Information & On-line Data in Astronomy

A book published by Kluwer Acad. Publ. (Sept.95)
Daniel Egret & Miguel A. Albrecht (Editors)

The ability of storing, managing, and giving access to a huge quantity of data, and the associated documents, is one of the major challenges of our science (and of natural sciences in general) for the next decade. At the same time, the growing complexity of data systems, implies a change of concepts. The scientist has not only to manipulate data, but also information. Recent developments of the World-Wide Web bring interesting answers to these problems.

The book presents a wide selection of databases, archives, data centers, and information systems in astronomy. Clear and up-to-date descriptions are included, together with their scientific context and motivations.

This on-line complement of the book includes summary descriptions of the data systems presented in the printed version (as well as those presented in the earlier book Databases & On-line Data in Astronomy), together with the complete access pointers (these will be kept up-to-date) and, when available, ready-to-use hyperlinks to the original data systems (either WWW, ftp or telnet services).

Preface: Daniel Egret & Miguel A. Albrecht

Data Archives

The Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory Archive: Paul Barrett
Data from the X-ray Observatory ROSAT: H.U.Zimmerman, H. Brunner, R. Pisarski, W. Voges & M.G. Watson
The EUVE Archive: Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics Team
The IUE Archives: M. Barylak, A. Talavera, W. Wamsteker, J.D. Ponz & C. Driessen
Building the archive facility of the ESO Very Large Telescope: Miguel A. Albrecht, Michele Peron & Benoit Pirenne
Deep Near Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky (DENIS): Erik Deul, Nicolas Epchtein & Jean Borsenberger
Data from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE): David Leisawitz & John C. Mather
Data Archive System for the Hubble Space Telescope: E. Schreier, P. Benvenuti & F. Pasian
IRAS: Helen J. Walker
The EXOSAT Database System: N. E. White & P. Giommi
Archives of the Isaac Newton Group, La Palma and Westerbork Observatories: Ernst Raimond
Archiving at NRAO's VLA and VLBA Telescopes: Donald C. Wells

Databases & Data Centers

The Archives of the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre: Dennis R. Crabtree, Daniel Durand, Severin Gaudet, Norman Hill & Stephen C. Morris
The Einstein On-Line Service: Daniel E. Harris & Carolyn Stern Grant
The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database: G. Helou, B.F. Madore, M. Schmitz, X. Wu, H.G. Corwin, Jr., C. LaGue, J. Bennett & H. Sun
LEDA: The Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database: G. Paturel, I. Vauglin, H. Andernach, R. Garnier, M.C. Marthinet, C. Petit, H. Di Nella, L. Bottinelli, L. Gouguenheim & N. Durand
The Database for Galactic Open Clusters (BDA): Jean-Claude Mermilliod
The HEASARC Facility: The HEASARC Team
IPAC Datasets and On-Line Services: R. Ebert, G. Helou, and J. Mazzarella for the IPAC Tools Group
A global perspective on astronomical data and information: the Strasbourg astronomical Data Center (CDS): D. Egret, M. Creze, F. Bonnarel, P. Dubois, F. Genova, A. Heck, G. Jasniewicz, S. Lesteven, F. Ochsenbein & M. Wenger
Database Aspects of the Guide Star Catalog: Helmut Jenkner
The Hipparcos INCA Database: C. Turon, F. Arenou, M.-O. Baylac, D. Boumghar, F. Crifo, A. Gómez, M. Marouard, M. Mekkas, D. Morin, & A. Sellier
The NSSDC Services: Michael E. Van Steenberg & James L. Green
The Space Data Centre at RAL: David Giaretta & Eric Dunford
Database Applications in Starlink: Clive Davenhall
Database Applications in Astronet: Leopoldo Benacchio

Information Systems & Services

Data Holdings in the ADS: Stephen S. Murray, Guenther Eichhorn, Alberto Accomazzi, Carolyn Stern Grant & Michael J. Kurtz
The European Space Information System (ESIS): Paolo Giommi & Salim G. Ansari
The Star*s Family: An example of comprehensive yellow-page services: Andre Heck
Library Information Services: U. Grothkopf (Michold), M. Cummins, J.M. Watson, J. Holmquist & R. Shobbrook

Background Information

Facets and Challenges of the Information Technology Evolution: A. Heck
How to make your information available on the network: Miguel A. Albrecht & Daniel Egret
Computer Networking in Astronomy: Fionn Murtagh
Data Storage Technology for Astronomy: Benoit Pirenne & Daniel Durand
NED and SIMBAD Conventions for Bibliographic Reference Coding: M. Schmitz, G. Helou, P. Dubois, C. LaGue, B. Madore, H.G. Corwin Jr. & S. Lesteven
The FITS Data Format: Preben Grosbøl

List of Authors

List of Acronyms

Information & On-line data in Astronomy
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Daniel Egret & Miguel A. Albrecht (Editors)

Last update: Nov 10, 1995