Image and Catalog Archive Guide/FAQ
Guide for the Image and Catalogue Archive
(Introduction | Guide | Service Notes | Interactive Search | VO Cone Search)
(Colors | Survey Plate Logs | Input Parameters | Catalogue File Formats | Image Log Format)
Colors
Brief discussion of the photographic colors of the survey plates.
Photographic Survey Plate Logs
As we add surveys to this server, we will add copies of the relevant plate logs here. The files are flat ASCII text, with one line per plate.
- POSS-I plate log - ASCII Text (273K) or Gzipped Text (81K)
- POSS-II plate log - ASCII Text (492K) or Gzipped Text (164K)
- Southern Surveys plate log (updated 30 April 2002) - ASCII Text (247K) or Gzipped Text (83K)
- AAO-R plate log (updated 30 April 2002) - ASCII Text (84K) or Gzipped Text (31K)
The file format looks like:
POSS-I 1st Epoch Palomar Obs. Sky Survey NPlates=1974 0.000000 6.283185 -0.801280 1.570796 Field Plate Date Time RA (B1950) DEC RA (J2000) DEC Type Filt Exp H.A. limits 0001 570 1952.6420 05.53 5.161811 1.570796 3.145701 1.567299 103aE RP2444 50 0:08W 0.000000 6.283185 1.487939 1.570796 se0001 0001 570 1952.6420 05.20 5.161811 1.570796 3.145701 1.567299 103aO None 10 0:13E 0.000000 6.283185 1.488308 1.570796 so0001 0002 567 1952.6393 08.53 5.894850 1.570796 3.145653 1.567299 103aE RP2444 50 0:16W 0.000000 6.283185 1.488066 1.570796 se0002 0002 567 1952.6393 09.50 5.894850 1.570796 3.145653 1.567299 103aO None 10 1:14E 0.000000 6.283185 1.488652 1.570796 so0002
The first 4 lines are just general survey info. The 1st line is the short survey title:
- Surveys Currently on-line:
- POSSI = The 1st Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, including the Whiteoak extension.
- POSSII = The 2nd Palomar Observatory Sky Survey
- (SOUTH = SRCJ+ESOR+SERCEJ+SERCER)
SRCJ = The 1st Epoch Southern Blue Survey (fields 1-606)
ESOR = The 1st Epoch Southern Red Survey (fields 1-606)
SERCEJ = The Southern Equatorial Blue Survey(fields 607-894)
SERCER = The Southern Equatorial Red Survey (fields 607-894) - AAOR = The 2nd Epoch Southern Red Survey
- Surveys that will be on-line soon:
- AAON = The 2nd Epoch Southern Infra-Red Survey
- AAOSR = The South Galactic Plane Red Survey
- PIMWA = The North Galactic Plane Red and IR Survey
- LUYTEN = Luyten's 2nd Epoch Northern Sky Survey
- SPM = The Yale Southern Proper Motion Survey
The 2nd line is a longer descriptive title and the 3rd line gives the number of plates. Ignore the 4th and 5th lines. The 6th line is the header line, and is mostly descriptive. The plates start with line 7, and are ordered by survey field number (in the case of the SOUTH log, the 4 surveys are interleaved blue/red in the order SRC-J, SERC-EJ, ESO-R, SERC-ER).
Column Description
------ -----------
1 Survey field number (unique to the survey)
2 Observatory plate id
3 Plate observation date (UT)
4 Plate observation time, MID-EXPOSURE, decimal hours (UT)
5,6 RA, DEC (B1950) of plate center in RADIANS (from the
original observing log)
7,8 RA, DEC (J2000) of plate center in RADIANS (precessed
from the original observing log)
9 Type is the Photographic Emulsion
10 Filt is the filter used with the exposure
11 Exp is the exposure time in minutes
12 Hour Angle of the observation, Mid-exposure
13,14,15,16 Rough RA,DEC limits for this plate, in RADIANS
ordered: minRA maxRA minDEC maxDEC
17 USNOFS database id for this plate
Additional notes:
POSS-II: the POSS-II log includes the observation data for the UJ
(short J) plates. However, the scan images were NOT
saved, and currently are not available.
Search Tool Input Parameters
- Field Name/ID
- This field is included as an ID string on the upper left of finder charts and images. This field can be up to (3 lines x 36 characters/line =) 108 characters in length. A line break in this field can be set with "\n". For example "Line 1\nLine 2\nLine3" will show up as three lines. The "\n" will be removed by the server, and does not count against the character limit.
- E-mail for image notification [Optional]
- If you would like to be notified by e-mail when the server finishes retrieving the data you requested, please enter your e-mail address in this field. If no address is given, then you will want to check the links in the Image log periodically to see if there is anything there. The address should be in standard internet address format (e.g. name@host.domain). When retrieving image data, we HIGHLY RECOMMEND you use this feature, as the retrieval of images can take up a while (depending upon server load and the size of the region requested), and this way you will be notified when your data are available. Save yourself trouble later, ask for an e-mail notice.
- RA
- Right Ascension of the field center in hours - this can be entered in either decimal (hh.hhhh) or sexigesimal form (hh:mm:ss.ss or hh mm ss.ss).
- Dec
- Declination of the field center in degrees - can be entered in either decimal (dd.dddd) or sexigesimal form (dd:mm:ss.ss or dd mm ss.ss).
- Equinox
- J2000.0 or B1950.0. If the equinox and epoch you select are NOT those of the catalogue, the returned data will be precessed to the equinox and epoch you gave as input.
- Epoch
- A year between 1900 and 2100.
- Field Size and Shape
- The Size of the field may be specified in Degrees, Minutes or
Seconds of arc. Also, you may choose to extract a rectangle or a
circle about the center point. The circle applies only to the
catalogue extraction. If you select a circle, the finder chart and the images will be the
square that contains the circle. The total area retrieved for catalog data also depends upon the Faint Magnitude limit. The default maximum region A is a cone
with a radius of 1.0 degrees or a box of 4 square degrees. If the Faint Magnitude limit is SMALLER
than 25.0, then the allowed region area increases in size as
A*2.5^[(25-Fmag)/4]. So, if you are only interested in objects down
to 12 magnitude, the allowed region area increases in size by a factor
of slightly over 19, or the maximum radius increases by a bit over 4.
The hard upper limit in radius is 12 degrees. For images, the maximum area is fixed at 45arcmin x 45arcmin.
- RA Width
- Field width in RA in units of arc. You get a rectangular finder chart or image. The maximum width for catalogs is currently limited to at most 24 degrees (see above discussion), and 45 arcminutes for image data.
- DEC Width
- Field width in DEC in units of arc. You get a rectangular finder chart or image. The maximum width for catalogs is currently limited to at most 24 degrees (see above discussion), and 45 minutes for image data.
- Circle Radius
- For a circular catalogue field, the radius in units of arc. The maximum radius is currently limited to 12 degrees for catalogue extractions and finder charts, and 22.5 minutes for image data.
- Catalogue(s)
- Select which catalogue(s) you would like to extract data from:
NOMAD, USNO-B1.0, USNO-A2.0 and/or ACT. Tycho-2 and UCAC will be coming some
time in the near future.
- Magnitude Limits Bright and Faint magnitude limits for extractions from the catalogue(s).
- Color Limits
Blue minus Red color limits for extractions from the catalogue(s). The default is B2-R2, but you can pick any pair of magnitudes to use. Make sure that they exist in the catalog
- Color
This choice determines which magnitude is used for sorting, and
for the magnitude limits. The available options are B, V, R,
B1, R1, B2, R2, I2, J, H, K. Not all catalogues have all colors, so you
may see some behavior you don't understand. The colors decode
as:
- B = Blue
- V = Visible
- R = Red
- B1 = First Epoch Blue
- R1 = First Epoch Red
- B2 = Second Epoch Blue
- R2 = Second Epoch Red
- I2 = Second Epoch Near IR
- J = Near IR J band (2MASS)
- H = Near IR H band (2MASS)
- K = Near IR Ks band (2MASS)
- Minimum Separation This option allows you to specify the minimum separation between objects in the extracted catalogue. This is given in decimal minutes of arc. [Not Enabled]
- Maximum Surface Density
Trim the catalogue list(s) to a limit of at most this many
objects per square degree.[Not Enabl
- Proper Motion Limits Specify the minimum and maximum proper motions of the objects to be included in the extracted catalogue (presuming that there is motion information). If a catalogue does not include proper motion, these selection criteria will be ignored. Units are milli-arcseconds per year.
- Survey and Rejected Image Data
- Select the photographic surveys you would like data to be
extracted from. Currently available surveys are: POSS-I (2 colors), POSS-II
(3 colors), SOUTH (ESO-R, SRC-J, SERC-EJ, SERC-ER) and AAO-R.
Coming soon: AAO-N, AAO-shortR, PIMWA (2 colors), Luyten's 2nd epoch survey (POSS-I field centers), SPM (2 colors), and UCAC. The Rejected images are additional plates that were taken for various surveys but for one reason or another were not included in the final survey. - Object List Options
-
- Star List Sort Options Select the parameter on which to sort the star lists. Options include RA, Dec, Magnitude, Color (Blue-Red), and Distance to Center. The list will be in increasing order.
- Star List Format
Select your preferred format for RA and Dec. You can choose to
not save the star lists at all, or have RA and Dec written out as:
- hh mm ss.ss and dd mm ss.ss (sexigesimal hours and degrees)
- hh:mm:ss.ss and dd:mm:ss.ss
- hh.hhh and ddd.ddd (decimal hours and decimal degrees)
- ddd.ddd and ddd.ddd (decimal degrees for both)
- Epoch Format Options Select desired format for printing the epoch of each plate that is listed with each detected object. The choices are decimal year (Julian Epoch) and Julian Date. This only applies to USNO-A2.0 at the moment.
- Finder Chart and Image Options
-
- Overplot Star Lists (applies to Image data only) Indicate if you would like to have your list of catalogue stars overplotted on the images. If the number of stars is less than 100, the stars will be numbered with the catalogue id or a running index (USNO-A2.0).
- Dark Stars/Light Stars (applies to Image data only) You can choose whether you prefer light stars on a dark background or dark stars on a light background. While Light Stars/Dark Sky looks more like the sky, it is often easier to see faint detail in the inverted image (Dark Stars/Light Sky), which is the default.
- Return FITS data file (applies to Image data only) If you request, the server will retrieve the FITS data file(s) of the image(s) as well. The images returned include a complete FITS image of the whole field. The PMM images are digitized at 0.91 arcsec/pixel, so a region 10arcmin x 10arcmin, at 2 bytes per pixel will return an image file that is about 870KBytes. A 30arcmin square field will be just under 2MBytes in size. If you don't know what the FITS format is, odds are you don't want this. The default is no.
- Image Graphics Format This option allows you to choose what format you would like the chart and/or image to be. Your choices are (in order of increasing file size) Progressive JPEG, JPEG, GIF, Large JPEG, Large GIF and Postscript (NB: the last three options are restricted to one data from one survey, since the files are quite large). Not all image viewers can handle progressive JPEG files, so the default is JPEG. In general the JPEG file is about 1/4 the size of the GIF file, so please use that if possible.
- Plot Orientation This is your chance to pick the orientation of the chart (do you prefer East to the left and North down? we can do that).
- Coordinate Overlay You have three choices for marking the orientation of the chart or image. (1) Simple North and East markers (N and E on the respective sides, only available for images). (2) A set of RA and Dec tick marks along the edge of the image or chart bounding box. (3) An overlaid RA and Dec grid on the image or chart.
- Center Mark Choose whether you'd like to plot a square or circle at the center of the plot. For the square, the size is the WIDTH of the square, for the circle, this is the RADIUS.
- Additional Object(s) to Overplot
- Optional Object This is the name of an optional object you wish to over plot on the finder chart. If the field is "none", then nothing will be over plotted, no matter what you put in the following fields. If you type in a name, then the program will examine the next two entry fields for the over plot data.
