Example 1. This is what SIMBAD shows immediately, upon entering the name Sirius. Notice that it gives many alternative names, such as its HD and SAO numbers. I will include only this header of the SIMBAD listing, since as you can see, the full listing includes 631 references in refereed scientific journals! [Note to editor: put in typewriter font] simbad search ->sirius Your identifier (sirius) is translated to:NAME SIRIUS Type: Spectrocopic binary Coord 1950.0 = 06 42 56.713 -16 38 46.36 mb, mv = -1.46 -1.47 Coord 2000.0 = 06 45 10.762 -16 41 57.82 sp type = A1V gal = 227.22 -8.88 pm = -0.537 [ 25] -1.210 [ 25] rv = ./. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ HD 48915 SKY# 11855 GEN# +1.00048915A SAO 151881 UBV M 12413 GC 8833 N30 1470 LHS 219 BD-16 1591 * alf CMa TD1 8027 Ci 20 396 PLX 1577 GJ 244A IRC -20105 HR 2491 * 9 CMa NAME SIRIUS ADS 5423 A CEL 1368 FK4 257 GCRV 4392 HGAM 556 JP11 1425 ROT 1088 SBC 288 UBV 6709 1E 064255-1639.4 CSI-16 1591 1 LFT 486 LPM 243 LTT 2638 * alf CMa A NAME SIRIUS A IRAS 06429-1639 USNO 816 PPM 217626 CCDM J06451-1643A IDS 06408-1635 A HIC 32349 com HIC 32349 incl CCDM J06451-1643 ABC com see EUVE J0645-167 PM 06430-1639A RX J0645.1-1642 HIP 32349 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Measurements: CEL: 1 SAO: 1 GJ: 1 ROT: 3 HGAM: 1 UBV:12 pos: 2 GEN: 1 TD1: 1 PM: 4 MK:40 JP11: 5 uvby: 4 PLX: 9 Hbet: 3 IRAS: 1 IUE:12 oRV:28 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ References: 631 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ {NAME SIRIUS} display ->