USNO Bright Star Catalog, Version 1

Abstract

Abstract The USNO Bright Star Catalog (UBSC) is a new astrometric catalog of the 1423 brightest stars covering the entire sky, which is published online. It is nearly complete to V = 3 mag except for three stellar systems. A combined astrometric solution of the Hipparcos Intermediate Astrometry Data and two dedicated ground-based campaigns in 2013–2020 is the basis for this catalog. The astrometric parameters for each star include position coordinates, parallax, and proper motion components, and their covariances on the Hipparcos mean epoch 1991.25. 64% of the catalog are flagged as known or suspected double or binary stars. UBSC lists 68 stars missing in Gaia EDR3 and another 114 stars without Gaia parallaxes or proper motions. The formal precision achieved for proper motions is comparable to that of Gaia.