Considers a typical paper from the astronomical literature, shows how it was processed for ‘Physics Abstracts’ and illustrates how it can now be retrieved on-line from the INSPEC database.

“Two-color photoelectric observations of the eclipsing binary BB Peg” by Cerruti-Sola and Scaltriti was published in Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, Vol. 40, No. 1, p. 85–9 (April 1980). The abstract for this paper appeared as No. 62194 in Physics Abstracts, Vol. 83, No. 1139, p. 4806 (1 July 1980). This particular journal article has been chosen to illustrate the way material is handled by the INSPEC database because apart from the usual bibliographic elements, a designated stellar object (BB Pegasi) is mentioned and numerical data (observation dates) are incorporated.