- How to Plot Object You get your choice of just putting a point down, put a point down with a label, connect the points or connect and label the points
- Big field to enter Object Data
- WARNING: this overplot facility is very finicky! If the chart
doesn't come out, odds are that there is a typo of some sort in the
overplot data. The format for each line of object data is VERY
specific. It expects the RA as hh mm ss.ss, then DEC as dd mm
ss.ss then a Magnitude, a label of some sort, a plot color, and a
symbol choice (which may take additional arguments). A sample line
encoding an object at RA=1:23:45, Dec=-54:32:10.1, with
magnitude=9.8, using a label=hi, and plotting a point (PNT) in red
would be written:
1 23 45.0 -54 32 10.1 9.8 hi red PNT
The available colors are:- default
- white
- black
- red
- green
- blue
- cyan
- magenta
- yellow
- PNT - plot a POINT, no arguments - uses an X point style.
- SQR width - plot a SQUARE centered at the coordinates given, with a user specified width, 1 argument which is the width and height of the square.
- CIR radius - plot a CIRCLE centered at the coordinates given, with with a user specified radius, 1 argument which is the radius.
- REC height width - plot a RECTANGLE centered at the coordinates given, with with a user specified height and width, 2 arguments which are the height and width.
- ELL semi-major_axis axis_ratio position_angle - plot an ELLIPSE centered at the coordinates given, with with a user specified semi-major axis, axis ratio (between 0 and 1) and position angle (measured North to East in degrees), 3 arguments which are the semi-major axis, the axis ratio, and the position angle.
RA(J2000) DEC(J2000) Mag Label Color Type [r|a|e|pa] h m s d m s m [str] [str] [str] 00 59 00.0 -33 55 00.0 4.0 none blue PNT 00 59 30.0 -33 50 00.0 8.0 8 blue PNT 01 00 00.0 -33 30 30.0 10.0 10 blue PNT 01 00 00.0 -33 35 00.0 5.0 A blue PNT 01 00 01.0 -33 40 00.0 10.0 circle red CIR 0.01667 01 00 01.0 -33 40 10.0 10.0 circle red CIR 360.0s 01 00 02.0 -33 45 00.0 9.0 square default SQR 1.5m 01 00 03.0 -33 50 00.0 1.0 rect magenta REC 0.01667d 0.03333d 01 00 03.0 -33 50 10.0 1.0 rect magenta REC 1m 2m 01 00 04.0 -33 55 00.0 9.0 ellip blue ELL 1m 0.5 -30 01 00 04.0 -33 55 00.0 9.0 ellip green ELL 0.05d 0.2 30N.B.: The dimensions for the SQR and REC are the FULL WIDTH and/or HEIGHT, while the size for the CIR and ELL are the RADIUS and SEMI-MAJOR AXIS respectively. The sizes are in degrees by default, but if they are followed by a d, m or s they will be interpretted as being in degrees, minutes or seconds of arc respectively.
- Compression
- This flag allows you to choose whether or not the software compresses the output files (the star lists(s), and the postscript plot(s)) or leaves them as raw ASCII. The compression code used is GZIP. If your browser/machine has GZIP, your are advised to use the compression, but just in case, we make ASCII available too.
Catalogue Output Files and Formats (ASCII Format)
Header Format: All the catalogue data share a common file header format that gives details of the request that generated the subset of the catalogue. The syntax of each header line follows the pattern
#KEY = Value / Short Description or CommentAll header lines begin with a # to make it easy to remove them with text processing tools.
