MCKSION - McCook-Sion White Dwarf Catalog (Web Version)

Overview

The Web Version of the McCook-Sion White Dwarf Catalog contains in excess of 500 more entries than the previous published version, the 4th Edition (1999) of the Villanova White Dwarf Catalog. It is a catalog of white dwarfs which have been identified spectroscopically. For each degenerate star, the following data entries with references are provided: (1) catalog coordinate designation or WD number, (2) the right ascension and declination, (3) the spectral type based upon the new system, (4) a catalog symbol denoting binary membership, (5) proper motion and position angle, (6) broad-band UBV Photometry, V, B-V, U-B, (7) multichannel spectrophotometry, V(MC), g-r, (8) Stromgren narrow-band photometry y, b-y, u-b, (9) an absolute visual magnitude based upon the best available color-magnitude calibration or trigonometric parallax, (10) the observed radial velocity uncorrected for gravitational redshift or solar motion, and (11) the trigonometric parallax, with mean error, when available.

Note that finding charts for many of the white dwarfs present in this catalog can be found at the following URLs:

        http://procyon.lpl.arizona.edu/WD/charts/
        http://deneb.astro.warwick.ac.uk/phsaap/wdcharts/

The second URL contains the finding charts from T.R. Marsh. This is list with about 600 charts. The University of Arizona charts currently have about 2000 charts, but that list is a work in progress with the intent of eventually having all charts available.

As discussed in more detail in the HEASARC_Implementation section, this HEASARC representation of the White Dwarf Catalog contains only a subset of the data presented in either the printed version or the version available at the Villanova website, but is intended to be suitable for cross-identification purposes with other catalogs, e.g., of X-ray sources. The original sources for this catalog should always be consulted for the full set of information that is available for these white dwarfs.

Catalog Bibcode

1999ApJS..121....1M

Bulletin

The MCKSION database table was last updated on 25 April 2014.

References

G.P. McCook and E.M. Sion, "A Catalog of Spectroscopically Identified White Dwarfs [4th Edition]", ApJS, 121, 1. (1999) = CDS/ADC Catalog III/210. G.P. McCook and E.M. Sion, Web Version of the Villanova White Dwarf Catalog, http://www.astronomy.villanova.edu/WDCatalog/index.html

Provenance

This database table is based on the Web version of the Villanova White Dwarf Catalog. It was initially created by the HEASARC in May 2003. It is based on the files WD00-07.txt, WD08-15.txt, WD16-23.txt, and WDNewStars.txt obtained from

ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/

It is automatically updated periodically whenever the catalog's authors update these files.

HEASARC Implementation

This HEASARC representation of the MCKSION Catalog contains only a subset of the data presented in the printed version or in the version that is available at the Villanova website, but it is suitable for cross-identification purposes with other catalogs, e.g., of X-ray sources. The original version of this catalog contains multiple (an average of two rows per white dwarf, with some having as many as a dozen) rows for many of the white dwarfs: the second and subsequent rows for a white dwarf contain alternate values for one or more of its tabulated parameters. This HEASARC database contains only the parameters given on the first row for each white dwarf. The original version of this catalog should always be consulted for the full set of information that is available for these white dwarfs: http://www.astronomy.villanova.edu/WDCatalog/index.html This online version is maintained by the catalog's authors and contains a large number of updates and revisions that were made after the 4th Edition was published.

Parameters

Name
The standard White Dwarf (WD) designation, based always on the 1950 RA and Declination of the white dwarf. Note that, in the published version of this catalog, some of the names (indicated by the presence of the letter J at the end of the numerical string) were based on the 2000 equinox RA and Declination of the white dwarf. Stars which, due to their proximity on the sky would otherwise thus have identical catalog numbers, whether binary or not, are distinguished by using the designations .1 and .2, e.g., WD 2301-072.1 and WD 2301-072.2.

RA
The Right Ascension of the white dwarf in the selected equinox. Notice that the RAs in the originating table were given in 1950 equatorial coordinates and to a typical precision of 1 second of time.

Dec
The Declination of the white dwarf in the selected equinox. Notice that the declinations in the originating table were given in 1950 equatorial coordinates and to a typical precision of 0.1 arcminutes.

LII
The Galactic Longitude of the white dwarf.

BII
The Galactic Latitude of the white dwarf.

