Of the classical problems of physics there is one which might be picked out as simplest to state but slowest to approach solution. “What is the fate of a self-gravitating system of point masses interacting according to Newton's laws?” The frustration felt by theoreticians, who, despite the accumulation of more than 300 years of mathematical knowledge and numerical technology, have not solved the problem, even to understanding the qualitative late evolution of such systems, is compounded by the existence of observations known since Messier's time of over 100 globular star clusters. These are real and ancient systems, well approximating the idealized problem; astronomical study of their properties should have led us to an understanding of the physical situation. Galactic clusters containing smaller numbers of stars also exist in abundance. However, most of these are much younger systems and they are also subject to a variety of additional complex processes, not important in the large N, globular cluster, systems. Because of this complexity they are less well understood than globulars and will not be covered in this theoretically oriented review.

It has already been pointed out in the literature that due to several causes, open star clusters dissipate with time. For instance, Rosseland showed that when external stars move through a cluster, they cause a perturbation of the motion of the stars in the cluster and could transfer enough momentum to individual stars to cause their escape from the cluster's gravitational field. In this way the cluster will lose stars gradually, i.e., it will dissipate. According to Rosseland the time needed for the star cluster to dissipate following the outlined mechanism is 1010 years. However, as pointed out by the author of this article in the supplement to the Russian edition of Rosseland's book, there is another factor that makes the life of the open cluster even shorter: the stars in the cluster have close encounters with each other, as a result of which they exchange kinetic energy and gradually tend towards the most probable distribution, i.e., a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. And this, as we shall see shortly, also causes the dissipation of the cluster.

The initial stages of the evolution of a spherical star system can be pictured in the following way. The stars have their beginning in a comparatively small region; the mechanism of the origin of initial velocities is not known exactly. From the point of view of the contemporary state of stellar astronomy, it is an acceptable view that the initial velocities have their origin in the attraction of each individual star towards the center of gravity of the system. The second possible assumption is to attribute the origin of initial velocities to forces of an explosive character. But in either case, initially, all orbits have to be almost exactly radial.

Observed and derived structure parameters are tabulated for 154 galactic globular clusters, 7 dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Galaxy, and 6 globular clusters in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal. Observational parameters listed include equatorial coordinates, apparent level of the horizontal branch, reddening, subgiant branch color at the horizontal branch level, limiting and core angular radii, integrated magnitudes, and central surface brightnesses. Derived parameters include galactic coordinates, heliocentric and galactocentric distance, metallicity, limiting and core radii, central relaxation time scale, central mass density, central velocity dispersion, and central escape velocity.

A compilation of proper motion studies of stars in and around open clusters is presented. It can serve as a reference to cluster member selections, studies of cluster dynamics or as a guide to further improvement of the data presently available. The present paper is only a preliminary version; it is hoped for that reactions from the astronomical community will lead to a more complete and correct study in the near future.