Source designations for objects in all WISE Catalogs and Databases conform to the recommendations outlined in International Astronomical Union's specifications concerning designations for astronomical radiation sources outside the solar system. Source designations should be given as:
WISExy Jhhmmss.ss±ddmmss.s
The decimal parts of the RA seconds and Declination arcseconds are truncated rather than rounded, per the IAU recommendation. The coordinate sequence is the sexagesimal J2000-equinox RA and Declination, hence the "J" designator.
CAUTION: Coordinates extracted from the designation column are less precise than those given in the right ascension and declination columns of the source Catalog and Databases. The use of designation coordinates will result in a maximum (unsigned) error of 0.0996" in declination and a maximum (unsigned degree) error of 0.1488" in right ascension. Because of this and because of the truncation requirements in the IAU recommendation, the sexagesimal designation is not a unique identifer. For example, there are five instances in the AllWISE Source Catalog for which the same designation is applied to two different sources: WISEA J005920.20+412446.9, J072715.63+453834.6, J083103.75+474205.9, J095325.62-720222.5, and J191850.26-114200.4.
The WISE part of the acronym is used to identify source information derived from WISE data. The xy part of the acronym distinguishes the data processing provenance and exact data products from which the source information is drawn. Because reduction algorithms and astrometric calibrations changed between data processing phases, the reported position of a source, and therefore its coordinate designation, may be different in the different data sets. The set of acronyms are as follows:
| Acronym | Catalog/Database |
| For objects in the AllWISE Data Release | |
| WISEA | For objects in the AllWISE Source Catalog |
| WISEAR | For objects in the AllWISE Reject Table |
| For objects in the All-Sky, 3-Band Cryo and 2013 Post-Cryo Data Releases | |
| WISE | For objects in the All-Sky Release Source Catalog |
| WISER | For objects in the All-Sky Release Reject Table |
| WISEAF | For objects in the All-Sky Release Single-Exposure Source Working Database |
| WISET | For objects in the 3-Band Cryo Source Working Database |
| WISETF | For objects in the 3-Band Cryo Single-Exposure Source Working Database |
| WISENF | For objects in the 2013 NEOWISE Post-Cryo Release Single-Exposure Source Working Database |
| For objects in the Preliminary Data Releases | |
| WISEPa | For objects in the Preliminary Release Source Catalog |
| WISEPFa | For objects in the Preliminary Release Single-Exposure Source Working Database |
| WISEPAb | For objects in the first-pass processing Atlas Tile Source Working Database |
| WISEPCb | For objects in the first-pass processing operations Coadd Source Working Database |
| WISEWFc | For objects in the NEOWISE Post-Cryo Preliminary Release Single-Exposure Source Working Database |
The acronym designation is not carried explicitly for entries in the Catalogs and Databases to save space. The coordinate sequence is tabulated for each source and is included in the designation field in the AllWISE Catalog, All-Sky Release Catalog and 3-Band Cryo Release Source Working Database. The designation sequence is not included in the AllWISE Multiepoch Source Database, and the Single-exposure Source Working Databases for the All-Sky, 3-Band Cryo or Post-Cryo Releases, but must be computed from the equatorial coordinates.
For example, the complete designations for two sources in the AllWISE Source Catalog are:
WISEA J073435.84+315317.5 (= α Gem)
and
WISEA J024240.70-000047.8 (= NGC 1068)
Last Update: 7 February 2022