Burnham Double Star Catalogue

The Burnham Double Star Catalogue (or General Catalogue of Double Stars Within 121° of the North Pole) was published by Sherburne Wesley Burnham in 1906 with over thirteen thousand of double star pairs, some of which are binary stars and others not actually orbiting. It is a catalog including known double stars, among them, those that Burnham discovered, and is a major source for more recent double star catalogs and databases. It includes cross references to existing lists of double stars.

Burnham published an earlier catalog of just his own discoveries, General Catalogue of 1,290 Double Stars, and today's unfamiliarity with the distinction between these two catalogs has led to erroneous and ambiguous citations. The prefix BDS refers to the 1906 catalog (above), whereas the prefixes BU and β refer to his own discoveries, and have a different numbering. The prefix Burnham is also used, and though I suggest it logically refers to his discoveries, it seems to be used ambiguously for either.