The NSDB natural satellites astrometric database

¹ Institut de mécanique céleste et de calcul des éphémérides, Observatoire de Paris, UMR 8028 du CNRS, 77 avenue Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris, France e-mail: arlot@imcce.fr
² Sternberg astronomical institute, 13 Universitetskij prospect, 119992 Moscow, Russia e-mail: emelia@sai.msu.ru

Received: 12 January 2009
Accepted: 24 March 2009

Abstract

Context. Any study of the dynamics of the Natural Planetary satellites needs to gather as many astrometric observations as possible of those that have been observed for centuries. This kind of work is partially made by each astronomer starting this kind of study but has never been done for all the satellite systems.

Aims. The goal of our work is to build a database of all the available astrometric observations, together with all the information needed for efficient use of these data, and to avoid astronomers interested in the dynamics of Planetary satellites have to redo this data search.

Methods. To do this we had to find and carefully read all the publications including observational data, international journals, or internal reports to be able to add the observations in the database knowing the reference frame used by the observer, the corrections and reduction made, and the time scale needed to link all the data. We also had to contact observatories and observers to be sure to have the raw data available. We gathered the bibliographic references related to the observations put in the database.

Results. A new database containing about 90 percent of all the observations useful for studying the dynamics of the satellites is now available for the interested community of astronomers. NSDB is accessible on the Internet: http://www.imcce.fr/nsdc (IMCCE) and http://lnfm1.sai.msu.ru/neb/nss/nssnsdcme.htm (trilingual version of SAI).