Correcting WDS
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| Correcting WDS | Data Mining for doubles | Designed to fail? | Stellar Twins | Red Dwarf Binary Pairs |
Although the most recent version of theWashington Double Star Catalog (WDS) available through the CDS Vizier service is more than ten years out of date (1996) the 2006.5 version can be found elsewhere. However many, if not most, of the new entries included since 1996 cannot be said with any degree of certainty to be binary systems and in a number of cases the available evidence points very strongly to the listed pair being a “line of sight” arrangement of no particular astronomical significance.
As an example consider the data for GRV 35. In the WDS it is listed as having a separation of 56.7 arc seconds at 175 degrees. So by no means are the two components particularly close together and the UCAC2 data does not suggest that the components are displaying common proper motion.
The image is 5 x 5 arc minutes
Now consider the data for GRV 48. In the WDS it is listed as having a separation of 24.7 arc seconds at 253 degrees. The two components are, as before, not particularly close together and the UCAC2 data does not suggest that the components are displaying common proper motion.
The image is 5 x 5 arc minutes
Finally GRV 204 is listed as having a separation of 48.5 arc seconds at 158 degrees. Nothing I can see in the data would suggest that the components are displaying common proper motion.
The image is 5 x 5 arc minutes
