Poster Presentations, Thursday and Friday April 6-7 1995
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WWW interface to the ESIS services at ESRIN and CDS
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Salim G. Ansari (1) and Daniel Egret (2)
salim@mail.esrin.esa.it, egret@simbad.u-strasbg.fr
(1) Information Systems Division of ESA, ESRIN, Frascati, Italy
(2) CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
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The European Space Information System is currently being transferred to several
scientific institutions around Europe. One of the major goals of the project is to
achieve a high level of integrity, whereby several sites will provide services in a
uniform way by using today's World Wide Web technology.
ESRIN and the CDS are setting up the ESIS Catalogue Browser and the bibliographic
service on the premises of the Observatoire de Strasbourg and plan to give access to
over 600 catalogues and mission logs and over 500,000 bibliographic abstracts through
the World Wide Web. Not only will there be a WWW browser interface available to search
the catalogues, but in all other ESIS scientific packages that allow the retrieval,
visualisation and manipulation of images, spectra and light curves, searches on
the CDS Catalogue Browser will be implemented. The aim of the activity will be to make
data retrieval more manageable and extensive by sharing archive maintenance and
services within the astronomical community.
We discuss in this paper the setting up of The WWW interface and the
types of search functionalities that will be made available in the future.
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The server of the Observatoire
de Paris-Meudon-Nançay
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F. Arenou,
J.M. Chevalier, K. Dubost, S. Huille, C. Laurent, L. Letourneur,
J.M. Malherbe, J. Schneider, F. Spite, M. Spite
arenou@obspm.fr
Observatoire de Paris, France
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The WWW server of the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon-Nançay will be
presented. The main points which will be described are :
- the choice of the included items
- the problems encoutered for the installation, operation and updating of
the server, in particular about :
- the limits of free expression
- the choice of the language : on this last point, we
will indicate the solution that we suggest.
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ESA/IUE under the Web.
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J.D. Ponz, M. Barylak, A. de la Fuente and O. Holm
jdp@v3300.vilspa.esa.es, mb@vilspa.esa.es, fuente@cay.es
ESA IUE Observatory
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This article describes the IUE World-Wide Web (WWW) information service
at Villafranca.
The description is given in general terms, without technical details,
assuming that you are familiar with this system.
The first implementation of a WWW browser at Villafranca took place
during summer 1993, within the context of exploratory studies to define
a distribution mechanism for the IUE Final Archive.
After comparing the services provided by different architectures
(Ref. 1), it was evident that hypermedia information systems -- even at
the implementation level two years ago -- were the adequate solution.
A pilot project started at that time with the following purposes:
- to understand this new technology,
- to explore its usage for distributing IUE data to the user community, and
- to define an internal information service for project coordination.
The implementation of this pilot project was tested during the unique
opportunity of the Jupiter/Shoemaker-Levy 9 event in July 1994.
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WWW Access to the HST Data Archive
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Kirk Borne and Tim Kimball
borne@stsci.edu, kimball@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute
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We will present recent developments in the HST Data Archive,
including a discussion of the contents of the archive catalog
and archive data system. We will also describe the types of
information that are available via our WWW interface, how to
access this information, and plans for future enhancements.
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The Ephemerides and Astronomical Data Server of Bureau Des Longitudes
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Descamps, P., Thuillot, W., Arlot, J.-E., Montintin, A., Baron, N., Colas, F.,
Rocher, P., Bretagnon, P., Cavelier, F., Maulion, B.
descamps@bdl.fr
Bureau des longitudes,
URA 707 du CNRS,
77 avenue Denfert Rochereau,
F-75014 PARIS
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A project of Ephemerides and Astronomical Data Server has been undertaken at
Bureau des longitudes.
