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Answers to many of your questions about the ADC can be found on our
Frequently-Asked Questions list or our
ADC Reference Shelf.
ADC for Amateur Astronomers - Amateur Astronomy Uses of ADC
ADC for Students & Educators - Educational Uses of ADC
ADC Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The listings of catalogs available on the Selected Astronomical Catalogs
CD-ROMs are contained in the
Volume 1 Contents,
Volume 2 Contents,
Volume 3 Contents,
Volume 4 Contents listings.
The ADC provides software to read the Selected Astronomical Catalogs
ASCII CD-ROM in PC Windows. The Aurora Editor, which will edit up to 1GB size
files, is very useful for the larger ADC catalogs which often do not fit into
common editors. Aurora works under DOS and Windows and is shareware. The
Aurora Editor is available via anonymous ftp
from adc.astro.umd.edu in pub/adc/software/windows/aurora directory. Or you can use the FITS Table Browser from your DOS prompt to
read the FITS tables. (Both the ASCII CD-ROM and the FITS CD-ROM, which
comprise Volume 1, contain exactly the same information, just in different
formats.) The
FITS Table Browser is available via anonymous ftp
from adc.astro.umd.edu in the /pub/adc/software/browsers/ftb directory.
You can
order the CD-ROMs from the NSSDC Request Coordination Office.
The ADC has an Internet site hosting enhanced WWW and FTP access
to the ADC's holdings. The WWW home page is located at the URL
From this page, Web users can easily explore the ADC's FTP site, query a
database of descriptions of the catalogs and journal tables, search back
issues of its newsletter and browse its brochure.
You can look up ADC's catalogs and journal tables by
Author name or ADC Subject Keywords. These
indices list the ADC catalog and journal table identifiers appropriate to each
author name or each keyword. You can also view a comprehensive hypertext
listing of catalogs.
Each catalog entry is hyperlinked to the document that describes the catalog
or journal table. At the top of each document is a hypertext link to the
ADC anonymous FTP directory
ftp://adc.astro.umd.edu/pub/adc/archives/.
Also, the listings of catalogs and journal tables are available via anonymous FTP
from adc.astro.umd.edu in the pub/adc/archives/ subdirectory (filename
key), the "key" file at each level of the directory tree contains an
index of each subdirectory.
The ADC Data Viewer allows researchers and the general public to access the
ADC catalog and table holdings easily over the WWW. The user can subset,
resort, select table columns for display, and perform simple visualizations
and plots of catalogs and tables in our holdings. A related effort allows
users to take entries from the catalogs and search through the logs of many
NASA missions for the existence of observations that meet user selected
spatial regions and temporal intervals. If the user wishes, the software will
format requests to the appropriate discipline data center for access to
browse images and the actual data.
To try the ADC Data Viewer , see its Web page.
Users who access catalogs from our Science Data Collection services
will also be able to invoke the data viewer from the standard document
display page for most ADC catalogs.
The ADC has implemented on-the-fly decompression for those lacking the
ability to uncompress files at their remote sites. Our server allows
on-the-fly decompression of our gzip compressed files by omitting the
"gz" suffix from the file names. If you wish to obtain a copy of
GNU unzip, we suggest you go to
http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html for a listing of FTP sites for
GNU software.
The HST Guide Star Photometric Catalog was created to provide photometric
calibrators for the HST Guide Star Catalog. The
HST Guide Star Photometric
Catalog is distributed by the ADC as catalog #2143A.
The ADC also
has the HST Guide Star Catalog as catalog #1220.
The ADC does provide the
Catalog of Infrared Observations as ADC catalog #2225.
See also:
CIO homepage
The ADC does provide the
SKY2000 - Master Star Catalog - Star Catalog Database as ADC catalog
#5102. The SKY2000 Star Catalog System consists of a Master Catalog
stellar database and a collection of utility software designed to create and
maintain the database and to generate derivative mission star catalogs
(run catalogs). It contains an extensive compilation of information on
almost 300000 stars brighter than 8.0 mag.
