Archive-name: space/data Last-modified: $Date: 95/02/01 20:19:18 $ Compilation copyright (c) 1994 by Jonathan P. Leech. This document may be redistributed in its complete and unmodified form. Other use requires written permission of the author. ONLINE AND OTHER SOURCES OF IMAGES, DATA, ETC. INTRODUCTION A wide variety of images, data, catalogs, information releases, and other material dealing with space and astronomy may be found on the net. The sources with the broadest selection of material are the NASA Ames SPACE archive and the National Space Science Data Center (described below). A few sites offer direct dialup access or remote login access, while others offer file transfer over the Internet (referred to as 'anonymous FTP'). Sites not connected to the Internet cannot use FTP directly, but there are a few automated FTP servers which operate via email. Send mail containing only the word HELP to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com, bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu, or ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk, and the servers will send you instructions on how to make requests. Shorthand for a specific file or directory at an anonymous FTP site is ftp://sitename/pathname[/] (e.g. ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/FAQ/Index). The format has been changed to valid URLs for users of the World Wide Web. If you are using a normal FTP client, you will connect to the sitename part of the URL (explorer.arc.nasa.gov, in this case) and get the file specified by the pathname (/pub/SPACE/FAQ/Index). If a '/' terminates the URL, it indicates a directory containing multiple files. WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW) WWW is a global hypermedia network carried on the Internet and incorporating popular protocols including FTP, WAIS, gopher, archie, NNTP (netnews), etc. The Web is growing at an explosive pace, and huge amounts of space-related information are already online. This FAQ is evolving towards a fully hyperlinked Web document (a plain text version will continue to be posted to the net, of course). The primary change at present is the use of Web URLs (Universal Resource Locators) to specify files available by FTP (discussed above), sites accessible by telnet (URLs of the form telnet://sitename), and Web hypertext documents (http://site/page). If you are not familiar with the Web, you should probably begin by obtaining a Web browser (typically NCSA Mosaic for X, Mac, and PC) and exploring. The newsgroup 'comp.infosystems.www.announce' is also available. The NASA Web home page is at http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/NASA_homepage.html Other space-related material may be found on the Web starting with the overview page at http://info.cern.ch/Space/Overview.html There is also a pointer in the "information by subject" page under "Space Science." VIEWING IMAGES Don't ask for images to be posted to the space/astro newsgroups. They're clumsy to access, wasteful of net resources, and inappropriate in discussion groups. Retrieve images on your own using FTP or Web clients. The possible combinations of image formats and machines is forebodingly large, and I won't attempt to cover common formats (GIF, etc.) here. To read PDS and VICAR (and many other) formats on Unix systems running X, use XV 3.00, available in ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/xv-3.00.tar.Z The FAQ for the Usenet group alt.binaries.pictures discusses image formats and how to get image viewing software. A copy of this document is available from the Usenet FAQ archives in ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.binaries.pictures ONLINE ARCHIVES CENTER FOR ADVANCED SPACE STUDIES CASS offers online searching of planetary science databases, including bibliographies, images, meeting abstracts, and other categories. Internet users can access CASS via http://cass.jsc.nasa.gov/CASS_home.html telnet://cass.jsc.nasa.gov (login "cass", password "online") This system is primarily for professionals in planetary science. Note that CASS includes and replaces the online service formerly offered by the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Contact leung@lpi.jsc.nasa.gov. DEFENSE METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITE PROGRAM (DMSP) DMSP is a two satellite constellation of near-polar orbiting, sun synchronous satellites monitoring meteorological, oceanographic and solar-terrestrial physics environments. DMSP sample data and information may be accessed on-line via: ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/DMSP/ http://web.ngdc.noaa.gov/dmsp/dmsp.html gopher://gopher.ngdc.noaa.gov Contact Greg Deuel (dmsp@mail.ngdc.noaa.gov). INFRARED PROCESSING & ANALYSIS CENTER Caltech's IPAC provides access to an easy-to-use interface for making queries of many astronomical catalogs, especially those from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) mission. You can also query the Bright Star catalog, SAO star catalog, a number of extragalactic (galaxy/quasar) catalogs, etc. Results can be saved to flat ASCII tables or FITS files and copied to your computer via FTP. Using the interface requires a machine running X Windows. You can get to IPAC via http://xcatscan.ipac.caltech.edu telnet://xcatscan.ipac.caltech.edu Log in as "xcatscan" (no password needed). Contact Joe Mazzarella (mazz@ipac.caltech.edu). NASA AMES Extensive archives are maintained at NASA Ames and are available via anonymous FTP or an email server. These archives include many images and a wide variety of documents including this FAQ list, NASA press releases, shuttle launch advisories, and mission status reports. Please note that these are