  • GSC — Guide Star Catalog
  • GSC2 / GSC II — Guide Star Catalog II
  • GSPC — Guide Star Photometric Catalog
  • GSPC2 — Guide Star Photometric Catalog, 2nd
  • Gum — Gum catalog of emission nebulae

H

  • HD — Henry Draper Catalogue
  • HCG — Hickson Compact Group
  • HDE — Henry Draper Extension
  • HE — Hamburg/ESO Survey
  • HEC — The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog
  • Hen — Henize Catalogues of Hα-Emission Stars and Nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds
  • HIC — Hipparcos Input Catalogue
  • HIP — Hipparcos Catalogue
  • HIPASS — HI Parkes All-Sky Survey
  • HR — Bright Star Catalogue (Harvard Revised Catalogue)
  • HV — Harvard Variable

I

  • IC — Index Catalogue
  • IC I — Index Catalogue I
  • IC II — Index Catalogue II
  • IDS — Index Catalogue of Visual Double Stars
  • IGR — Integral Gamma-Ray source
  • IRAS — Infrared Astronomical Satellite
  • IRS — International Reference Star

J

  • J — Robert Jonckheere’s catalogue of double star observations
  • JW — Jones’ & Walker’s list of stars near the Orion Nebula

K

  • K2 — K2 (Kepler extended mission) catalog
  • Kepler — Kepler catalog
  • KIC — Kepler Input Catalog
  • KGZ — Catalogue de Zimmerman
  • KOI — Kepler Object of Interest
  • KUG — Kiso Survey for Ultraviolet-excess Galaxies
  • KUV — Kiso observatory, UV-excess object

L

  • L / BPM — Bruce Proper Motion Survey (Luyten)
  • Lac — Catalog of Nebulae of the Southern Sky (Lacaille)
  • LBN — Lynds’ Catalogue of Bright Nebulae
  • LDN — Lynds’ Catalogue of Dark Nebulae
  • LDS — Luyten Double Star catalogue
  • LEDA — Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database
  • LFT — Luyten Five-Tenths catalogue
  • LG11 — Lépine & Gaidos 2011, bright M dwarfs
  • LHS — Luyten Half-Second catalogue
  • LP — Luyten-Palomar Survey
  • LPM — Luyten Proper-Motion Catalogue
  • LS — Luminous Stars catalogues
  • LSN — Luminous Stars in the Northern Milky Way
  • LSPM — Lépine-Shara Proper Motion catalog
  • LSR — Lepine-Shara-Rich catalogue
  • LSS — Luminous Stars in the Southern Milky Way
  • LTT — Luyten Two-Tenths catalogue

M

  • M — Messier Catalogue
  • MACHO — MACHO Project lensing events
  • MACHO-LMC — MACHO Project Large Magellanic Cloud Microlensing
  • MACHO-SML — MACHO Project Small Magellanic Cloud Microlensing
  • MAXI — Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image
  • McC — McCormick Observatory Catalog
  • MCG — Morphological Catalogue of Galaxies
  • MCW — Morgan, Code, and Whitford
  • Mel — Melotte Catalogue of Deep Sky Objects
  • MPC — Minor Planet Circulars
  • MSH — Mills, Slee, Hill – Catalog of Radio Sources
  • MW — Mandel-Wilson Catalogue of Unexplored Nebulae

N

  • NASA Exoplanet Archive
  • NASA Star and Exoplanet Database
  • N30 — Catalog of Standard Stars Based on the Normal System N30
  • NGC — New General Catalogue
  • NHICAT — Northern HIPASS Catalog
  • NLTT — New Luyten Two-Tenths Catalogue
  • NOMAD — The Naval Observatory Merged Astrometric Dataset
  • NStars — Nearby Stars Database
  • NSV — New Catalogue of Suspected Variable Stars

O

  • OEC — Open Exoplanet Catalogue
  • OGLE — Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment
  • OSC — Open Supernova Catalog
  • OSS — Ohio Sky Survey
  • OTC — Open TDE Catalog

P

  • PAL — Palomar Globular Clusters
  • PGC — Principal Galaxies Catalogue
  • PHL — Palomar-Haro-Luyten catalogue
  • PK — Catalogue of galactic planetary nebulae (Perek-Kohoutek)
  • PLX — General Catalogue of Trigonometric Stellar Parallaxes
  • PMC — Tokyo Photoelectric Meridian Circle Catalog
  • PNG — Strasbourg-ESO Catalogue of Galactic Planetary Nebulae
  • PPM — Positions and Proper Motions Star Catalogues
  • Ptolemy — Almagest (150 AD)
  • PTFO — Palomar Transient Factory

