Äîêóìåíò âçÿò èç êýøà ïîèñêîâîé ìàøèíû. Àäðåñ îðèãèíàëüíîãî äîêóìåíòà : http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/documents/network-resources/netresources.ps Äàòà èçìåíåíèÿ: Wed Dec 14 19:55:03 1994 Äàòà èíäåêñèðîâàíèÿ: Sat Dec 22 19:10:03 2007 Êîäèðîâêà: Ïîèñêîâûå ñëîâà: http astrokuban.info astrokuban

Network Resources for Astronomers 1
Heinz Andernach
Observatoire de Lyon, 9 avenue Charles Andr'e, F­69561 Saint­Genis­Laval Cedex, France
heinz@adel.univ­lyon1.fr
Robert J. Hanisch
Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218
hanisch@stsci.edu
Fionn Murtagh 2
Space Telescope -- European Coordinating Facility, European Southern Observatory,
Karl­Schwarzschild­Str. 2, D­85748 Garching, Germany
fmurtagh@eso.org
Running Head: Network Resources.
Send proofs to: Heinz Andernach.
1 Copyright 1994, Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP 106, 1190).
2 Affiliated to Astrophysics Division, Space Science Department, European Space Agency

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Contents
1 Introduction 6
2 Network Services 6
2.1 Electronic Mail : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 6
2.1.1 Listservers : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 6
2.2 Usenet : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 7
2.3 FTP and Anonymous FTP : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 8
2.4 Archie : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 9
2.5 Internet and DECNet Node Names and Addresses : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 9
2.6 Remote Logins : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 9
2.7 Information Discovery Tools: WAIS, Gopher, and the World­Wide Web : : : : : : : : : : : : 9
3 Astronomical Catalogs and On­Line Databases 11
3.1 Astronomical Catalogs : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 11
3.1.1 NASA Space Science Data Center : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 11
3.1.2 Centre de Donn'ees Astronomiques de Strasbourg : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 12
3.1.3 Canadian Astronomy Data Center : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 12
3.1.4 Pune, India : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 13
3.1.5 CD­ROM Catalogs and Databases : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 13
3.2 On­Line Databases : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 13
3.2.1 Atomic Databases : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 13
3.2.2 DIRA2 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 14
3.2.3 EINLINE : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 14
3.2.4 EXOSAT : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 15
3.2.5 HEADS­Brera On­Line Service : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 15
3.2.6 HEASARC : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 16
3.2.7 LEDA : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 16
3.2.8 NED : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 17
3.2.9 SIMBAD : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 17
3.2.10 STARLINK : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 17
3.3 Observatory Archives of Raw or Calibrated Data : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 18
3.3.1 Canada--France--Hawaii Telescope : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 18

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3.3.2 Cosmic Background Explorer : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 18
3.3.3 European Southern Observatory : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 19
3.3.4 Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 19
3.3.5 Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 19
3.3.6 HIPPARCOS : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 19
3.3.7 Hubble Space Telescope : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 20
3.3.8 Infrared Processing and Analysis Center : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 21
3.3.9 IRAS : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 21
3.3.10 Infrared Space Observatory : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 22
3.3.11 International Ultraviolet Explorer : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 22
3.3.12 James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Archive : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 22
3.3.13 La Palma Archive : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 22
3.3.14 ROSAT : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 23
3.3.15 Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope Archive : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 23
3.3.16 Lunar and Planetary Institute : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 23
3.3.17 Solar Data : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 24
3.4 Distributed Databases : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 24
3.4.1 Astrophysics Data System : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 24
3.4.2 European Space Information System : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 25
4 Plate Catalogs, Digital Optical Sky Surveys, and Finding Charts 25
4.1 Plate Catalogs : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 26
4.1.1 The UK Schmidt, ESO Schmidt, and AAT Plate Catalogs : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 26
4.2 Digital Optical Sky Surveys : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 26
4.2.1 Automated Plate Measuring Machine : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 26
4.2.2 COSMOS : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 26
4.2.3 ST ScI Guide Star Plate Scans : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 27
4.2.4 Minnesota Automated Plate Scanner : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 27
4.3 Finding Charts : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 27
5 Bibliographical Services and Preprints 28
5.1 Bibliographic Services : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 28
5.1.1 Project STELAR : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 29
5.1.2 Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 29

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5.1.3 Lunar and Planetary Institute : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 29
5.1.4 UnCover : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 29
5.1.5 Abstracts and Indices of Astronomical Journals : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 30
5.1.6 Acta Astronomica Archive : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 30
5.2 Preprint Services : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 30
5.2.1 Los Alamos National Laboratory : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 30
5.2.2 CERN : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 30
5.2.3 SISSA : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 31
5.2.4 Preprint Lists from NRAO and ST ScI : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 31
5.3 Astrolib : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 32
5.4 On­Line Library Card Catalogs : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 32
6 Electronic Publishing 32
7 Dictionaries, Thesauri, Directories, Meetings, and Jobs 33
7.1 Dictionaries and Thesauri : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 33
7.2 Directories : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 33
7.3 Astronomical Meetings : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 34
7.4 Jobs : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 34
8 Astronomical Software 35
9 Other Information Systems and Services 36
10 Conclusions 37
A URLs of Note 46
B List of Acronyms 47

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ABSTRACT
The amount of data produced by large observational facilities and space missions has led to
the archiving and on­line accessibility of much of this data, available to the entire astronomical
community. This allows a much wider multi­frequency approach to astronomical research than
previously possible. Here we provide an overview of these services, and give a basic description of
their contents and possibilities for accessing them. Apart from services providing observational
data, many of those providing general information, e.g. on addresses, bibliographies, software
etc. are also described. The field is rapidly growing with improved network technology, and our
attempt to keep the report as complete and up­to­date as possible will inevitably be outdated
shortly. We will endeavor to maintain an updated version of this document on­line.
Subject headings: Astronomical Catalogs; Astronomical Databases; Astronomical Archives;
Astronomical Software; Data­Handling Techniques; Yellow­Page Services; Networking; Internet;
FTP; WWW; General Notes; Miscellaneous

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1. Introduction
With the growth of wide­area networking services such as electronic mail, file transfers, information
services (bibliographic information, software libraries, etc.), as well as on­line catalogs and databases,
astronomers have access to a wealth of information via the terminal or workstation on their desks. This
report provides an overview of many of these services, most of them available for free via network connection.
The present report arose from documentation written separately by Hanisch (1992), Andernach (1993)
and Feigelson and Murtagh (1992). Some general references on the subject include Jaschek and Heintz
(1981); Jaschek (1989); Murtagh and Heck (1988); Albrecht and Egret (1991); Heck and Murtagh (1992);
Davenhall (1993b, 1993c); Heck and Murtagh (1993); and Crabtree, Hanisch and Barnes (1994a). While
further information on many of the services presented here may be found in these texts, we have made
extensive use of information presented in ``gray'' literature like newsletters, observatory reports, and
electronic circulars. An excellent overview of network resources and services, not limited to astronomy, is
the book by Krol (1992).
Our report is certainly not complete, and likely biased somewhat by our own interests. Moreover,
the information presented in this report is subject to rapid change. For this reason, an on­line version
will incorporate changes and corrections. (It will be available by anonymous FTP and other ways at sites
stsci.edu and ecf.hq.eso.org.)
2. Network Services
2.1. Electronic Mail
Electronic mail (e­mail) is a widely­used service. One needs to know an exact address for one's
correspondent. Different forms of address may be feasible due to aliases for machine names which are
supported at the correspondent's machine. However an unsupported form of address, or a mistyping of the
address, will in most cases lead to a returned (``bounced'') message, and in some cases the failure to arrive
at the intended destination will not be indicated to the sender. A number of suggestions are given in x7 if
you wish to check up on someone's e­mail address. Use of any one of a range of mail programs (e.g. mail,
xmh) is possible, which (still) most often support the transfer of plain text files only. To transfer binary
data by e­mail, one should first use some appropriate ASCII coding of the binary data; examples include
uuencode and uudecode.
In this article we employ both Internet and NSI­DECNet (formerly SPAN) address conventions.
The DECNet form, NODE::NAME, can often be addressed using an Internet routing of the form
name@node.dnet.nasa.gov. SPAN was closely related to VAX VMS systems, and is being overtaken by
universal acceptance of the Internet. Note that the existence of a DECNet address does not necessarily
imply that a corresponding Internet address also exists, although it is usually possible to route e­mail via
gateway and forwarding systems. The NASA Science Internet Network Applications Information Center
(NSI NAIC) provides a very useful guide for e­mail users (contact naic@nasa.gov).
2.1.1. Listservers
``Listservers'' are software packages for the support of e­mail distribution lists. They also allow for
storage, and automatic access, of files. Although originally developed for use on IBM's Bitnet, listserver
software is now available for many systems. There are tens of thousands of listserver distribution lists.