Works in the fields of celestial mechanics, dynamics
and astrometry, are performed in our laboratory and lead us to two main
functions. First and foremost, the mission of Bureau des Longitudes is
dedicated to build and publish ephemerides of Solar System objects. The second
major activity lies in improving the accuracy of the dynamical models of the
motions of these objects through research works. The distribution of data issued
from these activities can highly be improved thanks to the Ephemerides Server
we plan to develop on the Internet network.
This server, which is under development, will allow users to calculate on line
coordinates of solar system objects or to transfer on his own computer a
software or a file providing theses coordinates (planets, satellites, Moon, Sun,
comets and asteroids) and to process with different changes of reference frames.
The large time period covered by these ephemerides will make them useful as well
for observers who have access to the network and who wish to find or to identify
an object as for researchers who need to prepare or analyze observations.
Thus the World Wide Web is a powerful mechanism for serving such data on the
Internet. Besides the possibility of archiving a wide set of useful static
documents, another major interesting feature is to build a front-end query
server making available in real time accurate positions and physical
ephemerides of any solar system objects.
This server would give also access to our data base on the natural satellites
astrometric observations NSDC (Natural Satellites Data Center) which have been
developped since 1991, with the support of IAU.
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The astronomical information server at CDS
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Daniel Egret and François Ochsenbein
egret@simbad.u-strasbg.fr, francois@simbad.u-strasbg.fr
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, France
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An astronomical
information service on the World-Wide Web has been publicly
available at CDS, Strasbourg, since December 1993.
It provides access to the following documents and services:
- General information on CDS
- The Catalogue service
- SIMBAD documentation
- Abstract service for Astronomy & Astrophysics and
PASP
- On-line version of the CDS Information Bulletin
- Yellow-Page services including the Star*s Family of Astronomy Resources
and AstroWeb
- Access to the TOPBase of the Opacity project.
We will illustrate how the WWW technique allows to build
links between this variety of services.
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Serveur WWW de l'Observatoire de Besançon
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Françoise Gazelle,
Annie Robin,
Blandine Goidet
gazelle@obs-besancon.fr
Observatoire de Besançon
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Apres une presentation du contenu du serveur WWW de l'Observatoire de
Besançon, et notamment la base de donnees polarimetriques asteroidales POLARIS
developpee par Blandine Goidet-Devel, je developperais l'acces a une forme
simplifiee du "Modele de synthese de populations stellaires de la Galaxie"
d'Annie Robin par l'intermediaire d'un formulaire.
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The Star*s Family on Astronomy Resources on the Web
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André HECK
Observatoire Astronomique
11, rue de l'Université
F-67000 Strasbourg, France
e-mail: heck@astro.u-strasbg.fr
URL: http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/~heck
Daniel EGRET
Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg
Observatoire Astronomique
11, rue de l'Université
F-67000 Strasbourg, France
e-mail: egret@astro.u-strasbg.fr
URL: http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/people/de.html
François OCHSENBEIN
Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg
Observatoire Astronomique
11, rue de l'Université
F-67000 Strasbourg, France
e-mail: francois@simbad.u-strasbg.fr
URL: http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/people/fo.html
The Star*s Family is a line of
products offering detailed information on astronomical organizations as well as
services of general and practical utility for astronomers and related space scientists.
Several resources are fully operational on the WWW:
- StarWorlds: a database of
organisations, institutions, associations,
companies, and so on, currently gathering together more than 5,000 entries
from about 100 countries with all practical details available and *active*
URLs; it is reachable via the URL http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/starworlds.html;
- StarHeads: a database
of personal WWW pages of individual currently
gathering together more than 1,000 entries and reachable via the URL
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/starheads.html;
- StarBits: a dictionary
of abbreviations, acronyms, contractions,
symbols, and so on, currently gathering together about 85,000 entries; it is
reachable via the URL http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/starbits.html.
The Star*s Family resources offer outstanding advantages such as a twenty-year
tradition/experience in compilations, a resulting good exhaustivity of entries
(including thousands of entries still without WWW link), an homegeneous coverage
of all practical data, a permanent updating and quality checking scheme
(including authentication of data originators), the largest amount of URLs
available in a set of astronomy resources, a unique astronomy-oriented
dictionary of acronyms and abbreviations, and so on.
