The Third Cambridge Catalog of Radio Sources (3C) is an astronomical catalogue of celestial radio sources as measured at 159-MHz. It was published in 1959 by the Radio Astronomy Group of the University of Cambridge. References to entries in this catalogue use the prefix 3C followed by the entry number, with no space perforce. ie. 3C273. The catalogue was produced by the Cambridge Interferometer on the west side of Cambridge. (The interferometer had previously been used for the 2C survey, published in 1955).

The Catalogue was subsequently revised by Bennett in 1962, and for many years 3CR was considered as the definitive listing of the brighter radio sources in the Northern Hemisphere. The revision resulted in a number of sources being deleted from the catalogue (as being below the flux limit of 9Jy or as now-resolved blends of adjacent sources) and others being added. To avoid renumbering the existing sources (which were listed in RA order) these new sources were added using a decimal extension. Eg 3CR323.1 follows 3C323 in Right Ascension and precedes 3C324.

External Links

The Third Cambridge Catalog of Radio Sources on the internet.

References

Edge, D. O., Shakeshaft, J. R., McAdam, W. B., Baldwin, J. E., & Archer, S. 1959, Mem. R. Astron. Soc., 68, 37, A survey of radio sources at a frequency of 159 Mc/s

Bennett A S (1962) MNRAS v125, pp75-86