The Fifth Orbit Catalog
US Naval Observatory
The USNO has recently completed a successor to the "Fourth Catalog of Orbits
of Visual Binary Stars", published in 1983 by Charles Worley & Wulff
Heintz. The web-based "Fifth Catalog" contains the latest orbital elements
for over 1,200 binaries, together with links to ephmerides, extensive notes,
and detailed figures. A description of the catalog, its applicability to
field calibration its statistics, and its general characteristics, will
be discussed.
A major effort in creation of the catalog has involved development of
an objective method for grading the quality of each orbit. The criteria
used in grading both the orbits and the observations which went into them
will be described.