GAIA DR$3$ Star Catalog

This catalog consists of $2$ files the first file with the $1000$ brightest stars in the GAIA DR$3$ catalog and the second file with the $1000$ closest stars $($curtesy of Mark Popinchalk$).$ There are $75$ columns in these files. Most of these are the stars brightness in magnitudes in a certain wavelength bands. Bands are filters that only allow in certain frequencies of light, so the brightness can be measured at different wavelengths. Almost every entry also has a measured error. These all start with an e$\_$ followed by the property. Also some properties give a $50,84$ and $16$ value. This is the median, $16\%$ and $84\%$ values of that property based on the calculations. The data columns are:

GaiaEDR$3$ is an ID for the star.

RAdeg and DEdeg are the position of the star on the sky$.$

Plx is the stars parallax, while pmRA and pmDE are the stars proper motion or transverse velocity.

Gmag, BPmag and RPmag are the magnitudes in GAIA bands.

RV is the stars radial velocity.

WDprop is the probability the star is a white dwarf.

xcoord, ycoord and zcoord are the stars likely $3$D position.

Uvel, Vvel and Wvel are the stars $3$D velocities.

The rest are mostly magnitudes from other telescopes and may not exist for all stars. The brightnesses are all in apparent magnitudes $($m$),$ to convert to a distance independent absolute magnitudes $($M$)$ one can use the formula

M $=$ m $5$ log$10($d$)+5$

The following code can be used to read the $2$ files and convert them to pandas DataFrames.

import pandas as pd

from astropy.table import Table

table$\_$b $=$ Table.read$(\text{'}$edr$3\_$nearby$\_$brightest.fits'$)$

table$\_$c $=$ Table.read$(\text{'}$edr$3\_$nearby$\_$closest.fits'$)$

df$\_$b $=$ table$\_$b$.$to$\_$pandas$()$

df$\_$c $=$ table$\_$c$.$to$\_$pandas$()$

df$\_$c$[\text{'}$type$\text{'}]=$ 'close'

df$\_$b$[\text{'}$type$\text{'}]=$ 'bright'

df $=$ pd$.$concat$([$df$\_$b$,$df$\_$c$])$