Create Star Collection

You can create a new star collection or modify/view the settings of an existing star collection. Once a new star collection is defined, it can be selected for use in 3D graphical displays and deck access operations.

Select a catalog. Select one of the available star catalogs. The selected catalog determines the number of stars displayed. For a more detailed description of the available catalogs, refer to Construction of the STK Star Catalogs.

Initialize from. Select (None) or one of the star collections derived from the selected star catalog.

Constraints

You can use constraints to further define the number of stars displayed. If an existing star collection is selected, the constraints on that collection are displayed and can be modified if the collection is not designated as read-only (that is, delivered with STK).

Specify a set of constraints to be applied to the contents of the selected star collection or catalog.

Constraint	Description
Visual Magnitude Min/Max	The minimum and/or maximum search limits for visual magnitude.
Right Ascension Min/Max	The minimum and/or maximum search limits for right ascension.
Declination Min/Max	The minimum and/or maximum search limits for declination.
Common Name	The common name of the star.
Catalog Specific Identifier	Each star catalog uses a unique primary identifier to identify stars. The Bright Star Catalogue (BSC) used the Harvard Revised (HR) number (Ex: 2491). The Hipparcos catalogs use the Hipparcos identifier which like the HR number is simply an integer (Ex: 32349). The Tycho catalogs use the Tycho identifier which is constructed of 3 parts: the Guide Star Catalog region number, the count within the region and component of the star system (Ex: 5949-2777-1).
Constellation	Specify the name of the constellation in which the star is located, such as Andromeda.

Collection

The selection of the data source and constraints completes the definition of the collection. You can preview the content of the collection and save it for use in STK.

Generate/Update Collection Information. Click to generate a preview of the contents of the collection. You can either view a summary that provides the number of stars and the range of visual magnitudes or a listing of the stars.

Name. Specify a name to which the currently displayed collection definition will be saved.

Save. Click to save the collection definition for use in STK.