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Generally messages will be automatically sent to all subscribers if addressed to a list called xxx­L at address
xxx­L@node­name.domain. Subscription and unsubscription requests are dealt with automatically by
addressing listserv@node­name.domain or, in other implementations, xxx­request@node­name.domain.
For example, a one­line e­mail message consisting of the text subscribe xxx­L !your name? results in
your e­mail address being added to the distribution list automatically. To check on files stored at the
listserver, the one­line message help or index sent to listserv@node­name.bitnet will get you started.
2.2. Usenet
Usenet is a peer­to­peer network which came into being in late 1979. For installations which do not
rely on telephone line links between machines, it has been superseded by the Internet. By 1981 Usenet was
supporting a large volume of newsgroups, and this functionality has been carried over to the Internet. As
of August 1994, an estimated 190,000 host machines have access to over 3100 newsgroups and about 7.1
million users at these sites are newsreaders. Not all sites receive the Usenet news, as this requires a site to
find another site or organization that will agree to forward news (i.e., act as a ``feed''). The access software
available to you on your system to access the newsgroup may be a command such as vnews, rn, trn,
xrn, nn, GNUS, Gnews, notes, NNTP, etc.
A number of newsgroups are devoted to astronomical discussions, and many more are devoted to
subjects in physics, chemistry, and computer science that might also be of interest to astronomers. Usenet
sites include many of the universities, government research institutions, and observatories where most
astronomers work. If you are at one of these sites, Usenet news is probably available to you. If not,
you might want to look for someone who would allow you to access news on their system, or you might
want to consider becoming a Usenet site yourself. For information about the latter, send e­mail to
mail­server@pit­manager.mit.edu containing the message
send usenet/news.announce.newusers/How to become a USENET site
Alternatively, this is available by anonymous FTP (see below in this section for further details on anonymous
FTP) at the node pit­manager.mit.edu in the file
pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/How to become a USENET site
One key to effective use of Usenet is finding the right newsgroups. Newsgroups are arranged
hierarchically by subject of interest. The top level ``big seven'' hierarchies are comp, sci, news (maintenance
issues), misc, rec (recreational topics), soc (social), and talk (debate­oriented). Your system may not
have all groups, since it is up to individual sites to decide which groups to carry. You may also find
additional hierarchies for local or regional groups as well as hierarchies that are not really subject to Usenet
``rules'', including alt (eclectic), bionet, biz, gnu (Free Software Foundation GNU project), and vmsnet
(VAX/VMS topics). There are more than 8000 newsgroups in the hierarchies mentioned here. For the
big seven hierarchies, there is a formal mechanism for creating new newsgroups, and new groups appear
regularly.
Of obvious interest to astronomers are the following newsgroups:

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sci.astro general astronomy discussions and information
sci.astro.fits issues related to the FITS image storage standard
sci.astro.hubble issues related to the Hubble Space Telescope
sci.astro.research discussions of current professional research topics
alt.sci.astro.aips discussions on the AIPS image processing system
alt.sci.astro.figaro discussions on FIGARO software
sci.astro provides considerable discussion of amateur and popular astronomy questions, but it is read by
many professional astronomers and is one possible forum for technical questions.
Other potentially useful newsgroups in the ``sci'' hierarchy include sci.chem, sci.image.processing,
sci.optics, sci.physics, sci.space, and sci.space.news. There are many groups in the ``comp''
hierarchy that may be of interest, such as the comp.sys groups for various vendors of computer hardware,
the comp.os group for your operating system, the comp.windows group for your windowing system (X11,
Open Look, Motif, etc.), and if you are a programmer, the comp.lang group for the language of your
choice. There are newsgroups for software that you might use in your research or for writing papers, such
as: comp.graphics, comp.graphics.visualization, comp.emacs, comp.text.frame, comp.text.tex,
and sci.math.symbolic.
A nice spin­off of Usenet newsgroups is that many individuals have taken it upon themselves to maintain
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) files. Since these are often posted to the newsgroup approximately
monthly, a good way to see if a FAQ exists is to subscribe to the newsgroup and ``listen in.'' As a
condensation of the collective wisdom of the newsgroup (and admittedly signal­to­noise often leaves much
to be desired) FAQs provide excellent all­round introductions to a topic, and comprehensive background
information.
The ``adass'' news hierarchy (for Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems) has been
established in parallel to the Usenet news. This set of news groups is intended as a forum for discussion of
astronomical data analysis software. These newsgroups were established by the IRAF Group at NOAO.
Information about how to subscribe to this hierarchy, or how to set up a feed, can be obtained by sending
e­mail to the Usenet news administrator at news@tucana.tuc.noao.edu. The hierarchy currently covers
the ADASS Conferences and discussions about IRAF­related software, but other groups are encouraged to
establish additional sub­groups.
2.3. FTP and Anonymous FTP
FTP (``file transfer protocol'') allows copying of files (both ASCII and binary) from a remote machine.
A very common practice is to place files of general interest in a restricted­access account which allows
``anonymous'' FTP access. The details of using anonymous FTP depend a little on the type of system used,
but it consists usually of a command such as ftp remote system node name followed by a login as user
anonymous (or as ftp). The password is arbitrary, but network etiquette is to provide the user's e­mail
address as the password (and some anonymous FTP installations require this!). This allows the provider of
the FTP archive to track usage more easily and contact users should that be necessary.
Anonymous FTP allows restricted access to the contents of certain directories. Often files which are
intended for general access are available in subdirectories under a pub directory. For transfer of files, the
commands get and put are used (transfer of binary files requires setting FTP into binary mode using the
command bin prior to initiating the transfer). In this text we shall refer to relevant data files available via
anonymous FTP with nomenclature which combines node name and directory address: node:dir/file.
By this we mean that one first has to connect to node by ftp node, then change to directory dir (cd dir),
and finally issue the command get file to receive a copy of the file.

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2.4. Archie
Automatic polling of registered anonymous FTP sites is carried out by a software system called ``Archie''.
Searching through the directories so produced can be a valuable first step, once one knows a program name,
in finding a site from which to download the program or file. If Archie has been set up on your system,
then a command such as xarchie will provide a window interface to some site which supports Archie. To
check up on what Archie offers, you may (i) check out some site supporting it, if your site does not; (ii)
refer to Emtage (1993); or (iii) send e­mail to info@bunyip.com. Registering an anonymous FTP address
for search by Archie is done by e­mailing the registration request to archie­admin@bunyip.com. NCSA
provides a WWW server for access to Archie: use the URL http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/archie.html
or http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi­bin/AA. (See x2.7 for more information about the World­Wide
Web and the Mosaic user interface.)
2.5. Internet and DECNet Node Names and Addresses
The Internet is actually a collection of networks that are all connected together. Systems on the
Internet use a communications protocol known as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol). The network resources described in this article generally require access to the Internet, which
allows for remote logins and file transfers. Many astronomers are connected via the NASA Science Internet
(NSI), or other organizations which provide support for both TCP/IP and DECNet communications.
TCP/IP numeric addresses consist of four numbers separated by decimal points (e.g., 130.167.1.2). DECNet
numeric addresses are sometimes given as two numbers separated by a decimal point, or as a single number
(the convention used here). A DECNet address such as 6.405 is converted to a single number by multiplying
the first number by 1024 and adding the second number (6 \Theta 1024 + 405 = 6549).
2.6. Remote Logins
The primary mechanisms for establishing an interactive session on a remote computer are telnet on
systems running TCP/IP and SET HOST on systems running DECNet. In either case, in order to use the
resources that require an interactive login one needs to know a username on the remote system and, in
some cases, a password.
2.7. Information Discovery Tools: WAIS, Gopher, and the World­Wide Web
A number of books describing the Internet and the many tools available for locating and retrieving
information have recently been published. A survey of these, including intended readership, price, etc. is
available in a document by J. Quarterman. This survey is available as RFC 1432. RFC, in the tradition
of technical, network­related documents, stands for ``Request for Comments''. One location among many
where this file can be found is nisc.jvnc.net:pub/RFC/rfc1432.txt.
In the last two years or so, a number of so­called resource discovery tools have become widely used.
Examples are WAIS (Wide Area Information Servers), Gopher, and WWW (World Wide Web). Some of
these offer a command­line access mechanism on a machine to which you can login with telnet. However it
is much more efficient to use the windowing potentials of such software. As examples, Lynx is a line­mode
browser for WWW, and Mosaic is a widely­available window­based browser. Generally, the client­server
paradigm is utilized: software sits on your machine, which handles your mouse­ or key­controlled requests

