With all of the incredible new information processing tools out there I decided to build myself a Stellar Database from existing star catalogs and do a little armchair stargazing.
I have re-purposed a little Dell Optiplex Core I7 with 16 gig of ram and lots of disk for the project. I loaded up a copy of MS SQL SERVER 17 Developers version (free for non-production use). It moves along quite crisply.
I loaded up a copy of the Yale Bright Star Catalog as a test bed then found the HYG Catalog ( Hipparcos, Yale, Gliese ) and loaded that. I have just started to do some basic searches and will report out some finding when I can sort them out.
Now the stretch goal, Gaia. Gaia is the European space agency’s mission to explore the Milky Way Galaxy. Launched in 2013 the spacecraft plans to scan its target population of 1.5+ billion stars 70 times over 5 years. In April 2018 ESA released their second set of Gaia data. I downloaded some sample data and am now studying how to integrate it into my environment. It is going to be a challenge. Data on 1.5 billion stars is going to take some storage space.
I promise to post here more often so stop back and check on the progress.