NOT maintained on an official basis. A listing of files available in the archive is in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/Index An email server for the SPACE archive is temporarily out of service due to the archive moving to its new home, explorer. Instructions for accessing the email server will be returned to the FAQ when the server is running again. Magellan, Voyager, and Viking CD-ROMs are online in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/cdrom/ Tens of thousands of images are available. The GIF directory contains images in GIF format. The VICAR directory contains Magellan images in VICAR format (these are also available in the GIF directory). A PC program capable of displaying these files is found in the IMDISP directory (see the item "VIEWING IMAGES" below). The NASA media guide describes the various NASA centers and how to contact their public affairs officers; this may be useful when pursuing specific information. It's in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/MISC/media.guide Contact Peter Yee (yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov). NASA ASTROPHYSICS DATA SYSTEM The ADS is a distributed data retrieval system which is easy to use and provides uniform access to ground-based and space-based astronomy data from NASA data centers across the country. It currently has over 140 data catalogs of radio, infrared, optical, UV, and X-ray data which can be queried by position or any other parameter in the catalog. The ADS also provides tools to manipulate and plot tabular results. In addition, ADS has a Beta version of an Abstracts Service which allows users to query over 125,000 abstracts of astronomy papers since 1975 by authors, keywords, title words, or abstract text words. ADS use requires direct Internet access. For more info and to sign up to become a user, email ads@cuads.coloradu.edu. The User's Guide and "QuickStart" Guide (PostScript files) are in ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/ads/ADS_User_Guide Contact Carolyn Stern Grant (stern@cfa.harvard.edu). NASA DIRECTORY OF WAIS SERVERS A WAIS database describing servers of interest to the space community is described by the source file: (:source :version 3 :ip-name "ndadsb.gsfc.nasa.gov" :tcp-port 210 :database-name "NASA-directory-of-servers" :cost 0.00 :cost-unit :free :maintainer "stelar-info@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov" :description "Server created with WAIS release 8 b5.1 on May 5 14:05:34 1993 by warnock@Hypatia Maintainers of WAIS databases of interest to the NASA community can register their databases with the NASA-directory-of-servers by sending the source file to stelar-info@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov. Contact Archie Warnock (warnock@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov). NASA JET PROPULSION LAB (MISSION INFORMATION AND IMAGES) ftp://ftp.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov Operated by the JPL Public Information Office, containing news releases, status reports, fact sheets, images, and other data on JPL missions. May also be reached by modem at (818)-354-1333 (no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit). Contact newsdesk@jpl.nasa.gov or phone (818)-354-5011. NASA JOHNSON SPACE CENTER (MANNED SPACE IMAGES) JSC's digital image collection, containing thousands of images and descriptions covering the manned space program from Mercury to the present. ftp://images.jsc.nasa.gov http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/html/home.htm Contact Kevin Marsh (kmarsh@ja6.jsc.nasa.gov). NASA LANGLEY (TECHNICAL REPORTS) ftp://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/pub/techreports/larc/92/ offers technical reports. Start with files README and abstracts.92. Most files are compressed PostScript. The reports are also in a WAIS database with the following description: (:source :version 3 :ip-name "techreports.larc.nasa.gov" :tcp-port 210 :database-name "nasa-larc-abs" :cost 0.00 :cost-unit :free :maintainer "M.L.Nelson@LaRC.NASA.GOV" :description "NASA Langley Research Center Technical Reports Contact tr-admin@techreports.larc.nasa.gov. NASA SPACELINK SpaceLink is an online service located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The system is specifically designed for teachers. The data base is arranged to provide easy access to current and historical information on NASA aeronautics, space research, and technology transfer information. Also included are suggested classroom activities that incorporate information on NASA projects to teach a number of scientific principles. Unlike bulletin board systems, NASA Spacelink does not provide for interaction between callers. However it does allow teachers and other callers to leave questions and comments for NASA which may be answered by regular mail. Messages are answered electronically, even to acknowledge requests which will be fulfilled by mail. Messages are generally handled the next working day except during missions when turnaround times increase. The mail system is closed-loop between the user and NASA. SpaceLink also offers downloadable shareware and public domain programs useful for science educators as well as space graphics and GIF images from NASA's planetary probes and the Hubble Telescope. You can access SpaceLink via telnet://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov ftp://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov Or you can dial in at (205)-895-0028 (300/1200/2400/9600(V.32) baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit). Most of this information is also available from the Ames server in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/SPACELINK