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in your local windowing environment. This client communicates over the network with the remote server,
as the need arises. There is compatibility between these tools, and often Mosaic (for example) is used to
access remote sites using Gopher and to carry out free­text searches using WAIS. We will briefly describe
these different tools.
Gopher offers a convenient way of accessing anonymous FTP accounts, connecting to remote sites, or
receiving files. To use it, and assuming that the client software has been installed at your site, give the
command xgopher. (This command may be different at your site.) Without a network address following
this command, by default you will access a University of Illinois Gopher service. Navigation to various
other sites is accomplished by clicking on the appropriate line in what you are shown. Further information
on Gopher, including where to obtain client and server source code, is available in Anklesaria and McCahill
(1993). A search tool which can be used in conjunction with Gopher is called Veronica.
A WAIS server offers an indexed set of files, so that full­ and free­text retrievals may be carried out.
A large number of source files (with extension .src) which specify the network access addresses of servers
are in a Directory of Servers, available via anonymous FTP from think.com:wais/wais­sources.tar.Z.
You or your system manager should retrieve all relevant source files. Further information on WAIS,
including where to find source code for server and client ends of this system, is available in Fullton (1993,
1994). WAIS permits you to index, and thereafter search using free text, your own local text files or
mail files. In fact, a wide range of file types can be used as input to WAIS. To display files which are
not plain text files (Postscript files, for example) WAIS allows the specification of a filter program which
permits display. Thus, if WAIS is informed at the indexing stage that the input files being indexed
are of type PS, the information may be used subsequently by client software to direct retrieved files
through the Ghostview X­terminal screen previewer. To register a WAIS­indexed collection of documents
with the WAIS Directory of Servers, one uses the ``register'' parameter when indexing (which sends
the source file to the appropriate registration addresses: wais­directory­of­servers@cnidr.org and
wais­directory­of­servers@quake.think.com).
The WWW (World­Wide Web) is a cross­network hypertext system. It is often used via the user
interface Mosaic of NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications). The command mosaic (or
Mosaic or xmosaic) may be the one available on your system for access to ``the web.'' A standard form of
address and directory information, used by Mosaic, is referred to as a URL (Universal Resource Locator).
There are now over 1000 URLs of potential interest to astronomers. Mosaic and the WWW are extremely
useful tools for navigating the network, especially because they provide access to other network facilities
(Gopher, Archie, FTP, telnet, etc.).
Using a URL via an appropriate browser such as Mosaic gives access to text and graphics, which often
encompasses hypertext. This means that some text or graphical icons are ``clickable,'' and gives direct access
to a new window of textual or image information. Hypertext is supported by a language (in appearance,
not unlike a SGML or Standard Generalized Markup Language, or even L A T E X) called HTML or Hypertext
Markup Language. Further details of Mosaic, including source codes for various workstation, PC, and
Macintosh platforms, is available at NCSA: ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in directory /Web/xmosaic. A primer on
HTML can be accessed at URL http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html.
An informal group of WWW enthusiasts, the AstroWeb Consortium, has been established to maintain
a list of URLs of astronomical importance. Members include R. Jackson (CSC/ST ScI), D. Wells
(NRAO), A. Koekemoer (Mt. Stromlo), D. Egret and A. Heck (Strasbourg), and H.­M. Adorf and F.
Murtagh (ST--ECF). At the URL http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/www/astronomy.html these astronomical
resources are grouped into the following categories: Observing Resources, Data Resources, Organizations,
Software Resources, Publication­Related Resources, People­Related Resources, Various Lists of Astronomy
Resources, Astronomical Imagery, and Miscellaneous Resources. A partial list of astronomical URLs is
given in Appendix A

-- 11 --
3. Astronomical Catalogs and On­Line Databases
A good initial reference for on­line services is Albrecht and Egret (1991) and a new version of this book
is currently nearing completion.
A distinction is made in this paper between
ffl Astronomical catalogs, i.e., static, final compilations of data for a given set of cosmic objects. They
can be further subclassified into observational catalogs, compilation catalogs, critical compilation
catalogs and bibliographic compilation catalogs (see Jaschek 1989).
ffl On­line search facilities for published data which allow searches of astronomical objects by name or
position on the sky. Examples are SIMBAD, NED and LEDA.
ffl Observation logs and/or archives of raw or calibrated data of astronomical observatories, like HST,
La Palma, WSRT, VLA etc. which can be checked on­line if certain objects have been observed
already and if the data are public or not.
The different on­line services described below offer one or more of these items and they are listed under
what they predominantly support. The institutions providing these services are often referred to as ``data
centers''. One may broadly speak of large, general purpose data centers (like NASA­NSSDC, of which the
``Astronomical Data Center'' (ADC) is just a part, and the CDS Strasbourg), medium­sized regional data
centers (e.g. in Moscow, Tokyo, La Plata, Beijing, Pune, etc.) and mission­oriented data centers like IPAC,
ESRIN, ESTEC, ST ScI, and many others. The latter have mainly been set up in recent times due to the
enormous amount of data produced by space missions.
3.1. Astronomical Catalogs
NASA and CDS Strasbourg were the first institutions to systematically collect machine­readable
versions of astronomical catalogs. These two centers are very comprehensive for ground­based astronomical
catalogs, and they have a common agreement to mutually exchange their newly acquired data sets, including
a common 4­digit numbering system. However, many other interesting catalogs are not available from these
two centers [see e.g. Cr'ez'e (1992) or Andernach (1994b)]. Some of them can be found within various other
databases (e.g., DIRA2, EINLINE, EXOSAT, HEASARC, STARCAT, STARLINK). Bulk tabular data
published in ApJ, ApJS, AJ and PASP are issued on CD­ROM (see Abt 1993), while those published in
A&A or A&AS are stored by CDS (see A&A 280, 1 or A&AS 103, 1).
3.1.1. NASA Space Science Data Center
The NASA Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) supports several on­line indices and database
systems, including requests for data from the IUE archive and from the Astronomical Data Center (ADC),
through its On­Line Data and Information Service NODIS. Access is via telnet to nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
(128.183.36.23) or NSI/DECnet to node NSSDCA (15548), login as nodis. The user will be asked to register
and then be presented with a self­explanatory menu which e.g. allows to browse the list of available
astronomical catalogs.
The NSSDC has developed an automated data retrieval request service utilizing the ``NSSDC Data
Archive and Distribution Service'' (NDADS). The data held by NSSDC have been written to optical disks