Here is a sample header:
#FIELD = 'NoName' /Field Name #CAT_ID = 'USNOB' /Catalogue ID #NOBJECTS= 129 /Number of Objects In File #EQUINOX = J2000.0 2000.00 /Equinox, Epoch #RA = 0.000000 /Center RA [hrs] #DEC = 0.000000 /Center DEC [deg] #DRA = 0.166667 /Box Width [deg] #DDEC = 0.166667 /Box Height [deg] #MAGNITUD= 'R2' /Primary Sort Color #BR_MAG = 0.00 /Bright Magnitude Limit [mag] #FT_MAG = 25.00 /Faint Magnitude Limit [mag] #COLOR = 'B2-R2' /Color0 minus Color1 (C0-C1) #BR_MIN = -20.00 /Color Limit: Min. C0-C1 [mag] #BR_MAX = 20.00 /Color Limit: Max. C0-C1 [mag] #MU_MIN = 0.00 /Min. Proper Motion [mas/yr] #MU_MAX = 10000.00 /Max. Proper Motion [mas/yr] #SPOS_MIN= 0.00 /Min. Position Error [mas] #SPOS_MAX= 10000.00 /Max. Position Error [mas] #SMU_MIN = 0.00 /Min. Proper Motion Error [mas/yr] #SMU_MAX = 10000.00 /Max. Proper Motion Error [mas/yr] #SD_MIN = 0.00 /Minimum Surface Density [N/deg^2] #SD_MAX = 10000000.00 /Maximum Surface Density [N/deg^2] #SEP_MIN = 0.000000 0.00 /Minimum Separation [deg] & [mag] #END
NOMAD1 Catalogue data is written out as a formatted ascii file. There is a 24 line header, followed by 3 lines of column headings followed by the data (detailed explanation of columns). See the NOMAD ReadMe File for more details about the catalogue.
An example is given here:
#FIELD = 'NoName' /Field Name
#CAT_ID = 'NOMAD' /Catalogue ID
#NOBJECTS= 136 /Number of Objects In File
#EQUINOX = J2000.0 2000.00 /Equinox, Epoch
#RA = 0.000000 /Center RA [hrs]
#DEC = 0.000000 /Center DEC [deg]
#DRA = 0.166667 /Box Width [deg]
#DDEC = 0.166667 /Box Height [deg]
#MAGNITUD= 'R2' /Primary Sort Color
#BR_MAG = 0.00 /Bright Magnitude Limit [mag]
#FT_MAG = 100.00 /Faint Magnitude Limit [mag]
#COLOR = 'B2-R2' /Color0 minus Color1 (C0-C1)
#BR_MIN = -100.00 /Color Limit: Min. C0-C1 [mag]
#BR_MAX = 100.00 /Color Limit: Max. C0-C1 [mag]
#MU_MIN = 0.00 /Min. Proper Motion [mas/yr]
#MU_MAX = 10000.00 /Max. Proper Motion [mas/yr]
#SPOS_MIN= 0.00 /Min. Position Error [mas]
#SPOS_MAX= 10000.00 /Max. Position Error [mas]
#SMU_MIN = 0.00 /Min. Proper Motion Error [mas/yr]
#SMU_MAX = 10000.00 /Max. Proper Motion Error [mas/yr]
#SD_MIN = 0.00 /Minimum Surface Density [N/deg^2]
#SD_MAX = 10000000.00 /Maximum Surface Density [N/deg^2]
#SEP_MIN = 0.000000 0.00 /Minimum Separation [deg] & [mag]
#END
id| RA| DEC|sra|sde| MuRA| MuDEC| sMuRA| sMuDE| Flags| B| V| R| J| H| K| Xi| Eta| Gal_L| Gal_B|DistCtr|
id| hh mm ss| dd mm ss|mas|mas| mas/yr| mas/yr| mas/yr| mas/yr| hex| mag| mag| mag| mag| mag| mag| arcsec| arcsec| ddd.ddd| ddd.ddd| arcsec|
0900-0000001 00 00 00.0687 +00 04 38.110 77 87 20.0 8.0 3.0 4.0 209 20.590 0.000 19.770 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.030 278.110 96.3995755 -60.1177948 278.1
0899-0000001 00 00 00.6260 -00 03 55.070 734 229 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 209 17.940 0.000 15.420 0.000 0.000 0.000 9.390 -235.070 96.2896627 -60.2494731 235.3
0899-0000002 00 00 00.8160 -00 04 37.820 109 84 -26.0 -20.0 5.0 4.0 209 20.910 0.000 19.820 16.251 15.762 15.654 12.240 -277.820 96.2815723 -60.2606771 278.1
0899-0000003 00 00 00.8193 -00 03 55.200 214 85 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 201 0.000 0.000 18.700 0.000 0.000 0.000 12.290 -235.200 96.2911221 -60.2498277 235.5
USNO-B1.0 Catalogue data is written out as a formatted ascii file. There is a 24 line header, followed by 3 lines of column headings followed by the data (detailed explanation of columns). See Monet, D. et al. 2003, AJ, 125, 948 for details about the catalogue and its construction.
