The General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS) is a list of

variable stars A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as e ...

. Its first edition, containing 10,820 stars, was published in 1948 by the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

and edited by B. V. Kukarkin and P. P. Parenago. Second and third editions were published in 1958 and 1968; the fourth edition, in three volumes, was published 1985–1987. It contained 28,435 stars. A fourth volume of the fourth edition containing reference tables was later published, as well as a fifth volume containing variable stars outside the

Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System ...

. The last edition (GCVS v5.1) based on data compiled in 2015 gathers 52,011 variable stars. The most up-to-date version of the GCVS is available at the GCVS website. It contains improved coordinates for the variable stars in the printed fourth edition of the GCVS, as well as variable stars discovered too recently to be included in the fourth edition. An older version of the GCVS dating from 2004 is available from the

VizieR A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...

service at the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg under the name Combined General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS4.2; VizieR database number II/250).Combined General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS4.2)
2004 version of the GCVS, at the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg.

References

{{Reflist

External links

GCVS website

Combined General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS4.2)
2004 version of the GCVS, at the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Astronomical catalogues of stars Variable stars lb:USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog