Coordinates of Galactic planetary nebulae

We have used the 2nd generation of the Guide Star Catalogue (GSC-II, Cat. <I/271>) as a reference astrometric catalogue to compile the positions of 1086 Galactic Planetary Nebulae (PNe) listed in the Strasbourg ESO Catalogue (SEC, Cat. <V/84>), its supplement and the version 2000 of the Catalogue of Planetary Nebulae. This constitutes about 75% of all known PNe.

For these PNe, the ones with a known central star (CS) or with a small diameter, we have derived coordinates with an absolute accuracy of ~0.35" in each coordinate, which is the intrinsic astrometric precision of the GSC-II. For another 226, mostly extended, objects without a GSC-II counterpart we give coordinates based on the second epoch Digital Sky Survey (DSS-II). While these coordinates may have systematic offsets relative to the GSC-II of up to 5 arcsecs, our new coordinates usually represent a significant improvement over the previous catalogue values for these large objects.