Each object in the Catalogue has a two-line entry giving positional and descriptive data as follows:

The first line of the first column contains the Catalogue name of the object. In accordance with the Parkes identification procedure the name is made up from the hours and minutes of the right ascension (1950.0), followed by a minus sign and the truncated three most significant digits of the declination. An asterisk preceding the Catalogue name indicates that the object is illustrated in Volume II. Occasionally an object is part of a pair, a triple or a larger association of objects which are also listed and described in the Catalogue as separate entries; to find the other members of such associations the second line of the first column gives, in square brackets, the abbreviated right ascension and declination of the member immediately preceding the current object in order of right ascension. If the current object is the first object in the group, in order of right ascension, then the reference is to the last member of group. Accordingly, all members of a group can be recovered by sequentially following the referenced coordinates.

The second column contains the 1950.0 right ascension in hours, minutes and seconds of time, followed in the second line by the declination in degrees, minutes and tenths of minutes of arc.

The third column gives the annual precession in seconds of time (first line) for the right ascension, and in minutes of arc (second line) for the declination. (Note: In the few rare instances where the declination was further south than -85 degrees the precession in right ascension is given in minutes of time per year, rather than seconds).

The fourth column contains the galactic longitude and galactic latitude in the first and second lines, respectively.

The fifth column contains the supergalactic longitude and supergalactic latitude in the first and second lines, respectively.

The sixth column contains, in the first line, a brief description of the object. Abbreviations used in the description are explained on page 2. Below the description, in the second line, are cross-identifications to other catalogues, as listed in the section entitled Previous Identifications. Occasionally, when many cross-identifications were found, additional catalogue references were put at the end of the first line.

The seventh column gives the numerical coding of the description as listed and explained in Table 1. Below is an S or D, indicating that the following number (given in arc minutes) is a measure of either the separation of major components, or a characteristic diameter of the system as a whole, respectively.

Finally the eighth column gives the ESO/SERC field number, followed by the number of the actual SERC J plate scanned by the authors. In the second line, are the cartesian co-ordinates of the object, measured in millimeters from the lower left-hand (south-east) corner of the original SERC plate.