PPM Catalog Binary Entry Format

Each catalog entry in PPM contains 28 bytes with the following information:
Real*8 SRA0		B1950 Right Ascension (radians)
Real*8 SDEC0		B1950 Declination (radians)
Character*2 IS		Spectral type (2 characters)
Integer*2 MAG		V Magnitude * 100
Real*4 XRPM		R.A. proper motion (radians per year)
Real*4 XDPM		Dec. proper motion (radians per year)
Each catalog entry in PPMra contains 32 bytes with the following information:
Real*4 XNO		Catalog number of star
Real*8 SRA0		B1950 Right Ascension (radians)
Real*8 SDEC0		B1950 Declination (radians)
Character*2 IS		Spectral type (2 characters)
Integer*2 MAG		V Magnitude * 100
Real*4 XRPM		R.A. proper motion (radians per year)
Real*4 XDPM		Dec. proper motion (radians per year)

Sample Entries

The first and last entries in the PPM catalog file are:

PPM B1950 Equatorial Coordinates  Magnitude  run  8/ 2/1993
     1  23  57  33.426    82  49  38.27    11.30  K5
378910  23  56  49.889   -87  05  19.42     9.70

The first and last entries in the RA-sorted PPMra catalog file are:

PPMra B1950 Equatorial Coordinates  Magnitude  run  8/ 2/1993
208270   0  00  00.153   -10  59  43.67     9.30  K2
 24934  23  59  59.694    54  16  26.21     8.70  F0