Nearby Stars Listing: star.list

Each line has 7 fields :

	- x distance in light years from Sun
	- y distance in light years from Sun
	- z distance in light years from Sun
	- number of stars in the system (i.e 2 means it is a binary)
	- the spectral type. There are eight classes given, with 1 being O,
	  7 M, and 8 a catch all.
	- the luminosity class. 1 is Ia, 2 is Ib, 3 is II, and so. (8 classes)
	- the name. Some of these are not real, as the source was apparently
	  a game, which used Gleise's catalogue.

This data file was prepared in 1988 by a student who was curious about the
possibility of structure within 50 or so light years. Therefore, I can give
no assurance that the data is correct. He used a FORTRAN program to do the
sorting, with free format reads ( he didn't bother with the names! ), which
might help explain the file's nature. Therefore, you'll need to either write
your own program (and perhaps push the data into a graphics package like
Telagraf, or use graphics routines like Pgplot), or push the data into a
spreadsheet. MacSpin might be a good move for those interested in 3D
representations.....

There are some 748 stars. Note that some double stars are listed twice,
such as Sirius. In any such cases, the companion stars follow right after
the primary. You may like to edit these out, or simply check that (x,y,z)
are different in each subsequent line - which isn't too hard! :-)