An example is given here:
#FIELD = 'NoName' /Field Name
#CAT_ID = 'USNOB' /Catalogue ID
#NOBJECTS= 129 /Number of Objects In File
#EQUINOX = J2000.0 2000.00 /Equinox, Epoch
#RA = 0.000000 /Center RA [hrs]
#DEC = 0.000000 /Center DEC [deg]
#DRA = 0.166667 /Box Width [deg]
#DDEC = 0.166667 /Box Height [deg]
#MAGNITUD= 'R2' /Primary Sort Color
#BR_MAG = 0.00 /Bright Magnitude Limit [mag]
#FT_MAG = 25.00 /Faint Magnitude Limit [mag]
#COLOR = 'B2-R2' /Color0 minus Color1 (C0-C1)
#BR_MIN = -20.00 /Color Limit: Min. C0-C1 [mag]
#BR_MAX = 20.00 /Color Limit: Max. C0-C1 [mag]
#MU_MIN = 0.00 /Min. Proper Motion [mas/yr]
#MU_MAX = 10000.00 /Max. Proper Motion [mas/yr]
#SPOS_MIN= 0.00 /Min. Position Error [mas]
#SPOS_MAX= 10000.00 /Max. Position Error [mas]
#SMU_MIN = 0.00 /Min. Proper Motion Error [mas/yr]
#SMU_MAX = 10000.00 /Max. Proper Motion Error [mas/yr]
#SD_MIN = 0.00 /Minimum Surface Density [N/deg^2]
#SD_MAX = 10000000.00 /Maximum Surface Density [N/deg^2]
#SEP_MIN = 0.000000 0.00 /Minimum Separation [deg] & [mag]
#END
id| RA| DEC|sra|sde| Epoch| MuRA| MuDEC|MuProb| sMuRA| sMuDE|sFitRA|sFitDE|NFitPt| Flags| B1|MagFlg|S/G| R1|MagFlg|S/G| B2|MagFlg|S/G| R2|MagFlg|S/G| I2|MagFlg|S/G| Xi| Eta| Gal_L| Gal_B|DistCtr|
nd| hh mm ss| dd mm ss|mas|mas| yyyy.yyyy|mas/yr|mas/yr| nd|mas/yr|mas/yr| mas| mas| nd| nd| mag| nd| nd| mag| nd| nd| mag| nd| nd| mag| nd| nd| mag| nd| nd| arcsec| arcsec| ddd.ddd| ddd.ddd| arcsec|
0899-0627200 23 59 42.7173 -00 02 02.150 999 999 1951.600000 0 0 0 0 0 900 900 2 0 19.770 2 4 19.830 2 3 0.000 0 19 0.000 0 19 0.000 0 19 -259.240 -122.150 96.1772101 -60.1908854 286.6
0899-0627199 23 59 41.5273 -00 01 15.020 184 999 1951.600000 0 0 0 0 0 200 900 2 0 20.740 2 2 19.880 2 4 0.000 0 19 0.000 0 19 0.000 0 19 -277.090 -75.020 96.1786220 -60.1769038 287.1
0899-0000028 00 00 07.1340 -00 02 25.880 999 459 1972.200000 0 0 0 0 0 900 600 2 0 0.000 0 19 19.110 2 2 19.170 2 6 0.000 0 19 0.000 0 19 107.010 -145.880 96.3596680 -60.2375601 180.9
0899-0627202 23 59 42.8653 -00 02 13.650 999 692 1965.600000 64 -285 9 119 17 900 600 3 0 20.300 2 7 19.550 2 3 0.000 0 19 0.000 0 19 17.320 2 19 -257.020 -133.650 96.1757720 -60.1940593 289.7
USNO-A2.0 Catalogue data is written out as a formatted ascii file. There is a 24 line header, followed by 3 lines of column headings followed by the data (detailed explanation of columns). An example is given here:
#FIELD = 'NoName' /Field Name
#CAT_ID = 'USNOA2' /Catalogue ID
#NOBJECTS= 44 /Number of Objects In File
#EQUINOX = J2000.0 2000.00 /Equinox, Epoch
#RA = 0.000000 /Center RA [hrs]
#DEC = 0.000000 /Center DEC [deg]
#DRA = 0.166667 /Box Width [deg]
#DDEC = 0.166667 /Box Height [deg]
#MAGNITUD= 'R2' /Primary Sort Color
#BR_MAG = 0.00 /Bright Magnitude Limit [mag]