Spect_Type
The spectral type of the white dwarf according to the usual scheme:

          DA ...................  Only Balmer lines; no He I or metals present
          DB ...................  He I lines; no H or metals present
          DC ...................  Continuous spectrum, no lines deeper than 5%
                                  in any part of the electromagnetic spectrum
          DO ...................  He II strong; He I or H present
          DZ .................... Metal lines only; no H or He lines
          DQ ...................  Carbon features, either atomic or molecular
                                  in any part of the electromagnetic spectrum

           P   magnetic white dwarfs with detectable polarization
           H   magnetic white dwarfs without detectable polarization
           X   peculiar or unclassifiable spectrum
           E   emission lines are present
           ?   uncertain assigned classification; a colon (:) may also be used
           V   optional symbol to denote variability

A more complete description of the spectral classification can be found in the printed version of this catalog or in the ADC documentation file preface.tex which is available at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/

Note_Flag
This is a flag that is set to "B" if the white dwarf is a member of a binary, or to "N" if further information is available about this star in the file Notes.txt at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/

Ref_Spect_Type
The reference code for the spectral type. A list of the reference codes and their equivalent references can be found in the RefAlphabetical.txt file at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/

Alt_Name_1
This parameter contains an alternate name for the white dwarf (additional alternate names may be given in the printed version of this catalog, notice). A list of the naming conventions used for white dwarf stars is available in the preface.tex file at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/ while an extensive list of name cross-references is available in the file CrossRef.txt at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/ Note: Names with no letter prefix refer to the white dwarf J2000 name for the white dwarf, e.g., 160141+124441 is shorthand for WD J160141+124441.

Alt_Name_2
This parameter contains an alternate name for the white dwarf (additional alternate names may be given in the printed version of this catalog, notice). A list of the naming conventions used for white dwarf stars is available in the preface.tex file at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/ while an extensive list of name cross-references is available in the file CrossRef.txt at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/ Note: Names with no letter prefix refer to the white dwarf J2000 name for the white dwarf, e.g., 160141+124441 is shorthand for WD J160141+124441.

App_Mag
The apparent magnitude of the white dwarf in either the V-band, photographic band, or B-band, according to the value of the parameter app_mag_type.

App_Mag_Flag
This flag is set to ":" if the apparent magnitude is considered uncertain.

App_Mag_Type
This flag is set to "V" if the apparent magnitude is in the V-band, "PG" if it is a photographic magnitude, or "B"if it is in the B-band.

BV_Color
The wide-band B-V Color in the UBV system.

BV_Color_Flag
This flag is set to ":" if the wide-band B-V color is considered uncertain.

Color_Class
If the white dwarf has not been observed on the UBV system, this parameter contains the "Color Class" from either the Lowell or Luyten Proper Motion Surveys.

UB_Color
The wide-band U-B Color in the UBV system.

UB_Color_Flag
This flag is set to ":" if the wide-band U-B color is considered uncertain.

Ref_App_Mag
The reference code for the wide-band photometry. A list of the reference codes and their equivalent references can be found in the RefAlphabetical.txt file at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/

Vmag_MCS
The v magnitude from multichannel spectrophotometry.

GR_Color
The g-r color from multichannel spectrophotometry.

GR_Color_Flag
This flag is set to ":" if the multichannel g-r color is considered uncertain.

Ref_Vmag_MCS
The reference code for the multichannel spectrophotometry. A list of the reference codes and their equivalent references can be found in the RefAlphabetical.txt file at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/

Ymag
The y magnitude from Stromgren narrow-band uvby photoelectric observations.

Strom_BY_Color
The Stromgren b-y color.

Strom_UB_Color
The Stromgren u-b color.

Ref_Ymag
The reference code for the uvby photoelectric photometry. A list of the reference codes and their equivalent references can be found in the RefAlphabetical.txt file at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/

Abs_Mag
The absolute visual magnitude computed from either the trigonometric parallax, the measured colors, or taken from published compilations based upon red photometry, as specified by the value of the abs_mag_type parameter. Note that in the case of DO, DOZ, and PG 1159 stars, this is NOT the absolute magnitude but is instead a spectroscopically determined effective temperature, in K. These two contrasting cases can be easily differentiated, with the absolute magnitudes having values in the range from 0 to 25, and the effective temperatures having values > 10⁴.