NATIONAL SPACE SCIENCE DATA CENTER (NSSDC) The National Space Science Data Center is the official clearinghouse for NASA data. The data catalog is available online: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ telnet://nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (login as "NODIS") Datasets are made available via anonymous FTP once you select the desired datasets from the online catalog. For non-Internet users, data may be ordered on CD-ROM and in other formats. Among the many types of data available are Voyager, Magellan, and other planetary images, Earth observation data, and star catalogs. For costs and service policy, contact: National Space Science Data Center Request Coordination Office Goddard Space Flight Center Code 633 Greenbelt, MD 20771 Telephone: (301) 286-6695 Email: request@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE STEIS contains a large amount of information about the Hubble Space Telescope, such as status reports and newsletters, in addition to material oriented towards HST observers and proposers. To get started, ftp://stsci.edu/README Contact Pete Reppert (reppert@stsci.edu) or Chris O'Dea (odea@stsci.edu). STARCAT The Space Telescope European Coordination Facility, at ESO/Garching provides on-line access to a huge astronomical database, featuring - Observation log files of several satellites/telescopes (IUE,IRAS,HST,NTT...). - Spectra and images (IUE, HST). - Most of the astronomical catalogues (SAO, HR, NGC, PPM, IRAS, Veron, GSC and many others, more than 50) in a very convenient way (give center+radius+kind of objects, and you get the corresponding files!). Access at telnet://stesis.hq.eso.org (or STESIS on DECnet). Log in as "starcat" (no password). Files created can be retrieved via FTP. Contact: Benoit Pirenne (bpirenne@eso.org) (phone +49 89 320 06 433) at ST-ECF ASTRONOMICAL DATABASES The full SAO stellar database is probably not available online yet. It may be ordered on magnetic tape from the NSSDC. A subset containing position and magnitude only is available by FTP (see "Astronomy Programs" below). ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/astro/ contains a large collection of astronomical programs for many types of computers, databases of stars and deep sky objects, and general astronomy information. This site is mainly for European users, but overseas connections are possible. ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/MISC/galaxy.dat is a database of 8,436 galaxies including name, RA, declination, magnitude, and radial velocity, supplied by Wayne Hayes (wayne@csri.utoronto.ca). ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov:pub/SPACE/FAQ/ contains constellation boundary data (files constell.*) in a form suitable for the construction of star charts and atlases. ftp://iris1.ucis.dal.ca/pub/gif/ contains a number of GIFs from Voyager, Hubble, and other sources (most of this data is also in pub/SPACE/GIF on the Ames server). Please restrict access to 5pm - 8am Atlantic time. ftp://pomona.claremont.edu/astro/catalog/yale_bsc/ contains the Yale Bright Star catalog. Web users, note that this is a VMS site and Mosaic does not get along with their server, so this URL is a placeholder - run FTP manually. Contact James Dishaw (jdishaw@pomona.claremont.edu). The Hubble Guide Star catalog is available on CD-ROM for the Mac and PC for $49.95 US (catalog #ST101). Astronomical Society of the Pacific 390 Ashton Ave. San Francisco, CA 94112 Phone: (415) 337-2624 9 AM - 3 PM Pacific Time FAX: (415) 337-5205 For German (and possibly other European) readers, Jost Jahn (j.jahn@abbs.hanse.de) has a mail service to distribute astronomical data to interested amateurs at cost. About 30-40 catalogs are available for DM 6..8/disk. Several floppy disk formats are available. He also has a FAX service with current news on the observable sky. Email him if interested in these services, or write: Jost Jahn Neustaedter Strasse 11 W-3123 Bodenteich GERMANY Phone: FRG-5824-3197 FAX: (49)-581-14824 ASTRONOMY PROGRAMS A more complete list is posted monthly to sci.astro and available in ftp://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/faq/astroftp.txt This list is maintained by the SEDS chapter at U. Arizona (astroftp@seds.lpl.arizona.edu). Some astronomy-related programs and databases archived from Usenet source groups: ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume8/phoon.Z Moon phase and date routines ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume8/moon.Z Another moon phase program ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume15/moontool.Z Show moon phase picture on Suns ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume12/starcharts/ ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume13/starchart/ Starchart program & Yale star data ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume11/starchart Starchart program, version 3.2 ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume12/starchart2 Starchart program, update to version 3.2.1 ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume16/sao/ Reduced SAO catalog ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume11/n3emo-orbit ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume14/n3emo-orbit Orbit: track earth satellites ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume13/jupmoons Plotter for Jupiter's major moons [in perl] ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume13/lunisolar Lunisolar (not sure what this does) ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume18/planet Planet generation simulator Xephem is an interactive astronomical ephemeris program for X11R4/Motif 1.1 (or later) X Windows systems. It computes