Purpose of The Double Star Library

The Double Star Library hopes to be a means by which various types of binary and multiple star information can be easily disseminated among binary star astronomers in IAU Commission 26 and related commissions. These types of information include (but are not limited to) lists of newly discovered systems or orbits, new astrometric or spectroscopic data for known systems, notices of meetings or observing campaigns, and titles of recently published papers.

In addition, theLibrary will archive these various data in an easily accessible form and will provide links to other related catalogues and services on the World Wide Web. The Library will be primarily accessible through standard web browsers, although most of the catalogue information will also be available via anonymous ftp. A disk archive of the contents of the Double Star Library will be maintained at the U.S. Naval Observatory.

In addition to several large published catalogues of observations and orbital elements, a major source of information for the Library is the IAU Commission G1 (previously Commission 26) Information Circular, maintained by J. A. Docobo and J.F. Ling of the Observatorio Astronomico "Ramon Maria Aller", of the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

A bibliography of papers published in most of the major astronomical journals (including A&A, A&AS, A&ARev, AJ, ApJ, ApJS, MNRAS, PASP, and others) is made available through links to files maintained by the NASA Astrophysics Data System ( ADS), as well as lists included in recent Information Circulars. Corrections to these bibliographic entries, as well as tabulated data and notices of meetings or observing campaigns, are greatly appreciated, as are any suggestions for improvements to the Library.