See also:
Flight Dynamics' Star Catalog Database
The Bright Star Catalog as ADC catalog #5050 contains all stars
brighter than 6.5
magnitude (that is, all stars visible to the naked eye in a clear dark
sky by a person with excellent eyesight). The main catalog lists the
positions, motions, magnitudes (brightness) and other information about
each star. It also lists the Bayer or Flamsteed name, and the number of
the star in several modern catalogs. The notes to the catalog give the
common names keyed to the number in the main catalog.
The following catalog provides complete information on stars within 25
parsecs (75 light years):
The following are the way to translate the data in the catalog to X,Y and Z:
Then,
the distance = R = 1/parallax. This will be in parsecs. To translate it to
light years, multiply by 3.26.
You can also find a list of the nearest stars, within 17 light years of the sun at The Mizar Pages.
Several catalogs provide positions for the year 2000 and proper motions
that can be used to change the positions (with precession) to any other
date. They are:
The final results from the ESA Hipparcos space astrometry mission (the
Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues, annexes, and documentation) were made
available as from June 1997.
The final mission results are available as follows:
The printed catalogues comprise 16 volumes, with an additional volume 17
including 6 ASCII CD-ROMs.
A subset of the above consisting of Volume 1 (Introduction and Guide to
the Data) and Volume 17 (the ASCII CD-ROM set). Please note that this is a
SUBSET of the 17-volume set.
Celestia 2000 is a CD-ROM package containing the principal parts of the
Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues, annexes and complementary updated data
(in binary format). The accompanying software allows users to easily access
astrometric and photometric data for all stars contained in these
Catalogues/Annexes.
Ultraviolet high resolution spectral atlases were constructed for six stars:
Alpha CMa (Sirius), Alpha Lyr (Vega), Beta Ori (Rigel), Gamma Peg, Iota Her,
and Tau Sco. The
spectra atlases are available in FITS binary table format.
The Messier Catalog can be found at:
All ADC data are public domain unless otherwise stated in the "ReadMe" file. The data
are for scientific use only and have no commercial value.
Use of ADC data in reports, publications or formal presentations of any kind
should be acknowledged by reference to the original authors and publication
and to the ADC. The acknowledgement might read:
This paper uses data provided by Joe/Jane Astronomer in AJ, 110, 1992 as distributed by the Astronomical Data Center at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
The ADC now has over 911 astronomical catalogs and 2022 journal tables
retrievable on-line via anonymous FTP.
For direct FTP access, from Internet connect as follows:
ftp adc.astro.umd.edu
Log in as "anonymous".
Once connected, move to the pub/adc/archives subdirectory which is the root of
the catalog and journal table archive directories. You will normally find a
"key" file present at each level of the directory tree which contains an index
of each subdirectory.
Please note that all catalogs and journal tables except for the "ReadMe" files
and other miscellaneous documentation files are stored in a UNIX compressed
format. The "ReadMe" file, should be read first, it normally contains the
catalog and journal table identification, a summary of the files, description
of the data and format description. When copying the files via anonymous FTP
be sure to use the binary option, and the decompression program "gunzip" on
the copied files in order to obtain the original files. Our ftp server also
allows on-the-fly decompression of our gzip compressed files by omitting the
"gz" suffix from the file names.
The National Space Science Data Center, with a few exceptions, does not
distribute HST imagery. NSSDC provides some Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 HST
images at
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/comet.html. The NSSDC Photo
Gallery provides many other HST images at
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-hst.html.
Finally, some HST data is available through NDADS/ARMS at
http://ndads.gsfc.nasa.gov/archives_form_HST.html.
More HST information, data, and imagery is available from the
Space Telescope Science Institute.
All inquiries should be addressed to the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Space Telescope Science Institute
Further information regarding this CD-ROM set is available from
http://www-gsss.stsci.edu/dss/dss.html. All inquiries should be
addressed to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
If you would like to browse on-line images of a certain area of the sky taken
by a variety of different spacecraft, access the SkyView Virtual Observatory.
The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) is also a good option for searching
the sky by object name, position, etc. To access NED,
TELNET NED.IPAC.CALTECH.EDU
WWW users can access NED via
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/.
For radio images, access the NCSA Astronomy Digital Library at
http://imagelib.ncsa.uiuc.edu/imagelib.html.
In response to numerous inquiries on the subject of purchasing star names,
the International Astronomical Union (IAU) offers the following information.
