Home > Henry Draper Catalogue

The catalogue was first published between 1918 and 1924. It was compiled by Annie Jump Cannon and her co-workers at Harvard College Observatory under the supervision of Edward C. Pickering, and was named in honour of Henry Draper, whose widow donated the money required to finance it.

Stars contained in the catalogue are of medium magnitude, down to about 9^m (about 50 times dimmer than the faintest stars visible with the naked eye). This makes them average-looking in amateur telescopes, and bright stars for professional instruments. The catalogue covers the whole sky and is notable as the first large-scale attempt to catalogue spectral types of stars.

HD numbers are widely used today for stars which have no Bayer or Flamsteed designationFlamsteed designations for stars are similar to Bayer designations, except that they use numbers instead of Greek letters. Each star is assigned a number and the Latin genitive of the constellation it lies in. The numbers were originally assigned in order. Stars numbered 1-225300 are from the original catalogue and are numbered in order of right ascensionRight ascension (RA; symbol α: Greek letter alpha) is the astronomical term for one of the two coordinates of a point on the celestial sphere when using the equatorial coordinate system. The other coordinate is the declination. RA is comparable to l for 1900.0 epochIn astronomy, an epoch is a moment in time for which celestial coordinates or orbital elements are specified. In the case of celestial coordinates, the position at other times can be computed by taking into account precession and proper motion. In the cas. Stars in the range 225301-359083 are from the 19491949 is the common year starting on Saturday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 4 RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage January 4 February 22 Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, extension of the catalogue. The notation HDE is used only for stars in this extension, but even these are usually denoted HD as the numbering ensures that there can be no ambiguity.