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Cape Photographic Durchmusterung

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Cape Photographic Durchmusterung

(CPD) A general star catalog of the southern sky compiled by J.C. Kapteyn from photographic plates produced by David Gill in Cape Town. It was published 1896–1900. It lists positions and magnitudes of some 455 000 stars, brighter than 10th magnitude, from declinations –19° to –90°. A computerized version is now available.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

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References in periodicals archive

This small brass-mounted Ross lens was used to photograph the Great Comet of 1882 and inspired Gill to make the first ever photographic survey of the sky (the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung or CPD) when he saw that the stars in the background had been registered on the plate.

The Astronomical Museum at SAAO: I.S. Glass (SAAO)

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