2003/10/05 by J. -C. Mermilliod, J. C. Mermilliod, E. Paunzen · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Computer science #Data mining #Milky Way #Open cluster #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Variable star #Weighting #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20031112
published as Astron.Astrophys. 410 (2003) 511-518 · 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted by A&A
arxiv created 2003/10/05 · openalex publication_date 2003/10/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2022/10/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present an overview and statistical analysis of the data included in WEBDA. This database includes valuable information such as coordinates, rectangular positions, proper motions, photometric as well as spectroscopic data, radial and rotational velocities for objects of open clusters in our Milky Way. It also contains miscellaneous types of data like membership probabilities, orbital elements of spectroscopic binaries and periods of variability for different kinds of variable stars. Our final goal is to derive astrophysical parameters (reddening, distance and age) of open clusters based on the major photometric system which will be presented in a follow-up paper. For this purpose we have chosen the Johnson UBV, Cousins VRI and Strömgren photometric systems for a statistical analysis of published data sets included in WEBDA. Our final list contains photographic, photoelectric and CCD data for 469 820 objects in 573 open clusters. We have checked the internal (data sets within one photometric system and the same detector technique) and external (different detector technique) accuracy and conclude that more than 97% of all investigated data exhibit a sufficient accuracy for our analysis. The way of weighting and averaging the data is described. In addition, we have compiled a list of deviating measurements which is available to the community through WEBDA.