The first measurement catalogue entirely produced in Spain by an amateur was that by J.L. Comellas. The first, published in 1973 (Cat logo de Estrellas dobles Visuales 1973.0) contained measurements of 1200 double stars, using several reticle micrometers and a 75-mm aperture Polarex-Unitron refractor. A revision of this catalogue was published in 1978 inside Comellas?s Gu¡a del Firmamento handbook. Twelve years later the same author published a second catalogue (Cat logo de Estrellas Dobles Visuales 1980.0) that included 5114 doubles within reach of his new 102 mm aperture Polarex-Unitron refractor installed in his observatory with a 2 m dome, of which he personally measured over 3500. These two works were published by Agrupaci¢n Astron•mica de Sabadell (AAS) and Editorial Sirius respectively.

Since 1985 other observers have maintained the continuity of Comellas?s work. From 1976, T.Tobal regularly collaborated with him, and in the mid-1980s he built a small observatory equipped with a 102-mm Polarex-unitron refractor and a reticle and filar micrometers constructed by J.A.Soldevilla, allowing him to start a systematic  revision and updating the 1980.0 Comellas?s Catalogue. In 1991,in conjunction with other colleagues, T.Tobal coordinated the measurements sent by individual observers and began to publish a periodic circular (RHO: Circular de Estrellas Dobles Visuales) for internal use, in order to coordinate the work and to publicise the results. J.Planas developed the MAIA software, meaning to prepare the massive compendium of Spanish measures from 1970 to USNO/WDS standards. J.Cairol, I.Gal n and A.S nchez typed thousand of data from paper to computer database. Subsequent acquisition of new precision micrometers, double image Lyot-Camichel-like, and CCD devices came off, and between 1992 and 2000 more than 5000 new observations and measurements were collected, provided by amateurs throughout Spain.

In 1991 the Garraf Astronomical Observatory (OAG) was founded and in the original site (1992-1998) a 3.5-m diameter dome with a 260-mm F/6 aperture Newtonian was installed. Then a new observatory was constructed using public and private investment. Located 30 Km. South of Barcelona, inside the Garraf Natural Park was opened in November 2001. It has a new 3.5-m dome and a 30-cm Newtonian-Cassegrain f/3.5 and f/13 telescope fitted with a CCD camera and a Lyot double-image micrometer and others devices for double stars working.

In 2003 a final compendium of about 10.000 measurements made between 1970 and 2003 was coordinated by the staff of OAG.  This work was presented at the First International Meeting of Double Star Observers, the first meeting between Spanish and French observers that took place in Castelldefels (Barcelona, ??Spain) in  2000. It was organized jointly by the Agrupaci¢n Astron¢mica de Castelldefels (AAC), Observatori Astron•mic del Garraf (OAG) and the Commission des Etoiles Doubles (SAF). The OAG General Catalogue of 10,000 measurements 1970-2003 (coordinated by T.Tobal & J.Planas) is only available in electronic format at the USNO / WDS and OAG web site.  




Since 2004 the interest in double stars in Spain has grown significantly appearing new observers and teams. R. Benavides, J.L. Gonz lez and E. R. Masa, founded in 2009 the electronic magazine El Observador de Estrellas Dobles, a specialized magazine in Spanish language available at  http://elobservadordeestrellasdobles.wordpress.com/.

Other active observers are F.Rica , coordinator of Double Star Section of LIADA international group (http://sites.google.com/site/doblesliada/) , I.Novalbos and J.A.Santos  in charge of electronic measures (http://oanlbcn.blogspot.com/)
and R.Hern ndez, J.Torell¢  with and N.Miret managing OAG orbit calculation team. Other important observatory with a 40cm telescope, full equipped with CCD and spectroscopic devices was funded by J.Genebriera in La Palma (Canary Islands) (www.astropalma.com), being an  active observer in several OAG and professionals projects. 

New programs began to take shape after 2005, aimed at reviewing neglected double stars in WDS catalogue and detecting anonymous pairs. The OAG Supplements (2005-2008) include more than 4,000 new measures and more than 500 new pairs.

In mid-2008 the OAG team started a systematic exploration of the Equatorial Zone (DEC: +20 / -20 ø) on digitized images from professional surveys designed to find anonymous common proper motion systems with >50mas/year (OAG Common Proper Motion Wide Pairs Survey). Nowadays 11 teams throughout Spain in collaboration with several professional teams (J.A.Caballero, E.Montes E.Solano and D.Valls)  are working on it.  In late 2010, more than 600 new pairs not listed before were included in the USNO / WDS catalogue, emphasizing the contribution of A. Bernal (Observatorio Fabra, Barcelona). This project is coordinated by X. Miret, T. Tobal, and I. Novalbos of OAG and C. Schnabel of the AAS. Project details and complete list of participating observers in this and other historical projects, can be seen at www.oagarraf.net.


This new period had its culmination in the Second International Meeting of Double Star Observers that took place  in (AFEGIR nota 1) Sabadell (Barcelona, Spain), October 2010, witch joined  professional and amateur observers, from Australia, France, UK, USA and Spain.). The full presentations and articles are available at (http://ad.usno.navy.mil/wds/dsl.html.


NOTA 1 (XAVIER: Afegeix que el meeting va tenir lloc a la seu de la AAS I fou organitzat conjuntament per l?AAS, OAG I SAF.)

Hi ha un par…graf remarcat en blanc que no aconsegeuixo treure, en tot cas el tornes a escriure i elimines el subratllat perquŠ en Bob no sabr  que vol dir.