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Web/RGSC: Providing a WWW interface to the Guide Star Catalog
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Oleg Malkov
malkov@inasan.rssi.ru
Moscow Center for Astronomical Data
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RGSC (Refined GSC) is an ongoing project aimed at developing software
that can overcome some deficiencies of the Guide Star Catalog. The
GSC, while being by far the largest source of all-sky data to date,
contains a lot of misclassifications and artifacts. Our aim is to use
some advanced classification methods (Malkov, O. Yu., Smirnov, O.M.
``Classification of objects in the Guide Star Catalog'' 1995, in Proc.
Fourth Annual Conference, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and
Systems, eds. Shaw D., Hayes J., Payne H., Baltimore, Sep 1994,
Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, in press.) that
can derive correct classifications for many of these objects. The
result of this, a compressed and refined GSC, we plan to make
available on-line through the WWW.
We are developing a HTML forms-based interface to the RGSC catalog,
which will provide much the same functionality that our GUIDARES
program (Malkov, O.Yu., Smirnov, O.M. ``Guide Star Catalog data
retrieval software III'' 1994, in Proc. Third Annual Conference,
Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems, eds. Crabtree D.,
Hanisch R., Barnes J., Victoria, Oct 1993, Astronomical Society of the
Pacific Conference Series, Vol. 61, 183.) provides for the original
GSC on CD-ROM. Basically, a user will be able to query our server for
a sampling of the catalog, or a plotted skymap (i.e., finder chart),
by specifying position and size of area (in any one of four coordinate
systems), magnitude range, types of objects, etc. Our paper will also
discuss various other possible ways of serving RGSC over the Web,
including clickable maps (i.e., click to zoom, etc.), as well as some
future development possibilities.
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La Base de Donnees LASCO au LAS
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C. Mathieu, A. Llebaria et P. Lamy
mathieu@astrsp-mrs.fr, lasm0a::antoine, lasm0a::lamy
Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale, Marseille
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Dans le cadre de la mission spatiale SOHO (SOlar Heliospheric Observatory)
d'observation du soleil mene conjointement par l'Agence Spatiale Europeenne
(ESA) et la NASA, le Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale de Marseille
(LAS) participe a l'experience LASCO d'etude de la couronne solaire au sein d'un
consortium international. Notre laboratoire participe au traitement des
donnees LASCO et a la responsabilite de creer une base de donnees nationale
pour les investigateurs francais.
Dans cette comunication on presente les principales caracteristiques
de l'archive des images et de la base associee. Elle doit permettre d'acceder
a une masse de donnees extremement importante, correspondant a
l'arrivee et au stockage d'environ 180 images par jour (une image representant
entre 2 et 4 mega octets), pendant la duree de la mission (deux ans, lancement
en septembre 1995).
La base de donnees, de type relationnel (Sybase), est concue pour
permettre la visualisation des images elles memes, inseres dans la
base sous forme compressee. On doit ainsi acceder aux images issues des
calibrations avant et apres le lancement, et aux images de
la mission. Pour ce faire on developpe divers interfaces. Le premier
concerne le chargement automatique des nouvelles images dans
la base au fur et a mesure de leur arrivee. Le deuxieme permet
au logiciel de traitement d'images (IDL) d'etre interface avec la
base pour assurer la encore le chargement automatique d'images
selectionnees selon divers criteres.
La mise a disposition des donnees pour les astronomes francais, est
prevue par un serveur Mosaic qui fournira des images
compressees susceptibles d'etre transferees par reseau,
qui proposera une consultation des donnees de la base et enfin qui donnera
tous les renseignements sur la maniere de se procurer les images et
sur l'etat de la mission en cours. Pour realiser ce serveur on
utilise des outils developpes a l'ESO (interface WDB, STARCAT, ...).