Abs_Mag_Flag
This flag for the absolute magnitude is set to ":" if the value is considered uncertain, or set to "E" if the absolute magnitude can be computed from the effective temperature (as is the case for DO, DOZ, and PG 1159 white dwarf stars.

Abs_Mag_Type
This parameter specifies the method of calculation for the absolute magnitude according to the following scheme:

      0 = ???
      1 = trigonometric parallax (>0.1 arcsec)
      2 = multichannel spectrophotometric colors
      3 = uvby (Stromgren) colors
      4 = UBV photometry

Ref_Abs_Mag
This parameter specifies the reference code for the absolute magnitude according to the following scheme for numbers 5-9:

      5 = Teff value from Wesemael, Green and Liebert (1993PASP..105..761W),
          Werner and Heber (1992, in "The Atmospheres of Early-Type stars",
          ed. U. Heber & S. Jeffrey, Springer, p. 273) or
          Napiwotzki and Schonberner (1991, in "White Dwarfs", ed.
          G. Vauclair and E.M. Sion, NATO ASI Series, Series C, 336:
          Dordrecht, Kluwer, p. 39)
      6 = Liebert, Dahn and Monet (1988ApJ...332..891L)
      7 = Bergeron, Ruiz and Leggett (1997ApJS..108..339B)
      8 = Liebert et al., (1997, in "White Dwarfs", ed. J. Isern, M. Hernanz &
          Garcia-Berro, Dordrecht: Kluwer, p. 85)
      9 = Smith (1998, Ph.D Thesis, Florida Institute of Technology,
          Melbourne, FL.)

The remaining values are letter codes such as 'FR', 'OU', etc., and their equivalent references can be found in the RefAlphabetical.txt file at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog

Tot_Proper_Motion
The total proper motion in arcsec/yr. In cases where only an estimated proper motion is reported in the Lowell proper-motion surveys, this field is left blank and a corresponding code is given in the tot_proper_motion_flag field (q.v.).

Tot_Proper_Motion_Flag
This flag for the proper motion is set to ":" or "<" if the value is considered uncertain or an upper limit, respectively, or set to the values of "0", "1", "2", or "3" in cases where only an estimated proper motion is reported in the Lowell proper-motion surveys (in which cases the tot_proper_motion field is left blank) according to the following code scheme defined in Giclas et al. (1967, Lowell Obs. Bull. No. 141 and 1970, Lowell Obs. Bull. No. 153):

      0: Stars of blue color whose motions are too small to definitely
         verify on all plates.
      1:        pm <= 0.1  arcsec/yr
      2: 0.1 <= pm <  0.2  arcsec/yr
      3: 0.2 <= pm <  0.26 arcsec/yr

Dir_Proper_Motion
The position angle of the proper motion vector, in degrees.

Ref_Proper_Motion
The reference code for the proper motion data. A list of the reference codes and their equivalent references can be found in the RefAlphabetical.txt file at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/

Radial_Velocity
The observed radial velocity, uncorrected for the solar motion and gravitational redshift, in km/s.

Ref_Radial_Velocity
The reference code for the radial velocity. A list of the reference codes and their equivalent references can be found in the RefAlphabetical.txt file at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/

Trig_Parallax
The trigonometric parallax, in arcsec.

Trig_Parallax_Error
The reported mean error of the parallax, in milliarcseconds (mas).

Ref_Trig_Parallax
The reference code for the trigonometric parallax. A list of the reference codes and their equivalent references can be found in the RefAlphabetical.txt file at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/

Gmag_SDSS
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) g magnitude of the white dwarf.

SDSS_UG_Color
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) (u-g) color of the white dwarf.

SDSS_GR_Color
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) (g-r) color of the white dwarf.

SDSS_RI_Color
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) (r-i) color of the white dwarf.

SDSS_IZ_Color
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) (i-z) color of the white dwarf.

Ref_SDSS
The reference code for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) magnitude and colors of the white dwarf. A list of the reference codes and their equivalent references can be found in the RefAlphabetical.txt file at ftp://astronomy.villanova.edu/mccook/Current%20Web%20Version%20of%20WD%20Catalog/

Class
The HEASARC Browse object classification created using the spectral type information provided in the spect_type parameter.

Contact Person

Questions regarding the MCKSION database table can be addressed to the HEASARC Help Desk.

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Monday, 16-Sep-2024 17:31:00 EDT