-- 12 --
which are jukebox­accessed. The NDADS ``Automated Retrieval Mail System'' (ARMS) permits researchers
to rapidly retrieve selections from the current NDADS holdings. Requests are submitted via electronic mail,
and the data may be retrieved via anonymous FTP or NSI­DECNet copy. It is also possible to have the data
sent directly to the requester's computer. For more information on ARMS, send an empty e­mail message
to archives@ndadsa.gsfc.nasa.gov or NDADSA::ARCHIVES with the words SEND INFORMATION in the
subject line.
NODIS also provides access to NASA's ``Master Catalog'' (NMC) which contains information about
spacecraft, their instruments, and the data sets therefrom. By summer 1993 data on 4600 orbiting spacecraft
and some 60 prelaunch spacecraft were available.
The NSSDC issues a newsletter (on paper) 3­4 times per year which informs about new data
sets available from there (including CD­ROMs), mainly from space missions, and including planetary
or geophysical data. To subscribe to ``NSSDC News'', send e­mail to NCF::REQUEST and say so. An
electronic newsletter of the NSSDC­ADC is also issued and can be subscribed to by sending e­mail
to listserv@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov with one line in the body of the message: SUBSCRIBE ADCNEWS
!your name?.
3.1.2. Centre de Donn'ees Astronomiques de Strasbourg
CDS (Centre de Donn'ees Astronomiques de Strasbourg) is the oldest European astronomical data
center (founded 1972). Like NASA­ADC, the CDS archives some 900 astronomical catalogs (comprising a
total of ¸3 Gbyte of data, not including very large data sets such as the IRAS sky maps or the Green Bank
radio survey images). Access to most catalogs is offered via anonymous FTP to cdsarc.u­strasbg.fr
(130.79.128.5) in the subdirectory /pub/cats. CDS has recently started to archive files in subdirectories
directly named after their published location, e.g., /pub/cats/J/A+AS/90/327 has tabular data published
in A&AS Vol. 90, p. 327. As of June 1994 there are 250 such ``J­files''. As all other catalogs, these are
listed in the file cats.lis. Get the file ReadMe for further information. For example, to retrieve catalog
VII/140 (which is the same as A7140 at NASA­ADC), type cd pub/cats/VII/140 and then mget * to
copy all files related to that catalog to your computer. Note that some files in the CDS archive (those
ending in ``.Z'') are compressed and that such files should be retrieved with FTP's binary mode. Use the
UNIX command uncompress !file name? to convert them to plain ASCII. For questions or requests
for catalogs listed in cats.lis, but not yet available in the FTP archive contact SIMBAD::QUESTION or
question@simbad.u­strasbg.fr. CDS produces a regular journal, the Bulletin d'Information du CDS
(BICDS), which informs about new catalog acquisitions and related items. A regular e­mail circular with a
listing of new catalog acquisitions can be ordered from cats@simbad.u­strasbg.fr or copied directly from
file cdsarc.u­strasbg.fr:pub/cats/cats.new. CDS has recently defined documentation standards for
catalogs (Ochsenbein 1994) which can be found in cdsarc.u­strasbg.fr:pub/cats/doc.tex. [References:
Ochsenbein (1993a,b); Egret and Ochsenbein (1994).]
3.1.3. Canadian Astronomy Data Center
The Canadian Astronomy Data Center (CADC), located at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
(DAO, Victoria) was formed in the mid­eighties to serve as the Canadian center for distribution of data
from the Hubble Space Telescope. CADC receives a copy of the HST data in the same way as ST­ECF
does (see x3.3.7). CADC also archives data from the Canada­France­Hawaii Telescope (CFHT, see x3.3.1).
Access to both of these archives is available through STARCAT (see x3.3.7) and CADC provides its own
collection of astronomical catalogs which can be accessed through STARCAT. [Reference: Crabtree et al.

-- 13 --
(1994b).]
3.1.4. Pune, India
The services of a recently created astronomical data center at Pune (India) can be accessed by telnet
to node 144.16.31.6; login as user data. The center currently provides astronomical catalogs which it has
obtained by exchange from NASA or CDS, as well as connections to foreign databases for users in India
who have no telnet facility. The center plans to archive image data in the future. The catalogs are mostly
available on disk, and can be accessed using local software. Send any comments or questions to Ms. Geeta
at adc@iucaa.ernet.in or to Ajit Kembhavi (akk@iucaa.ernet.in).
3.1.5. CD­ROM Catalogs and Databases
In 1991 NASA released a CD­ROM with the 114 most requested astronomical catalogs. A list of
errata is available via anonymous FTP from hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov:pub/cdrom/adc cdrom.errata, or
by sending e­mail to listserv@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov, with the one line in the body of the message:
get pub adc cdrom.errata.
Numerous other CD­ROMs have been issued, e.g., the Guide Star Catalog (2 CDs), and a CD with
sample scans from the ST ScI plate scans of the Palomar Sky Survey. At the time of writing this paper the
first set of a total of 101 CD­ROMs with digitized optical surveys of the full sky is being distributed by
ASP. There are 31 different CD­ROMs with X­ray data from the EINSTEIN satellite, and four CD­ROMs
containing the IRAS high ecliptic latitude Sky Survey Images. Two CD­ROMs with radio images and source
catalogs have been issued by NRAO. The ``PGC­ROM'' with the Principal Galaxy Catalogue (Paturel,
Bottinelli and Gouguenheim 1993) includes stand­alone search software. There is one CD­ROM each on
``ROSAT, The Images'', and on ``The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Science Archive''. A 24­volume set
of CDs was issued by NASA­GSFC in September 1992 with data from the Comet Halley Archive. It has
already been mentioned that the bulk of the tabular data published in the main North American journals
is issued on CD­ROM regularly. The NSSDC On­Line Service (see x3.1.1) maintains a list of CD­ROMs
of astronomical interest, and other compilations have been given by Davenhall (1993b) and within the
MediaTheque project of CDS (Heck 1994a).
3.2. On­Line Databases
3.2.1. Atomic Databases
There are extensive spectroscopic and other atomic or molecular data in computer­readable files in
various laboratories, but the proportion of these that are network­accessible is still small. A bibliography
of Atomic Data through to June 1992 was given by Butler (1993), and reviews of the ``gray'' literature on
atomic data have recently been given by Martin (1992a,1992b) and Smith (1993). These papers contain
many useful addresses and references.
The Atomic Energy Levels Data Center and the Data Center on Atomic Transition Probabilities at the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are building an atomic spectroscopic database for
astronomy. This database includes energy­level, wavelength, and transition probability data mainly fom the
more recent compilations published by the two NIST Centers, as described in sections II and III of Smith

-- 14 --
and Wiese (1992). These are planned to be made available through the NASA Astrophysics Data System
(x3.4.1).
Two collections of atomic data are available at the Queen's University, Belfast, one on electron impact
excitation of atoms and ions, the other on photo­absorption data for atoms and ions, the so­called ``opacity
project'' (OP). The latter collection is more relevant to astronomy, containing, for example, oscillator
strengths. The OP is a collaborative project involving institutions in the USA, France, Venezuela and
Germany as well as the UK. It comprises approximately 1 GB of data held as ASCII text files. The resulting
so­called TOPBASE database is experimentally available from 1993 at CDS Strasbourg. Look in the
directory cdsarc.u­strasbg.fr:pub/topbase (130.79.128.5). A Read.Me file and a user's manual should be
consulted before actually using the database through telnet to cdsarc.u­strasbg.fr, username topbase,
password Seaton+. For further information contact the CDS staff at question@simbad.u­strasbg.fr or
Keith Berrington, Department of Applied Mathematics, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN
(amg0016@uk.ac.queens­belfast.app­maths.vax1). [References: Cunto et al. (1993a,b).]
3.2.2. DIRA2
DIRA2 (Distributed Information Retrieval from Astronomical files) is an ongoing project to manage
data from astronomical catalogs being carried out by the ASTRONET Database Working Group in
Bologna, Italy. The DIRA2 database contains about 150 original catalogs (¸1 Gb of data) of Galactic and
extragalactic data written in a standardized DIRA­specific ASCII format. Several of these catalogs are not
available from the NASA­ADC or CDS data centers. Access to DIRA2 is via telnet to bodira.bo.cnr.it
(137.204.51.8) or via DECNet by SET HOST BODIRA (37927). Login as user dira2 with password dira2.
Then type dira2 again to invoke the software. Choose DB INFO and then type LIST to see which catalogs
are available. The command WHERE indicates in which directory they are stored, in case a direct DECNet
or FTP copy is preferred (which must be executed from outside the DIRA environment). The output of
the searches are ASCII files that can be used in other application programs. Catalogs can also be read
or written in the FITS table format. A VT100 terminal emulator is needed for standard searches, and a
graphics terminal emulator (Tek4010, VT125) for the graphics tasks. The latter allows one to plot objects
in an area of sky taken from various catalogs onto the screen with various symbols of the user's choice.
Sorting, as well as selecting and cross­identification of objects from different catalogs is possible. Unix
versions for Dec­Ultrix and Alpha OSF/1 are now available and SUN­OS versions are in progress. A reduced
version for personal computers (``PC­DIRA'') is also available, but lacks many of the graphical routines.
During 1993 DIRA2 supported about 1500 remote logins, 40% of these from outside Italy. For the DIRA2
manual as well as for more information, contact M. Nanni (nanni@astbo1.bo.cnr.it, ASTBO1::NANNI)
at the Istituto di Radioastronomia in Bologna, Italy. [References: Benacchio (1991), Benacchio and Nanni
(1992), Nanni (1992), Benacchio (1994), Nanni and Tinarelli (1993).]
3.2.3. EINLINE
The Einstein On­line Service (EOLS, or EINLINE) at the Harvard­Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
(CfA) provides access to over 100 data sets (catalogs and mission logs). Many are related to the Einstein
X­ray satellite archive, but catalogs of stars, quasars, radio sources (see below), supernova remnants, as
well as ROSAT observations can be found. Documentation and ASCII files generated by user queries can
be automatically e­mailed to users, and binary data files (such as FITS images from the Einstein CD­ROM
collection) can be retrieved using anonymous FTP. There are 31 CD­ROMs available for downloading
images and/or photon (list) arrays. EINLINE allows positional searches through groups of similar data sets