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Access to the Lausanne General Catalogue of Photometric Data (GCPD)
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Jean-Claude Mermilliod
mermio@obs.unige.ch
Institut d'Astronomie - Université de Lausanne
CH-1290 Chavannes-des-Bois
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Since 1970, the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Lausanne has
been collecting published photoelectric data in up to 78 photometric
systems, for more than 175,000 stars. The content of these collections
is summarized in the General Catalogue of Photometric Data (GCPD, Hauck
et al. 1990) The data from the major collections (UBV, uvby) are available
in SIMBAD, but no public and easy access has so far been provided for the
wealth of data and information contained in the numerous other photometric
systems.
A Catalogue of Mean UBV Data on Stars (Mermilliod and Mermilliod 1995)
is published by Springer. It contains identifications, positions and
mean UBV data for more than 100,000 stars and summarizes forty years
of UBV photometry (1953 - 1992).
The recent development of informatics and network facilities have
prompted us to develop a new database using the Unix /rdb package on our
Sun workstations and provide an access to the data collection through the
World-Wide Web. This is a relational database system and most files contain
the photometric data (identification (LID), data, source). The database
contains also a file of general information and various tables.
The form will provide an access:
- to the GCPD which describes the general information and available data in
each photometric system. From this output, it will be possible to select the
photometric systems one is interested in and get the original data and their
references and/or the mean values;
- directly to the data for each photometric system.
This work is presently under development and more information will be provided
in the contribution.
References.
Hauck B., Nitschelm C., Mermilliod M., Mermilliod J.-C. 1990, AAS 85, 989
Mermilliod J.-C., Mermilliod M. 1995, "Catalogue of Mean UBV Data on Stars"
(Springer-Verlag, New-York).
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BAse Solaire "Sol" 2000
Solar "Ground" Database 2000
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Thierry Roudier
roudier@obs-mip.fr
Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées
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BASS 2000 is a French solar data base project with
possible extension of collaboration to other European
countries.The main goals of BASS 2000 are:
- to build a new scientific tool from storage, distribution
and exploitation of the solar data obtained from ground
facilities (more particularly for THEMIS data).
- to standardize the French solar ground-based data like those
of SOHO in MEDOC database.
- to provide a long-term storage of such solar data (one solar
cycle at least)
- to make a pedagogic tool for students.
The main center will be located in Bagnères de Bigorre
(France) and one "Full sun" antenna in Meudon observatory;
another "Pedagogic" antenna in Nice Observatory will be also
developped in the next future.
The minimun total volume of the raw data to be stored is
250 Gigabytes/year; one half of that total volume will be
provided by THEMIS.
Catalogues of the data stored in BASS 2000 will be
available on line via computer network and accessible
also for example by a MOSAIC interface. The expected
planning for BASS 2000 project is : the main center in
Bagnères de Bigorre will start with THEMIS and Coronograph
data up to 1998 and then the other French ground solar data
will be introduced. We hope to have also codes and images
processing on line in 1999 and a full run of that project in
2000. BASS 2000 project is under discussion in our French
community.
- BAse Solaire "Sol" 2000
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Thierry Roudier
roudier@obs-mip.fr
Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées
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L'accès aux données produites par les grands instruments au
sol et dans l'espace est d'ores et déjà un enjeu important
pour les laboratoires et les institutions qui entendent
garder une place dans la compétition internationale. Le
développement de plus en plus rapide des détecteurs modernes
produit des flots accrus de données, aussi bien auprès des
observatoires au sol que des missions spatiales. Le
lancement du satellite SOHO en 1995, et la mise en service
du télescope solaire THEMIS en 1996, vont fournir un flux de
données extrémement important (plusieurs centaines de
GigaOctets par an) qui doivent etre accessibles à l'ensemble
de la communauté solaire compte tenu des investissements
réalisés. La gestion des données spatiales du satellite
SOHO est en cours de développement sous l'égide du projet
MEDOC (IAS-CNES). Il reste cependant à créer une base de
données solaires "SOL".