Q

  • QSO — Revised and Updated Catalog of Quasi-stellar Objects

R

  • RAFGL — Revised Air Force Geophysical Laboratory
  • RC — Reference Catalogue
  • RC2 — Reference Catalogue, 2nd edition
  • RC3 — Reference Catalogue, 3rd edition
  • RCW — A catalogue of Hα-emission regions in the southern Milky Way
  • RECONS — Research Consortium on Nearby Stars
  • RNGC — Revised New General Catalogue
  • Ross — Ross Catalogue of New Proper Motion Stars
  • ROT — Catalogue of Rotational Velocities of the Stars
  • RSA — Revised Shapley-Ames Catalogue
  • RST — Catalogue of southern double stars (Rossiter)
  • RX — ROSAT observations

S

  • SACS — Second Astrolabe Catalogue of Santiago
  • SAO — Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog
  • SCM — Schwarz, Corradi, Melnick catalogue
  • SCR — SuperCOSMOS-RECONS
  • SDSS — Sloan Digital Sky Survey
  • SDSSp — Sloan Digital Sky Survey, provisory
  • 1SDSS — Sloan Digital Sky Survey, 1st release
  • Sh — Sharpless catalog of HII regions
  • SIMBAD — SIMBAD Astronomical Database
  • SIMP — Sondage Infrarouge de Mouvement Propre
  • SIPS — Southern Infrared Proper Motion Survey
  • SPF2 — Second Cat of Fundamental Stars
  • SPF3 — Third Santiago-Pulkovo Fundamental Star Catalogue
  • SPOCS — Spectroscopic Properties of Cool Stars
  • SRS — Southern Reference Star Catalog
  • SSSPM — SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey
  • SSTc2d — Spitzer Space Telescope c2d Legacy Source
  • STF — Struve double star catalogue
  • Stock — Stock open clusters

T

  • TAC — Twin Astrograph Catalog
  • TD1 — Catalogue of stellar UV fluxes (TD1 satellite)
  • Terzan — Agop Terzan Catalogue of Globular Clusters
  • TESS — TESS Objects of Interest (TOI)
  • TIC — Tycho Input Catalog
  • TrES — Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey
  • TrES-And0 — TrES planetary candidate in Andromeda
  • TVLM — Tinney’s Very Low Mass Catalogue
  • TYC — Tycho Catalogue
  • TYC2 — Tycho-2 Catalogue
  • Tycho — Tycho Brahe’s Star Catalogue (1598)
  • Trumpler — Robert Julius Trumpler’s open cluster list

U

  • UBV — Photoelectric Catalogue, UBV photometry
  • UBV M — UBV Photoelectric Photometry Catalogue
  • UCAC — USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog
  • UGC — Uppsala General Catalogue
  • Ulugh Beg — Zij-i Sultani (1437) — most accurate 15th century catalogue
  • USNO — US Naval Observatory catalogues
  • USNO-A1.0 — US Naval Observatory, A1.0 catalogue
  • USNO-A2.0 — US Naval Observatory, A2.0 catalogue
  • USNO-B1.0 — US Naval Observatory, B1.0 catalogue
  • uvby98 — uvbyβ photoelectric photometric catalogue

V

  • vB — Van Biesbroeck’s star catalog
  • VCC — Virgo Cluster Catalog
  • VdB — Van den Bergh catalogue of reflection nebulae
  • VV — Vorontsov-Vel’yaminov Interacting Galaxies

W

  • W — Radiosource (Westerhout)
  • W20 — Washington 20 Catalog
  • WASP — Wide Angle Search for Planets survey
  • WASP0-TR — Wide Angle Search for Planets, Transit
  • WDS — Washington Double Star Catalog
  • WISE — Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
  • WISEP — WISEP catalogue
  • WNC — Winnecke Catalogue of Double Stars
  • Wo — Woolley Nearby Star Catalogue
  • Wolf — Catalogue of High Proper Motion Stars (Wolf)
  • WR — Catalog of Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars

X

  • XBS — XMM-Newton Bright Source
  • XBSS — XMM-Newton Bright Serendipitous Survey
  • XEST — XMM-Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud
  • XEST-OM — XEST Optical/UV Monitor
  • XTE — X-ray Timing Explorer

Y

  • YZ — Yale Observatory Zone Catalog

Z

  • Z — Fritz Zwicky Catalogue of galaxies and clusters of galaxies

This list is continuously updated as more catalogues are integrated into the ICHB register. If you represent a catalogue not listed here and wish to contribute data, please contact us.

More information: ICHB.ORG — The International Catalogue of Heavenly Bodies

 

Summary
Review Date
Reviewed Item
Astronomical catalogues
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