-- 15 --
(all X­ray, all radio, or even ALL catalogs) in one run. This is the MQQ (multiple quick query) option. As
a rule, EOLS catalogs are also available through NASA's Astrophysics Data System (ADS, see x3.4.1).
A special feature of EOLS is the large number of searchable radio­source catalogs collected and
provided by the first of the present authors in the course of his activities for the IAU Working Group on
Radioastronomical Databases (Comm. 40). As of 1994 August, some 61 source catalogs with ¸520,000
entries are searchable, either individually or in affinity groups. This exceeds by several times the amount
of radio­source data available from any other on­line service, and most of the tables are not (yet) archived
at the established data centers. Some 10,000 lines of documentation have been prepared by the EOLS
team, but further submissions of data must be accompanied by appropriate documentation provided by the
authors to guarantee their incorporation into EOLS.
Log on to EOLS via telnet to einline.harvard.edu (128.103.40.204), via SET HOST EINLINE (6714)
or else via the WWW under URL http://hea­www.harvard.edu/einline/einline.html. Login as user
einline; no password is required. Documentation for the catalogs can be e­mailed directly from within
the EOLS or downloaded with FTP from the directories einline.harvard.edu:Doc/.... Documents
for any of the catalogs can serve as templates for new contributions. For questions, contact D. Harris
(harris@cfa.harvard.edu) or C. Stern Grant (stern@cfa.harvard.edu). [References: HEAO Newsletters
(subscribe to edpo@head­cfa.harvard.edu), Andernach (1992), Harris et al. (1992), Andernach (1994a),
Andernach et al. 1994.]
3.2.4. EXOSAT
The EXOSAT database and archive provides on­line access to the results and data products (spectra,
images and light curves) from the EXOSAT mission as well as access to data and logs from other missions
(e.g., EINSTEIN, COS­B, ROSAT and IRAS). The system is mission­independent and includes timing,
image processing and spectral analysis packages as well as software to allow transfer of analysis results
and products to the user's home institute. In addition, some familiar optical, IR, and X­ray catalogs,
including the HST Guide Star Catalog, are available. EXOSAT allows statistical studies to be performed
on large samples of astronomical objects and to retrieve scientific and bibliographic information on single
sources. The complete database is located at the EXOSAT observatory at ESTEC, and is accessible via
SET HOST EXOSA0 (29343), EXOSAT (28703), or ESISXO (29304), or via telnet to exosat.estec.esa.nl.
Preregistration is necessary: username and address are requested during the first login. Send inquiries to
request@exosat.estec.esa.nl. [References: White and Giommi (1991), Osborne (1992), Reynolds and
Parmar (1993).]
3.2.5. HEADS­Brera On­Line Service
The HEADS­Brera On­Line Service (HEADS = High Energy Astrophysics Database Service) is
maintained at the Astronomical Observatory of Brera, Milano, Italy. It is based on the EXOSAT Database
System currently developed mainly by NASA's HEASARC (x3.2.6). HEADS currently provides access to
data from a number of past observatories (e.g., Einstein and EXOSAT) and will gradually be extended
to include the public data archives of current and upcoming missions. The service also provides access to
catalogs, results and data products (images, spectra, light curves) and dedicated analysis packages. There is
considerable overlap in the data available through HEASARC, HEADS, EXOSAT, and Leicester (UK), but
HEADS supports the complete set of data products (with the exclusion of the ROSAT data, that, in any
case, can be obtained from HEADS through the HEASARC database). Login is either via SET HOST ASTMIB
(32469) or telnet to astmib.mi.astro.it (192.167.37.2) and login as user xray; no password is required.

-- 16 --
For a quick reference guide or further inquiries contact either L. Stella (stella@astmim.mi.astro.it) or
G. Tagliaferri (tagliaferri@astmim.mi.astro.it). [Reference: Tagliaferri and Stella (1993).]
3.2.6. HEASARC
The High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, HEASARC, is located at the NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD (USA) and its activity is a joint effort between the
Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics (LHEA) and the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC).
HEASARC was created in 1990 to archive and provide access to data from high energy astrophysics
missions. As of June 1994 some 125 databases were available. Most of the databases contain data from
high­energy astrophysics missions such as EXOSAT, Einstein, Ginga, GRO (Compton), HEAO­1, ROSAT,
ASCA (formerly ASTRO­D), BBXRT and XTE, while others contain well­known ground­based catalogs
(see Tyler (1994) for a list). Users can sort, search, plot database entries, and cross­identify between these
data sets. Telnet to legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.8.233) and login as user xray (no password). For help
on batch­processing of large lists of coordinates, names, and other time consuming queries, send an empty
e­mail message to hdbreq@legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov. First­time users will be asked to give a HEASARC
username, which will be used to allocate a user directory where files can be kept for use in subsequent
sessions. Similar services are offered at three other sites in Europe: HEADS­Brera (see above), ESTEC in
The Netherlands (see x3.2.4), and Leicester (for UK users only). The HEASARC also publishes a newsletter
called ``Legacy''; contact K. Smale at ksmale@lheavx.gsfc.nasa.gov to be added to the mailing list.
[References: Tyler (1994).]
3.2.7. LEDA
The Lyon--Meudon Extragalactic Database (LEDA) was created in 1983 at Lyon Observatory and is
the oldest extragalactic database (Paturel et al. 1988; Paturel, Gouguenheim, and Bottinelli 1992). It gives
access to many parameters (up to 66 per object) of astrophysical interest for about 97,000 galaxies, as of
June 1994. Finder charts with SAO stars can be created and images taken from the POSS are available
for ¸58,000 galaxies in Postscript format. An X­Windows interface allows users to display these on their
screen. The main idea is to collect raw measurements from literature and to calculate mean homogenized
data in the same spirit of de Vaucouleurs et al. when preparing the series of Reference Catalogs of Galaxies
(RC1, RC2, RC3). In fact, the RC3 (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991) and the Principle Galaxy Catalog (PGC,
Paturel et al. 1989; Paturel, Bottinelli, and Gouguenheim 1993) were created using LEDA.
An SQL­like query language allows the user to define and extract galaxy samples by complex criteria.
Finder charts in Postscript format can be created with LEDA galaxies and SAO stars of any user­specified
position at almost any scale (including that of the POSS and ESO/SERC sky surveys). A batch mode
allows queries via e­mail by sending a list of names or coordinates to ledamail@lmc.univ­lyon1.fr.
Depending on whether the subject specified is LIST or LISTALL, the system will return (via e­mail) either
the basic or all stored astrophysical parameters of the retrieved objects. For subjects FLAMEQ, FLAMGA,
and FLAMSG the system will return Flamsteed all­sky projections in Postscript format for any set of input
objects (or positions in RA and DEC of B1950).
LEDA is accessible via telnet to lmc.univ­lyon1.fr (134.214.4.7), login as leda. No password is
required. The novice user may choose the menu option Instructions for Use. New facilities are frequently
added to the system. Suggestions and questions should be sent to G. Paturel (patu@adel.univ­lyon1.fr)
or M.­C. Marthinet (mc@lmc.univ­lyon1.fr).