#FT_MAG = 25.00 /Faint Magnitude Limit [mag]
#COLOR = 'B2-R2' /Color0 minus Color1 (C0-C1)
#BR_MIN = -20.00 /Color Limit: Min. C0-C1 [mag]
#BR_MAX = 20.00 /Color Limit: Max. C0-C1 [mag]
#MU_MIN = 0.00 /Min. Proper Motion [mas/yr]
#MU_MAX = 10000.00 /Max. Proper Motion [mas/yr]
#SPOS_MIN= 0.00 /Min. Position Error [mas]
#SPOS_MAX= 10000.00 /Max. Position Error [mas]
#SMU_MIN = 0.00 /Min. Proper Motion Error [mas/yr]
#SMU_MAX = 10000.00 /Max. Proper Motion Error [mas/yr]
#SD_MIN = 0.00 /Minimum Surface Density [N/deg^2]
#SD_MAX = 10000000.00 /Maximum Surface Density [N/deg^2]
#SEP_MIN = 0.000000 /Minimum Separation [deg]
#END
id| RA| DEC|ErrFlg| Flags| B| R| Xi| Eta| Gal_L| Gal_B|DistCtr|
nd| hh mm ss| dd mm ss| nd| nd| mag| mag| arcsec| arcsec| ddd.ddd| ddd.ddd| arcsec|
1 00 00 02.5293 -00 04 21.530 0 - 14.400 13.400 37.940 -261.530 96.2984080 -60.2593771 264.3
2 00 00 04.1540 -00 01 56.320 0 - 18.300 17.100 62.310 -116.320 96.3433141 -60.2250835 132.0
3 00 00 04.6973 -00 03 24.590 0 - 17.700 16.900 70.460 -204.590 96.3278163 -60.2484745 216.4
23 00 00 04.8047 +00 03 36.200 0 - 18.200 16.200 72.070 216.200 96.4222121 -60.1414178 227.9
4 00 00 05.9893 -00 02 46.360 0 - 17.600 15.100 89.840 -166.360 96.3462905 -60.2408792 189.1
24 00 00 06.8760 +00 02 29.710 0 - 18.400 17.000 103.140 149.710 96.4233848 -60.1617959 181.8
ACT Catalogue data is written out as a formatted ascii file. There is a 24 line header, followed by 3 lines of column headings followed by the data (detailed explanation of columns). An example is given here:
#FIELD = 'NoName' /Field Name
#CAT_ID = 'ACT' /Catalogue ID
#NOBJECTS= 2 /Number of Objects In File
#EQUINOX = J2000.0 2000.00 /Equinox, Epoch
#RA = 0.000000 /Center RA [hrs]
#DEC = 0.000000 /Center DEC [deg]
#DRA = 0.166667 /Box Width [deg]
#DDEC = 0.166667 /Box Height [deg]
#MAGNITUD= 'R2' /Primary Sort Color
#BR_MAG = 0.00 /Bright Magnitude Limit [mag]
#FT_MAG = 25.00 /Faint Magnitude Limit [mag]
#COLOR = 'B2-R2' /Color0 minus Color1 (C0-C1)
#BR_MIN = -20.00 /Color Limit: Min. C0-C1 [mag]
#BR_MAX = 20.00 /Color Limit: Max. C0-C1 [mag]
#MU_MIN = 0.00 /Min. Proper Motion [mas/yr]
#MU_MAX = 10000.00 /Max. Proper Motion [mas/yr]
#SPOS_MIN= 0.00 /Min. Position Error [mas]
#SPOS_MAX= 10000.00 /Max. Position Error [mas]
#SMU_MIN = 0.00 /Min. Proper Motion Error [mas/yr]
#SMU_MAX = 10000.00 /Max. Proper Motion Error [mas/yr]
#SD_MIN = 0.00 /Minimum Surface Density [N/deg^2]
#SD_MAX = 10000000.00 /Maximum Surface Density [N/deg^2]
#SEP_MIN = 0.000000 0.00 /Minimum Separation [deg] & [mag]
#END
id| RA| DEC| MuRA| MuDEC| B| V| Xi| Eta| Gal_L| Gal_B|DistCtr|
nd| hh mm ss| dd mm ss|mas/yr|mas/yr| mag| mag| arcsec| arcsec| ddd.ddd| ddd.ddd| arcsec|
17 00 00 08.9786 -00 03 53.249 -5669 -8630 11.435 10.735 134.679 -233.249 96.3544033 -60.2628828 269.3