The IAU receives an increasing number of requests from individuals who want to buy stars or star
names, or name stars after other persons. The IAU is aware that some commercial enterprises
purport to offer such services for a fee. The fact is that such "names" have no formal or official validity
whatever; a few bright stars have ancient, traditional Arabic names, but otherwise stars have just
numbers and positions on the sky.
To see that the idea of "buying" stars or star names is inherently absurd, consider that there are
perhaps 100,000,000,000 stars in our Milky Way Galaxy alone where other beings might in principle
compete on the market. Stars cannot be fenced in, taken home, or locked up in a vault: Like so many
of the best things in life, the beauty of the night sky is not for sale, but is there for all to enjoy.
However, there is now a way to explore the sky in your own home: Large sky surveys have become
available in digital form on CD ROM, e.g. from the Astronomical Society of
the Pacific (catalog@aspsky.org). This allows everyone to browse among many hundreds of millions of stars on
your home computer. These maps are the main data base of at least some of the commercial star
naming enterprises; why pay a markup for buying the stars one at a time?
For the sake of completeness, it is noted that these rules apply also to naming star clusters or
galaxies as well as to individual stars.
The Astronomical Almanac is published by the US Naval Observatory Astronomical
Applications Department:
The hardcopy can be purchased from the US Government Printing Office. USNO
does not put the entire Almanac on-line. However, much of the data on the Sun,
Moon, and solar system phenomena are on-line:
NOVAS is an integrated package of subroutines for the computation of a wide
variety of common astrometric quantities and transformations. Available as
Fortran or C source code.
MICA - Multiyear Interactive Computer Almanac
MICA is an easy-to-use program that provides much of the information printed
in the annual Astronomical Almanac but covers a 10-year period (1990-1999).
It also allows the user to tailor computations for a specific location and
accepts input catalogs of celestial objects prepared by the user. Available
for both PCs and Macs.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/software
A web version of MICA, providing some of the most common-used functions of MICA
is available at:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data/docs/WebMICA_2.html/
The Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) at the
University of Arizona provide a collection of information about our Solar
System intended for a general audience with little technical background. No
special expertise or knowledge is needed; all technical and astronomical
terms and proper names are defined in the glossary. The bulk of this material
should be familiar to planetary scientists and astronomers but they may find
a few interesting tidbits, too.
You can find basic information about the Sun at:
Astronomical Data Center (ADC) Catalogs and Journal
Tables
Selected Astronomical Catalogs, Volume 1, 2, 3 and 4
CD-ROMs
Searching for and Requesting Catalogs
#5070A Nearby Stars, Preliminary (Gliese, Jahreiss 1991)
R = distance
RA = right ascension
DEC = declination
X = R*cos(DEC)*cos(RA)
Y = R*cos(DEC)*sin(RA)
Z = R*sin(DEC)
#1175 Fifth Fundamental Catalogue, FK5 Extension (Fricke et al. 1991)
#1171 The Astrographic Reference Catalog (Corbin and Urban, 1991)
#1146 Positions and Proper Motions (Roeser and Bastian, 1988)
#1193 Positions and Proper Motions - South (Bastian, 1993)
#1206 Bright Star Supplement, PPM and PPM South (Bastian et al., 1992)
#1208 90000 Star Supplement to the PPM Star Catalogue (Roeser, 1994)
#1175 and #1206 contain bright stars. Most are brighter than 7th
magnitude. #1171, 1146, and 1193 do not contain stars brighter than
about 6th magnitude.
Policies Concerning the Use of ADC Data
Anonymous FTP
Digital Imagery
3700 San Martin Drive
Baltimore, MD 21218
USA
Telephone: (410) 338-4447
E-mail: archive@stsci.edu
http://www.stsci.edu/
or anonymous ftp to stsci.edu
Department 10X
390 Ashton Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94112-1787
Telephone: (415)337-2624
FAX: (415)337-5205
Login: ned
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/publications/docs/almanacs.html
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data
Software products are also available:
NOVAS - Naval Observatory Vector Astrometry Subroutines
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/sol.html
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Authors: James Gass & Gail Schneider Revised: February 10, 2005 |
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