Le projet dénommé BASS 2000 (BAse Solaire "Sol" 2000)
se propose de répondre très rapidement aux exigences de
sauvegarde et de diffusion de toutes les données solaires "sol.
Son objectif initial, compte tenu du calendrier très serré,
est d'archiver et de diffuser les données provenant de THEMIS et
d'assurer la diffusion rapide des "soleils entiers" (THEMIS et
autres) vers le centre d'opération MEDOC de SOHO et le centre
de prévisions de Meudon.
L'objectif final de BASS 2000 étant
d'archiver et de diffuser en ligne l'ensemble des données
solaires "Sol" françcaises à l'horizon de l'an 2000.
Le but principal de cette base de données, est de fournir
un nouvel outil scientifique à la
communauté solaire à partir d'un archivage et d'une
diffusion des données solaires "sol", mais aussi par une
mise à disposition de modèles et codes numériques
(Transfert, MHD,...) produits par cette communauté pour
l'interprétation des mesures. Un de ses avantages sera une
standardisation des données solaires "sol" permettant d'une
part une meilleure compatibilité avec les données
spatiales (i.e. SOHO), et d'autre part de favoriser des échanges
et des collaborations entre chercheurs. Bien sur le maintien à
long terme des données et logiciels de réduction constituera
toujours l'une des missions majeures de BASS 2000. La
formation des étudiants, avec BASS 2000, comme outil
pédagogique, par l'analyse de données pan-chromatiques, est
aussi l'un de nos objectifs.
Le centre principal de BASS 2000 sera implanté à
Bagnères de Bigorre. Une antenne "Soleil Entier" sera créée à
Meudon dès 1995 et c'est en 1998 qu'une antenne "Pédagogique "
sera développée a Nice.
Cette répartition géographique liée à un faible surcout,
aura pour avantage d'offrir dès le début , une diffusion
rapide et la sauvegarde des données de THEMIS.
La connection des utilisateurs au centre Principal de
Bagnères de Bigorre permettra, dans un premier temps,
de connaitre toutes les observations disponibles de
THEMIS, du CORO H-alpha du Pic du Midi et d' un certain
nombre de données standards. Des catalogues
en ligne contenant les observations archivées
seront mis à disposition des utilisateurs pour consultation. Celle-ci
s'effectuera de manière très conviviale par l'intermédiaire d'un
logiciel de base de données relationnelle et d'interface de type
MOSAIC (hyper texte).
Les transferts de données dans le sens producteurs - BASS 2000 se réalisera
en Format FITS ( les mots-clés étant préétablis de manière commune
avec ceux de SOHO (MEDOC) ). La diffusion des données, par BASS 2000,
se fera par envoi postal sous un certain nombre de formats
possibles (FITS, GIF, PICT...).
Les instituts (ou utilisateurs) qui souhaiteront dés 1995
visualiser ou récupérer très rapidement les observations de routine (dégradées)
de THEMIS (ou autres) devront se connecter sur le serveur de l'antenne
Meudonnaise (FTP anonyme).
Les personnels impliqués dans ce
projet sont Thierry ROUDIER (P.I) au centre Principal à
Bagnères de Bigorre, J.M. MALHERBE (CoI. responsable
Scientifique) et Jean ABOUDARHAM (CoI. coordinateur sol-
espace) à Meudon.
C'est vers 1998 - 1999, d'après le développement prévu du
centre Principal, que les utilisateurs auront accès
au meme type d'information pour l'ensemble des données
solaires françaises .
Vers 1999 - 2000 le centre principal de Bagnères de Bigorre
offrira des services supplémentaires tels que l'utilisation de codes
numériques, traitements d'images et récupération des données par réseaux
informatiques. Cette montée progressive des
fonctionnalités du Centre Principal de BASS 2000 de concert
avec les services rendus par les antennes feront de BASS 2000
un outil de recherche et pédagogique très utile pour la
communauté solaire et plus généralement au monde scientifique.
