STARLINK of Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK) offers the Starlink Catalog Access and Reporting System (SCAR), which is a relational database management system for astronomical catalogs. The SCAR package will soon be replaced by CATPAC, described in Starlink User Note SUN 120 by A. Wood (see STARLINK Bull. 10, Oct. 1992). Both packages have the capability to extract data from the requested catalog using input criteria, to manipulate it using various statistical and plotting routines, to output data from the catalog, to assimilate new catalogs and to cross-identify between catalogs based on user-defined criteria (see Starlink User Notes SUN 106 and SUN/70.11). To work on these catalogs one would need to copy the (binary) data file plus a description file within the ADAM environment. However, not all astronomical catalogs exist in the required SCAR-compatible format. The most recent list of available catalogs, as well as information on how to obtain access to a STARLINK account, is available from A. Wood (arw@star.rl.ac.uk). [References: Davenhall (1991), Starlink Bulletins (subscription requests to Mike Lawden at mdl@star.rl.ac.uk), Davenhall (1993b).]
Update, Nov. 94: For Starlink User Notes (SUNs), see ftp://starlink-ftp.rl.ac.uk/pub/doc/star-docs/