199563 23 59 59.7660 -00 03 55.179 944 -700 11.800 10.489 -3.510 -235.179 96.2830174 -60.2480706 235.2
For each photographic plate in the archive that matches all your selection criteria, you will receive a log file line, with a link to the image itself. The line will look like:
No. Survey Field Plate Date Time RA (B1950) DEC RA (J2000) DEC Type Filt Exp H.A. dbID Nimg jpg 001 POSSI 0585 319 1951.6071 10.40 0.021235 0.009231 0.029289 0.012727 103aE RP2444 50 0:18E se0585 0002 jpg 002 POSSI 0585 319 1951.6071 10.15 0.021235 0.009231 0.029289 0.012727 103aO None 10 0:28E so0585 0002
The columns are as follows:
- The leading column will contain the link to the image, and the character string will indicate the type of graphics file (jpg = JPEG, gif = GIF, ps = Postscript, ps.gz = gzipped Postscript, FITS=FITS, etc.).
- The column headed NO. is just an index.
- SURVEY indicates which survey the image came from:
- POSSI = The 1st Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, including the Whiteoak extension.
- POSSII = The 2nd Palomar Observatory Sky Survey
- SRCJ = The 1st Epoch Southern Blue Survey
- ESOR = The 1st Epoch Southern Red Survey
- SERCEJ = The Southern Equatorial Blue Survey
- SERCER = The Southern Equatorial Red Survey
- AAOR = The 2nd Epoch Southern Red Survey
- AAON = The 2nd Epoch Southern Infra-Red Survey
- AAOSR = The South Galactic Plane Red Survey
- PIMWA = The North Galactic Plane Red and IR Survey
- LUYTEN = Luyten's 2nd Epoch Northern Sky Survey
- FIELD gives the survey field number.
- PLATE is the inventory plate ID for the photographic plate. Not surprisingly, each observatory has its own system.
- DATE is the UT date when the plate was taken, and is given in decimal years.
- TIME is in decimal hours UT, and is at mid-exposure.
- RA/DEC (B1950) gives the nominal center (as recorded in the observing log, NOT based on the plate solution) of the plate in B1950 coordinates. The RA and DEC are given in RADIANS.
- RA/DEC (J2000) gives the nominal center (as recorded in the observing log, NOT based on the plate solution) of the plate in J2000 coordinates. The RA and DEC are given in RADIANS.
- TYPE gives the type of emulsion used on the photographic plate.
- FILT gives the Filter used during the exposure. The combination of the emulsion and the Filter determine the effective bandpass of the system.
- EXP lists the length of the exposure in MINUTES.
- H.A. gives the hour angle at mid-exposure.
- DBID is the database id name for this plate, and is the string on the side of each image returned.
- NIMG is the number of PMM ``footprints'' (individual images of the plate) that went into constructing this particular image.
Last updated: 2008Dec18 by sel