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Multimedia Astronomy using CD-ROMs on the WWW
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N. Ruggiero (1) and T.A. McGlynn (2)
ruggiero@grossc.gsfc.nasa.gov, mcglynn@grossc.gsfc.nasa.gov
(1) Hughes STX - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
(2) USRA - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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We present a multimedia approach to the use of CD-ROM's and the WWW in
astronomical data analysis. Although the static CD format and the
volatile Web may seem disjoint, we have created a structure
which melds the data capacity of CD's with the flexibility of the Web.
HTML pages on the CDROM provide a natural mechanism to browse the CD
using Web browsers. Web pages can provide guides to data, software,
documentation and other ancillary files on the CD. Since the HTML files
are simple ASCII files, the Web pages can be used as pointers even
for users who may not have a browser available. By providing
links to data off the CD, the Web pages allow a user of the CD's to
transparently get updates, additional data, or send queries to the
issuer of the CD. Every CD acts as doorway into the
issuer's archive and data system.
We have created CD's which use Web pages in this fashion. We have found
that the learning curve in using the CD's is virtually eliminated for
those users who are familiar with the Web. The use of external links
allows us to easily update software we have put on the CD and to
`provide' additional data types that only a few users may desire.
This synergy of the CD and Web technologies provides an innovative
approach to a distributed yet coordinated archive.
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Catalog of Faint Structures in Elliptical Galaxies
- André Saar
ASaar@iap.fr
Astrophys. Inst. Potsdam
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We intend to publish a catalog of faint structures in elliptical
galaxies. Because these structures are only a few percent of the
total surface brightness, have widely differing scale lengths
and are superposed on steep intensity gradients, adaptive struc-
ture detecting filters are used. The dynamic range of the results
is quite high and the structures are so complex, that it is very
difficult to present them adequately in gray tones. Because the
dynamic range accessible by false color coding is 1-2 orders of
magnitude higher, we intend to publish the color images of the
catalog in WWW as a complement to an ordinary publication in a
journal. Examples are given.
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Observing Applications via WWW.
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H.P. Stilmack (1) and R.J. Ivison (2)
hps@jach.hawaii.edu, rji@star.uclan.ac.uk
(1) Joint Astronomy Centre, Hilo HI
(2) Royal Observatories, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh
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The Joint Astronomy Centre and the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
operate and manage the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) and
the James Clerk Maxwell Submillimetre Telescope (JCMT) on behalf of
astronomers worldwide. Both telescopes have a Service Observing
facility for observational programmes which can be performed by local
staff on behalf of other investigators. Potential investigators have
traditionally applied for time on these service programmes via
electronic or postal mail to assessors and referees based in the
partner countries. This paper presents a hypertext-based application
method, incorporating some basic parameter-checking (e.g., instrument
configuration, object visibility) and rapid feedback, on behalf of
both telescopes.
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ISSA-PS: A Postage Stamp Server on the World-Wide Web
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Dave Van Buren (1), Rick Ebert (1), Daniel Egret (2)
dvb@ipac.caltech.edu, rick@ipac.caltech.edu, egret@simbad.u-strasbg.fr
(1) IPAC, Caltech, CA, USA
(2) CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, France
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Postage-stamp servers are services which allow the user to retrieve
images of small areas of the sky, in a standard format.
The first such server to be made available on the World-Wide Web
is the ISSA-PS,
providing data from the Infrared Sky Survey Atlas, an all-sky survey made
by the IRAS (Infrared Astronomical Satellite) at wavelengths
of 12, 25, 60 and 100 microns.
Postage stamps cover a 2-degree field centered on the given target.
Targets may be specified either by 1950 equatorial coordinates or by name.
Names are converted to positions using the SIMBAD
database in Strasbourg, France.