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3.2.8. NED
The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database, NED, supported by the Infrared Processing and Analysis
Center (IPAC), is a computer­based central archive intended to accumulate a broad range of published
extragalactic data (including radio, optical, UV, IR and X­ray sources), and organize them for fast and
flexible retrieval via electronic networks. It is currently the most used of such retrieval services. Batch
searches for source lists with up to 3000 objects per job are supported, and the results can be retrieved via
anonymous FTP (normally within a few hours, after the user is notified via e­mail).
As of 1994 August, NED provides positions, names, and basic data for ¸320,000 extragalactic objects
as well as 500,000 bibliographic references to 25,000 published papers and 650,000 photometric data
points from catalogs and papers. Also available on­line are abstracts of 9,000 recent articles from several
journals (A&A, AJ, ApJ, Ast. Reports, IAU Circ., MNRAS, PAS Japan, PASP) and of 1,000 doctoral
dissertations (since 1983) of extragalactic interest. NED encourages submission of English abstracts of any
Ph. D. thesis on extragalactic objects. NED has an X Window Graphical User Interface (GUI) supporting
mouse­driven menus, and image­display capabilities. Style menus for VT100 terminals continue to be
supported. They provide a faster (though more limited) character­based interface. To access NED, telnet
to ned.ipac.caltech.edu (134.4.10.119) and login as user ned. For help or more information, send mail
to ned@ipac.caltech.edu.
NED is also accessible using Mosaic. If you are familiar with the Web, connect to IPAC using URL
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/home.html. [Reference: Helou (1991).]
3.2.9. SIMBAD
SIMBAD (Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data) is produced
and maintained by the Centre de Donn'ees Astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS). Access to SIMBAD
requires a password, and application may be made by e­mail to question@simbad.u­strasbg.fr or
SIMBAD::QUESTION. SIMBAD may be accessed in the United States via the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory (SAO), where a gateway to SIMBAD is maintained under contract with NASA. U.S.
astronomers should apply directly to SAO for access, by e­mail to SIMBAD@cfa.harvard.edu. SIMBAD
charges for its services, but these costs are supported by NASA for astronomers at institutions in the
United States. SIMBAD is accessible via telnet to simbad.u­strasbg.fr (130.79.128.4) on the Internet or
via SET HOST SIMBAD (29588). As of March 1994 it contained 1,030,000 objects. For stars (over 665,000
entries) the data include coordinates, spectral type, blue and visual magnitudes, and proper motions.
The data for galaxies and quasars (some 80,000 entries) and other non­stellar objects (¸250,000 entries)
include coordinates, blue and visual integrated magnitudes, morphological type, size and position angle. In
addition there are observational data for some 20 different types of measurements. Over 1,000,000 citations
of objects are provided, based on 76,000 bibliographic references complete back to 1950 for stars and to
1983 for non­stellar objects. The total number of identifiers (including those for the PPM star catalog) is
3,300,000. Stars from the Guide Star Catalog can be extracted for any sky region within SIMBAD using
the findgsc command. As with NED, batch jobs for retrieval of many objects at a time are supported.
[References: Egret, Wenger and Dubois (1991), Egret (1992), SIMBAD III (1992).]
3.2.10. STARLINK
STARLINK of Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK) offers the Starlink Catalog Access and Reporting
System (SCAR), which is a relational database management system for astronomical catalogs. The SCAR

-- 18 --
package will soon be replaced by CATPAC, described in Starlink User Note SUN 120 by A. Wood (see
STARLINK Bull. 10, Oct. 1992). Both packages have the capability to extract data from the requested
catalog using input criteria, to manipulate it using various statistical and plotting routines, to output data
from the catalog, to assimilate new catalogs and to cross­identify between catalogs based on user­defined
criteria (see Starlink User Notes SUN 106 and SUN/70.11). To work on these catalogs one would need
to copy the (binary) data file plus a description file within the ADAM environment. However, not all
astronomical catalogs exist in the required SCAR­compatible format. The most recent list of available
catalogs, as well as information on how to obtain access to a STARLINK account, is available from A.
Wood (arw@star.rl.ac.uk). [References: Davenhall (1991), Starlink Bulletins (subscription requests to
Mike Lawden at mdl@star.rl.ac.uk), Davenhall (1993b).]
3.3. Observatory Archives of Raw or Calibrated Data
There are several observatories which maintain archives of their observational data. Most of these have
to be consulted ``manually'', i.e., by personal request to some archive manager, although many institutions
are making their archival data sets available on­line. Here we mention only observational facilities whose
data (or at least observation logs) can be accessed or browsed remotely.
3.3.1. Canada--France--Hawaii Telescope
From September 1992 data from several instruments at the Canada--France--Hawaii Telescope (CFHT)
have been archived to large optical disks. The CADC is bringing older CFHT data into the archive and
by September 1994 the archive will contain data from February 1989 onward. FITS headers of all data
frames are sent electronically to the Canadian Astronomical Data Center (CADC) in Victoria daily where
an observation catalog is maintained. The catalog is browsable within the STARCAT system and on­line
images of public CFHT data can be displayed via the ``Preview'' system developed by the CADC within
Starcat (see x3.3.7). The proprietary period for CFHT data is two years. [References: Durand et al. (1994),
Crabtree et al. (1994b).]
3.3.2. Cosmic Background Explorer
The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) was launched in November 1989 and has led to the discovery
of fluctuations in the microwave background, as announced in April 1992. The COBE Proposer Information
Package gives details of the data sets that will be available. Briefly, a limited set of data (Galactic plane
data for FIRAS and DIRBE and the first year's full sky mapping for the DMR) were made available to
outside investigators starting in June 1993. The complete data set will be made available in June 1994 in a
variety of forms:
ffl FITS binary tables, available at the COBE data center and through the NSSDC
ffl FITS image extensions for certain data sets, available at the data center
ffl COBE­format files at the data center
A Proposer Information Package is available for those who plan to analyze COBE data in response
to an Astrophysics Data Program NASA Research Announcement. In addition to general
advice for prospective COBE Guest Investigators it contains descriptions of each of the COBE

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Project Data Sets to be released in June 1994. The package is available as the (Postscript) files
nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov:cobe/project data sets/proposer info*.
There are several non­COBE data sets also kept on line at the COBE analysis center (e.g., IRAS data),
some of which have been reprojected and reformatted so that they ``look like'' COBE data as regards sky
projection and resolution. Some of the COBE data have become available through NASA's Space Sciences
Data Center (NSSDC). See the file nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov:cobe/aareadme.doc for instructions on how to
access such data via anonymous FTP. For request of data on tape contact request@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov,
and for further assistance e­mail to leisawitz@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov. [References: White and Mather
(1991), Isaacman (1992).]
3.3.3. European Southern Observatory
The archive of ESO observations currently (December 1993) contains around 35,000 images. All
observations performed with the ESO NTT (New Technology Telescope, including EMMI and SUSI) since
1 April 1991 are archived. It is accessible through STARCAT (x3.3.7). [References: Albrecht and Benvenuti
(1994), P'eron, Albrecht, and GrosbÜl (1994).]
3.3.4. Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer
The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE), launched in June 1992, includes a spectrometer and
three scanning survey telescopes. The spectrometer samples the range from 7 to 76 nm in three channels
(short, medium, and long) with an average spectral resolution of 260. An additional ``deep survey channel''
co­aligned with the spectrometer provides positional information on observed targets. Two CD­ROMs
have been released with EUVE data (S. Bowyer and R. F. Malina, ed.). For more information contact
send e­mail to archive@cea.berkeley.edu with the word help in the body of the message, or browse the
anonymous FTP directory cea­ftp.cea.berkeley.edu:pub/archive. [References: Christian, Dobson,
and Malina (1992); Stroozas et al. (1994).]
3.3.5. Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO)
Data and information from NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) are available
from the GRO Science Support Center by telnet to antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov, login as user gof. Among
the information offered there is e.g. the 2B catalog of 585 gamma ray bursters from the Burst
and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE). Time profiles for all events are available via WWW
(http://enemy.gsfc.nasa.gov/cossc/cossc.html). [Reference: Hanlon 1994.]
3.3.6. HIPPARCOS
HIPPARCOS (High­Precision Parallax Collecting Satellite) is an ESA satellite which was launched in
August 1989 and is dedicated to the measurement (at the milliarcsecond level) of positions, trigonometric
parallaxes, and proper motions for about 120,000 stars. The target list (the HIPPARCOS Input Catalog) is
available from CDS or NASA--ADC as catalog I/191 or A1191, respectively (see x3.1.1 and x3.1.2). A series
of papers on the satellite performance and first results appeared in A&A 258 (1992). For further information
contact C. Turon (turon@mesioa.obspm.fr) or D. Morin (morin@mehipa.obspm.fr). [References: Turon
et al. (1991, 1992a, 1992b).]

