llite results, it nevertheless includes supplemental information on multiple system components as well as compilations of radial velocities and spectral types which, not observed by the satellite, were not included in the published Hipparcos Catalogue.
Constraints on total observing time, and on the uniformity of stars across the celestial sphere for satellite operations and data analysis, led to an Input Catalogue of some 118,000 stars. It merged two components: first, a survey of around 58,000 objects as complete as possible to the following limiting magnitudes: V<7.9 + 1.1sin|b| for spectral types earlier than G5, and V<7.3 + 1.1sin|b| for spectral types later than G5 (b is the Galactic latitude). Stars constituting this survey are flagged in the Hipparcos Catalogue.
The second component comprised additional stars selected according to their scientific interest, with none fainter than about magnitude V=13 mag. These were selected from around 200 scientific proposals submitted on the basis of an Invitation for Proposals issued by ESA in 1982, and prioritised by the Scientific Proposal Selection Committee in consultation with the Input Catalogue Consortium. This selection had to balance 'a priori' scientific interest, and the observing programme's limiting magnitude, total observing time, and sky uniformity constraints.
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For the main mission results, the data analysis was carried out by two independent scientific teams, NDAC and FAST, together comprising some 100 astronomers and scientists, mostly from European (ESA-member state) institutes. The analyses, proceeding from nearly 1000 Gbit of satellite data acquired over 3.5 years, incorporated a comprehensive system of cross-checking and validation, and is described in detail in the published catalogue.
A detailed optical calibration model was included to map the transformation from sky to instrumental coordinates. Its adequacy could be verified by the detailed measurement residuals. The Earth's orbit, and the satellite's orbit with respect to the Earth, were essential for describing the location of the observer at each epoch of observation, and were supplied by an appropriate Earth ephemeris combined with accurate satellite ranging. Corrections due to special relativity (stellar aberration) made use of the corresponding satellite velocity. Modifications due to general relativistic light bending were significant (4 milliarc-sec at 90° to the ecliptic) and corrected for deterministically assuming γ=1 in the PPN formalism. Residuals were examined to establish limits on any deviations from this general relativistic value, and no significant discrepancies were found.
The Hipparcos reference frame
The satellite observations essentially yielded highly accurate relative positions of stars with respect to each other, throughout the measurement period (1989–93). In the absence of direct observations of extragalactic sources (apart from marginal observations of quasar 3C273) the resulting rigid reference frame was transformed to an inertial frame of reference linked to extragalactic sources. This allows surveys at different wavelengths to be directly correlated with the Hipparcos stars, and ensures that the catalogue proper motions are, as far as possible, kinematically non-rotating. The determination of the relevant three solid-body rotation angles, and the three time-dependent rotation rates, was conducted and completed in advance of the catalogue publication. This resulted in an accurate but indirect link to an inertial, extragalactic, reference frame.
A variety of methods to establish this reference frame link before catalogue publication were included and appropriately weighted: interferometric observations of radio stars by VLBI networks, MERLIN and VLA; observations of quasars relative to Hipparcos stars using CCDs, photographic plates, and the Hubble Space Telescope; photographic programmes to determine stellar proper motions with respect to extragalactic objects (Bonn, Kiev, Lick, Potsdam, Yale/San Ju