Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 October 2007
A new star catalog has been derived recently, which is based on combination of Hipparcos/Tycho Catalogues with long lasting ground-based astrometric observations. In addition to ‘classical’ mean positions and proper motions of the stars, it contains also information on periodic motions of many stars that are due to double or multiple stellar systems. The catalog, called EOC-3, contains 4418 different objects, out of which 585 have significant periodic motions. This improved catalog is used as a reference frame in optical wavelength to derive a new series of Earth Orientation Parameters. To this end, almost five million observations of latitude/universal time variations made at 33 observatories are used. The new EOP series covers almost the entire 20th century (namely the interval 1899.7-1992.0).