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3.3.7. Hubble Space Telescope
Both the ST ScI and the ST­ECF, as well as the CADC (see x3.1.3) provide on­line information
services and access to the complete HST Archive. The HST data archive is described in Pasian et al. (1993)
and Long et al. (1994). As of mid­1994 the archive is comprised of some 2,000,000 files in 400,000 data sets
and occupies 1.1 TB of storage space on optical disks, and new data continues to be archived at an average
rate of 1.5 GB/day. Subject to proprietary period restrictions (typically one year) preview images of HST
data are accessible through both the StarView user interface at ST ScI and through the STARCAT user
interface at the ST--ECF and the CADC. The ``preview data'' are generated at the CADC and then sent to
both the ST­ECF and ST ScI.
ST ScI runs a system called Space Telescope Electronic Information Service (STEIS), which is an
anonymous FTP archive (also accessible via gopher and WWW) containing information on HST proposals,
instruments, observation logs, and software. Of particular interest is the Archive Exposure Catalog
(AEC), a list of all completed observations. Copies of the AEC reside in directory hst­archive in the
files README.AEC, AEC.CATALOG, and AEC SS.CATALOG, the latter containing solar system observations. A
listserver (listserv@stsci.edu) supports many types of current awareness services, such as instrument
news, weekly and daily summaries of performance, planned observing time­lines, and lists of completed
observations. ST ScI's WWW home page is located at http://stsci.edu/top.html.
ST ScI has two host computers providing external access to the HST archive: stdata.stsci.edu
(130.167.1.135, VMS operating system) and stdatu.stsci.edu (130.167.1.148, Unix operating system). To
get started with the HST archives, telnet to one of these machines and login as user guest with password
archive. Run the Starview user interface by entering the command starview (for the simple ASCII
terminal version) or xstarview for the X Windows version. Note that you can also access the HST archive
via ST ScI's WWW home page.
In order to actually retrieve data, the user must register (type register when logged in on stdata or
stdatu, or register via the WWW archive page). Each user is given an individual account on either stdata
or stdatu (user's choice). Data retrieved from the archive will appear in the data directory of stdata or
stdatu. Users are sent e­mail when all requested data has been staged to these areas, and then the data
can be transferred to your home machine using FTP. Use the command readnews to be kept up to date on
the status of the archive and changes to the retrieval software.
Similar services are provided by the ST--ECF for European users of HST. The bulletin board
service STINFO is accessed by telnet to stinfo.hq.eso.org with login username stinfo (no password).
Questions about HST can be sent to an e­mail hotline stdesk@eso.org or ESO::STDESK. An anonymous
FTP account, which includes a software library, various other software items, documentation, test
images, and so on, is at address ecf.hq.eso.org. If you have WWW access, then the quickest on­line
source of information regarding the the archive for HST and ESO data is available using the URL
http://arch­http.hq.eso.org/ESO­ECF­Archive.html.
The ST--ECF also distributes HST data to European archival researchers. Data requests are prepared
from within STARCAT. While catalog browsing is anonymous, a registration is necessary for retrieving data.
The ST--ECF copy of the HST archive is available via telnet to stesis.hq.eso.org; login as user starcat,
or contact catalog@eso.org for help. STARCAT also provides an interface to a number of astronomical
catalogs (listed in the ``Documentation for on­line catalogs'' item), including the capability of sorting,
selecting, and cross­correlating catalogs. On­line versions of the ``Star*s Family'' of directories, dictionaries,
and data sets (see x7.1 and x7.2) are available from within STARCAT. For further information and user's
guides, contact B. Pirenne at the ST--ECF (bpirenne@eso.org, ESO::BPIRENNE). For documentation on
STARCAT send a request to shill@eso.org.

-- 21 --
Canadian users should request HST archive data through the CADC; contact cadc@dao.nrc.ca for
more information.
[References: HST Catalog User Guide (1992); Schreier, Benvenuti, and Pasian (1991); Ochsenbein
(1991); Pirenne et al. (1992); Adorf, Jackson, and Murtagh (1993); ST--ECF Newsletter (subscription
requests to rfosbury@eso.org); ST ScI Newsletter (subscription requests to elliott@stsci.edu).]
3.3.8. Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
IPAC (Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, Pasadena, CA, USA) offers on­line access to its datasets
and services. IPAC is a primary data node for the ADS (x3.4.1), and provides several object catalogs which
can be accessed independently (telnet to xcatscan.ipac.caltech.edu and login as user xcatscan). This
service requires the user to run an X Windows server. Contact Rick Ebert rick@ipac.caltech.edu for
further details. IPAC issues a Newsletter on paper; subscription requests, as well as general questions about
network services at IPAC, should be sent to info@ipac.caltech.edu. IPAC supports the NASA/IPAC
Extragalactic Database (see x3.2.8) as well as the ISSA Postage Stamp Service (see x3.3.9). [Reference:
Ebert (1994).]
3.3.9. IRAS
A full set of uncalibrated IRAS (InfraRed Astronomical Satellite) data is stored on an optical disk
jukebox at the Space Research Center in Groningen, accessible semi­online through a mail server. The server
provides data extraction, calibration, and imaging for survey and Low Resolution Spectral Data. Analysis
software (GEISHA) and display software (GIPSY) are used. More interactive access to the database is
planned for the future. The system is transportable to other sites. The manual for remote access to the
IRAS server can be obtained via e­mail to irasman@sron.rug.nl. An FTP connection allows retrieval of
data. Data can be requested by sending e­mail to iras server@sron.rug.nl. The request can select the
data for the area of interest, recalibrate fluxes and position of the infrared measurements, and recombine
them into an image. Several options can be set for this processing to obtain the best possible reconstruction
of the IR sky for the user's research. The user will be notified when the request is processed, and about how
to retrieve the data by FTP. Note that before using the mail server, the user has to pre­register by sending
e­mail to irasman@sron.rug.nl. For further questions contact D. Kester, IRAS manager (do@sron.rug.nl
or irasman@sron.rug.nl).
The experimental ISSA Postage Stamp Service is available via WWW
(http://brando.ipac.caltech.edu:8888/ISSA­PS) and allows to retrieve maps of size 2\Theta2 degrees of a
user­specified area in all four IRAS bands (12, 25, 60 and 125 microns) with a pixel size of 1.5 arcmin.
The maps will be displayed on the screen and can also be retrieved in FITS format for further display and
processing.
The IRAS Low Resolution Spectra are available via telnet to hyades.colorado.edu, login as user
lrsuser. A more complete set of spectra is available from the University of Calgary. Users should send
e­mail to kwok@iras.ucalgary.ca for more information. The 11,000 spectra from the University of Calgary
are also available from the CADC via STARCAT (x3.1.3), including on­line views of the spectra.
Four CD­ROMs with the IRAS Sky Survey Atlas Images were released by IPAC in mid­1992, one each
for the three sky coverages HCON­1, HCON­2 and HCON­3, and another one for the average of them. For
updated overviews of IRAS data products in general, see a recent issue of the IPAC Newsletter (x3.3.8).
[References: Walker (1991); Roelfsema, Kester, and Wesselius (1993); Wesselius et al. (1992).]

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3.3.10. Infrared Space Observatory
ISO (Infrared Space Observatory) is an ESA space observatory to be launched in September 1995. Up­
to­date information on the mission can be obtained via anonymous FTP from ftp.estec.esa.nl:pub/iso
or ftp.ipac.caltech.edu:pub/iso. Information on ISO on the WWW is being set up under URLs
http://isosa2.estec.esa.nl:8223/ and http://www.ipac.caltech.edu. Data centers are being
established at Heidelberg (Germany) and Rutherford Appleton Labs (RAL, UK); see, e.g., Gabriel et
al. (1992). The ISO/IRAS Newsletter is edited by H. Walker (hjw@star.rl.ac.uk), and ISO Info is a
newsletter issued by ESA (contact K. Leech at kleech@isosa6.estec.esa.nl).
3.3.11. International Ultraviolet Explorer
IUE (International Ultraviolet Explorer), a satellite launched in January 1978 and still producing data,
is equipped with a 45­cm telescope and two spectrographs for the range 1150 to 3200 š A, with resolutions of
either 300 or 20,000. IUE led to the first modern astronomical data archive, and is also the first heavily used
archive. Currently, all data requested from the archive corresponds to over 50 years of observing time, i.e.
almost four times the actual mission duration. Three centers maintain a complete up­to­date copy of the
IUE Archive: the NASA IUE archive at NSSDC (GSFC, USA), the ESA IUE archive at VILSPA (Spain),
and the SERC IUE archive at RAL (UK). The plan is to have all IUE data remotely accessible in a final
archive by 1994 (De La Pe~na et al. 1994). IUE Newsletter 41 (Oct. 1992) presents a merged observation
log from 1978--1991 on microfiche. The observing log can be queried on­line: SET HOST VILSPA (28843),
login as user VILSPA with password DB. The user is provided with a menu. Detailed usage of the system is
described in the ESA IUE Newsletter 37 and an example of the scientific potential of the archive --- when
used systematically --- is given by laDous (1994). The IUE Uniform Low Dispersion Archive (ULDA) is a
uniform subset of the IUE archive, and is distributed by ESA/Vilspa. ULDA is available through national
hosts, and further information may be obtained from A. Talavera (VILSPA::AT or iuehot@esoc.bitnet).
The ESA IUE Newsletter is published quarterly by ESA and NASA (contact iueobs@v3300.vilspa.esa.es
or VILSPA::IUEOBS). [References: Wamsteker (1991), Ponz et al. (1992), laDous (1993).]
3.3.12. James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Archive
The Royal Observatory Edinburgh (ROE) maintains a data archive of observations made with the
millimeter­wave James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii. The archive contains data obtained
since January 1992. Data become public after a proprietary period of one year. The observation log
is maintained on­line and can be interrogated remotely using the ARCQUERY software (see text on
La Palma (x3.3.13) and Westerbork (x3.3.15) below). Access is via SET HOST RLESIS (19527); login
as ESIS, select menu option 1, answer REVAD, and login as ARCQUERY. Alternatively, one can telnet
directly to host star.roe.ac.uk and login as arcquery. On­line documentation is available via telnet
to star.roe.ac.uk, login as jcmtinform. Copies of a User's Guide and Quick Reference Sheet can be
obtained from A. McLachlan at ROE (aml@star.roe.ac.uk). The JCMT Newsletter is edited by G. Watt
at ROE (gdw@star.roe.ac.uk). [References: Davenhall (1993a), Hummel and Davenhall (1993).]
3.3.13. La Palma Archive
This archive contains most of the raw telescope data taken with the Isaac Newton Group (ING) of
optical telescopes on La Palma (the 1­m Kapteyn (JKT), 2.5­m Newton (INT), and 4.2­m Herschel (WHT)

