Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog


The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog is an astrometric star catalogue. It was published by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 1966 and contains 258,997 stars. The catalogue was
compiled from various previous astrometric catalogues, and contains only stars to about ninth magnitude for
which accurate proper motions were known. Names in the SAO catalogue start with the letters SAO, followed by a number. The numbers are assigned following 18 ten-degree bands of declination, with stars sorted by right ascension within each band.

Examples of SAO catalogue entries