Principles of astronomical catalog and data base construction and their application towards the space telescope guide star selection system
In order to provide sufficient pointing information for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Guide Star Selection System (GSSS) has to contain a catalog of 20 to 40 million objects in the range of 9.0 to 14.5 visual magnitudes. This catalog is currently being constructed from digitized Schmidt survey plates covering the entire sky. In addition, several astronomical catalogs are available on-line in the operational GSSS. Within the constraints of available storage space and operational efficiency, the best organization for the various data bases had to be derived. The catalogs are broken down into regions of approximately constant population and, therefore, varying size. Nomenclature issues, catalog contents, and access methods are also discussed.