Link of the Hipparcos Catalogue to the ICRS

Abstract

AbstractIn compliance with the 1991 IAU resolutions on reference frames, the merged Hipparcos Catalogue had to be aligned in such a way that it represents at optical wavelengths the International Celestial Reference System (ICRS). This was realized as a combination of particular solutions obtained from observations of radio stars by radio interferometry, observation of quasars relative to Hipparcos stars, photographic plates including galaxies and Hipparcos stars, star catalogues referred to extragalactic objects, HST observations, and comparison of Earth orientation parameters obtained by VLBI and ground-based optical observations reduced with Hipparcos positions and proper motions. The individual results generally agree within 10 mas in orientation at epoch and 1 mas/yr in spin of the system. Two methods were used to combine the results and yielded uncertainties of 0.6 mas in orientation and 0.25 mas/yr in spin.