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From: space@mit-mc
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: nearby stars
Message-ID: <1004@mordor.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 8-Mar-85 06:29:55 EST
Article-I.D.: mordor.1004
Posted: Fri Mar  8 06:29:55 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 11-Mar-85 05:22:12 EST
Sender: daemon@mordor.UUCP
Lines: 76

From: 

I've been reading INFO-SPACE for several months now, and I'm not sure if
you folks can help, but I'm getting desperate. Here's the story:

I'm a contributing editor for BYTE Magazine.  During the past few months,
I've written a 3-D star map program for the Macintosh. It shows Sol and
nearby stars as a cluster viewed from some imaginary point outside.  You
can reset the origin, view along different axes, scale the display, and
filter out stars based on class, count (single/binary/trinary), and distance
from the origin.  I got my data base from an old SF role-playing game, 
UNIVERSE (from the now-defunct SPI), which has a nice map of all the star
within ~30 ly. of Sol.  All well and fine.

BYTE wants me to write this program up as an article for the July ("Computers
and Space") issue.  That's fine, but it causes a few problems.  Most users
are going to want to have a star list that uses RA/DEC/PAR; the UNIVERSE map
has everything converted to a Cartesian grid with 1 unit = 1 ly.  No problem;
the changes to the program take an hour or two.  Now I just need to run to
a local university library and get a list of nearby stars.

Problem:  most references only list the nearest 25 stars, and most of those
are based on van de Kamp's 1953 list (stars w/in 5 parsecs).  I *do* find
Allen's "Astrophysical Quantities" (3rd ed., 1973), which does have the 100
nearest stars; however, the UNIVERSE map has nearly double that number, and
the program doesn't look nearly as impressive with the smaller list.  Visits
to two universities (UCSD, SDSU), both to their libraries and their astronomy
departments, yield nothing more except a few passing reference to the "Catalog
of Nearby Stars".  In the meantime, the first deadline for my article has come
and gone, and the managing editor is wondering where my article is.

Request:  can any of you out there get me a list of the 200 or so (the more
the better!) stars nearest Sol?  For each system, I need the name, right
ascension, declination, and parallax, and the class/subclass/size (all I
really care about is dwarf/nodwarf) of the components.  For example:
`
NamRA:	HH  MM	D MM   PAR	A	B	C
Sirius			 6  43  -16 39   377	A1	dA5
BD +50			10   8	      49 42   219	K7
36 Ophiuchi		17  1-26 32   184	K1	K1	K5

and so on.  The list does *not* have to be sorted by distance; my program
handles that.  The "cleaner" and more up-to-date your list, the better.  I
noticed discrepancies between the different lists I looked at; I would like
(as much as possible) to avoid letters saying, "You fool!  Don't you know
that Sirius is closer than UV Ceti?"  

If the list has more data (i.e., if you're sending an existing file or even
some xeroxed pages), no problem.  The key word is SPEED; I needed this last
week.  Not only will the person or persons providing such a list earn my
undying gratitude, but they will also be publicly thanked in the BYTE article
and anywhere else I can fit it in.  

The absolute best way to send it would be to my node address:  
			bang!crash!bwebster@nosc
			{ihnp4, sdcsvax!bang}!crash!bwebster

Other addresses:
	CompuServe:	75166,1717
	M:	138-5892
	Fido:		Node #87 (619-286-7838, 300/1200 baud) (my own node)
	USPS:		6215 Thorn St, San Diego, CA  92115

As mentioned above, I have my own bulletin board (Fido #87).  If you want to
call it directly and download, please do.  If you want to save yourself
phone charges, call me [voice] at (619) 286-7576, and give me instructiongs
on how to call *you*.

Many thanks to all; I know this is a large message and isn't adding much to
the general discussion (though it perhaps beats out electric guitars in a
vacuum and possibly even relativistic ashes).  Hope to hear from some of you
soon.
						..bruce..
					Bruce Webster/BYTE Magazine
					bang!crash!bwebster@nosc
					{ihnp4, sdcsvax!bang}!crash!bwebster