lots of information about the planets and any solar system objects for which orbital elements are available. A sample database of some 16000+ objects is included in the release kit. It's in ftp://iraf.noao.edu/contrib/xephem/xephem_2.6/ Contact Elwood Downey (ecdowney@noao.edu). Ephem is the forefather of xephem designed for simple 24x80 character displays, in ftp://iraf.noao.edu/contrib/xephem/ephem/ephem_4.28.tar.Z Xsat 1.2.6, an X based satellite tracking program, and Xsky 2.1.6, a computerized sky atlas for the X Window System, are available from ftp://arizona.edu/software/unix/xsat/readme.dist ftp://arizona.edu/software/unix/xsky/xsky-216.tarz (This is a VMS FTP site; some Web browsers, such as Mosaic 2.4, may have trouble with these URLs). Contact Terry R. Friedrichsen (terry@venus.sunquest.com). The "Variable Stars Analysis Software Archive" is in ftp://ftpastro.vuw.ac.nz/astrophys/ This is intended for specialists in this field, and they would appreciate people from outside New Zealand confining their FTP access to the astrophys directory, as they pay a significant amount for Internet access. Contributions are encouraged. Contact the archive administrator, Timothy Banks (astrophys-archive@kauri.vuw.ac.nz). For further details on the archive see _The Observatory_, 112, 16, 1992. The "IDL Astronomy Users Library" is in ftp://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/README This is a central repository for general purpose astronomy procedures written in IDL, a commercial image processing, plotting, and programming language. Contact Wayne Landsman (landsman@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov). Daniel Roth (roth@ph-cip.uni-koeln.de) offers an astronomy software service for PC and Atari users in Europe. He has a large library available on disk and a CD-ROM with the entire library. A catalog is available; contact him for ordering details. ORBITAL ELEMENT SETS The most recent orbital elements from the NASA Prediction Bulletins are carried on the Celestial BBS, (205)-409-9280. Documentation and tracking software are also available on this system. The Celestial BBS may be accessed 24 hours/day at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud using 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Orbital element sets are FTPable from the following directories: ftp://archive.afit.af.mil/pub/space/ NASA,TVRO,Shuttle ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/astro/dbases/sat-elem/ NASA,TVRO,Molczan,CelBBS,Shuttle ftp://kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/space/ NASA,Molczan,Thomson SPACE DIGEST ARCHIVES Copies of back issues of Space Digest are archived on LISTSERV@UGA.BITNET. Send mail containing the message "INDEX SPACE" to get an index of files; send it the message "GET filename filetype" to get a particular file. GEOSPHERE PROJECT (FULL EARTH IMAGE) Tom van Sant's GeoSphere Project has produced a very nice composite image of the entire Earth (without clouds, so all the surface is visible) by assembling thousands of Landsat images. This image is not in the public domain; any digital copies made available by anonymous FTP are illegal. GeoSphere offers the image in a variety of printed forms (posters, mugs, globes, etc.). Contact them at (800)-845-1522 for a catalog. They may be willing to license the digital database for specific uses, contact them for details. LANDSAT AND NASA PHOTOS You can get black-and-white 1:1M prints, negatives, or positives for $10, $18, $12 respectively for any Landsat data more than 2 years old from EDC, (Eros (Earth Resources Orbiting Satellite) Data Center). Call them at (605)-594-6511. You get 80 meter resolution from the MSS scanner, 135x180 kilometers on a picture 135x180 mm in size. I think you have to select one band from (green, red, near IR, second near IR), but I'm not sure. Digitial data is also available at higher prices. Transparencies of all NASA photos available to the public can be borrowed from the NASA photo archive; you can have copies or prints made. NASA Audio-Visual Facility 918 North Rengstorff Ave Mountain View, CA 94043 (415)-604-6270 PLANETARY MAPS Phil Stooke (stooke@sscl.uwo.ca) maintains a list of maps of all mapped solid bodies except Earth, including sources, ordering information, and references, which is posted to sci.astro periodically and may also be found in ftp://phobos.sscl.uwo.ca/pub/Space/planmap.txt along with related images and files. He has offered to answer questions by email. COMETARY ORBIT DATA The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and the Minor Planet Center announce the sixth edition of the Catalogue of Cometary Orbits in IAU Circular 4935. The catalogue contains 1292 entries which represent all known comets through November 1989 and is 96 pages long. Non-subscribers to the Circulars may purchase the catalogue for $15.00 while the cost to subscribers is $7.50. The basic catalogue in ASCII along with a program to extract specific orbits and calculate ephemerides is available on MS-DOS 5.25-inch 2S2D diskette at a cost of $75.00 (the program requires an 8087 math coprocessor). The catalogue alone is also available by e-mail for $37.50 or on magnetic tape for $300.00. Except for the printed version of the catalogue, the various magnetic media or e-mail forms of the catalogue do not specifically meantion non-subscribers. It is possible that these forms of the catalogue may not be available to non-subscribers or that their prices may be more expensive than those given. Mail requests for specific information and orders to: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Cambridge, MA 02138, USA NEXT: FAQ #4/13 - Performing calculations and interpreting data formats