-- 23 --
telescopes). The data are physically stored on tapes at RGO (Royal Greenwich Observatory, Cambridge,
UK). The observation log has 260,000 entries as of April 1994 and is searchable on­line through the
ARCQUERY software at Cambridge (UK): SET HOST RLESIS (19527), login as ESIS, select menu option
1, answer CAVAD, and login as ARCQUERY. Alternatively, telnet to gxvg.ast.cam.ac.uk (131.111.69.20)
and login as arcquery. For further information contact E. Zuiderwijk at ejz@mail.ast.cam.ac.uk.
[References: Raimond and Van Diepen (1989), Raimond (1991, 1994), Zuiderwijk et al. (1994).]
3.3.14. ROSAT
ROSAT (R¨ontgensatellit), lauched in mid­1990, is a collaborative effort of Germany, the UK, and the
US, and provides imaging, spectral, and timing information on sources in the extreme UV and soft X­ray
wavebands. ROSAT has performed an all­sky X­ray survey with an estimated number of 60,000 detected
sources. Pointed observations are ongoing, from which information also on ¸20,000 serendipitous sources
per year is expected. Three centers (NASA--HEASARC, see x3.2.6, LDS Leicester, and MPE Garching)
provide access to observation logs and to the public data (after a proprietary period of one year).
Access to ROSAT data and other ROSAT­related information is available by anonymous FTP
to rosat svc.mpe­garching.mpg.de. The directory archive/data contains observations ordered by
identifier.
Access to the ROSAT archive for Starlink users is also available from the Leicester Database
System (LDS) via DECNet: SET HOST RLESIS (19527), login as ESIS, select option 1, answer LTXDB,
and login as XRAY. A data request form is available from this node via DECNet as the file LTVAD
(19838)::DISK$ROSAT:[ROLOC.PUBLIC.ARCHIVE]REQUEST.FORM. A ``User Guide for the UK ROSAT Data
Archive'' is available via anonymous FTP from darc.star.le.ac.uk:rosat/user guide.tex. Contact S.
Sembay (sse@star.le.ac.uk) or M. Watson (mgv@star.le.ac.uk).
Data from ROSAT's Wide Field Camera (WFC) are available from the Space Data Center at RAL
(UK); see D. Giaretta and E. Dunford (1991). [References: Zimmermann and Harris (1991), Zimmermann
(1992), Paul (1992); Voges (1992), Zimmermann et al. (1992), Sembay and Watson (1992), UK ROSAT
Electronic Newsletter (subscription requests to julo@star.le.ac.uk).]
3.3.15. Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope Archive
This archive contains all of the raw data ever taken with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope
(WSRT), an aperture synthesis telescope of 14 antennas of 25­m diameter in The Netherlands. The data
are physically stored on tapes at the Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astrononomy (NFRA), Dwingeloo,
The Netherlands. The observation log contains 78,000 entries as of April 1993 and is searchable on­line
with the same software, ARCQUERY, as for the La Palma archive (see x3.3.13). Access is via telnet
to rzmvx1.nfra.nl (192.87.1.100), login as arcquery. For further information contact E. Raimond at
(exr@nfra.nl). [References: Raimond (1991, 1994), Zuiderwijk et al. (1994).]
3.3.16. Lunar and Planetary Institute
The databases of the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) are available by telnet to cass.jsc.nasa.gov
(192.101.147.17), login as cass with password online. The LPI Center for Information and Research
Services provides resources on geology, geophysics, astronomy, and astrophysics. The available files

-- 24 --
include catalogs of journal holdings, books, and maps, a bibliography of the lunar and planetary literature
from 1980 on, and an index to the Benchmarks in Geology Series. The system is menu driven. For
comments and questions contact D. Bigwood (bigwood@lpi.jsc.nasa.gov). Also note that ESA issues
the ``Solar System News,'' edited by the Planetary and Space Science Division (PSS). Contact K. Wenzel
at kwenzel@estec.bitnet.
3.3.17. Solar Data
The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) offers numerous data sets on diskette or CD­ROM
(contact info@mail.ngdc.noaa.gov). The two most extensive on­line databases of solar data are the
Space Environment Laboratory (SEL) database and the Solar Terrestrial Dispatch (STD) service. These
are comprised mostly of optical data, geophysical and solar indices, flare reports, X­ray activity, and so
on. The STD also contains at least one radio datum, the 10.7­cm flux value. For further information,
contact D. Speich dspeich@selvax.sel.bldrdoc.gov (SEL) or C. Oler, oler@rho.uleth.ca (STD).
Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) data are available from the Space Data Center (SDC) at Rutherford
Appleton Laboratoires (RAL, UK), and various NASA solar data sets are available via the NSSDC
(x3.1.1). Data are stored off­line and copied by special request onto disk, to be transferred to a user's home
computer. The electronic Newsletter ``SolarNews'' is published monthly and can be subscribed to by sending
e­mail to SOLAR (25000) ::EDITOR. The European Physical Society issues the ``European Solar Physics
Newsletter'' once or twice per year; contact R. J. Rutten in Utrecht at rutten@ruunsc.fys.ruu.nl or
SOLAR::RRUTTEN. ESA issues the ``Solar System News,'' edited partly by the Solar and Heliospheric Division
(SHS). Contact A. Pedersen at apederse@estec.bitnet. The Japanese Data Center ``Solar­Terrestrial
Environment Laboratory'' (STELAB) issues the ``STEP GBRSC NEWS'' (send subscription requests to
gbsrc@stelab.nagoya­u.ac.jp).
3.4. Distributed Databases
The fact that each data archive has its own software, user interface and storage format makes the use
of many different databases difficult for the standard user. Therefore new interfaces have been established
which allow uniform access to very different databases stored even in geographically different places. So far
two such systems are available: ADS in the United States and ESIS in Europe.
3.4.1. Astrophysics Data System
ADS (Astrophysics Data System) is NASA's principal on­line research facility, and is a research tool
that is intended to make access to data and information convenient and easy for the science user. The ADS
uses an interface that allows its users to make queries based on a multitude of astronomical data sets that
are physically located in different locations, but available for querying in a uniform way, regardless of how
the data sets are organized and independent of where they are actually located. This liberates the users
from learning different access methods. The ADS includes tools for data visualization once these data have
been retrieved. A set of database management functions is available for manipulating the retrieved tables
of objects which can be written to files in several formats, including ASCII and FITS. These formats allow
data obtained via ADS to be imported into astronomical data analysis systems such as IRAF, AIPS, or
MIDAS. The ADS also includes visualization tools that allow users to make 2­D plots of one table column
versus another.

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Registration forms to access ADS may be obtained from the ADS user support at
ads@cuads.colorado.edu. Apart from access to many other services which are described separately in the
present paper, the ADS Release v4.0 of January 1994, provides access to over 250 catalogs, including over
50 radio source catalogs and over 161,000 abstracts searchable with complex algorithms (also see x5 for
access to abstracts via other services).
Further information about ADS is available via their WWW home page (URL
http://adswww.harvard.edu/adswww/adshomepg.html). A number of ADS services are available
directly through the WWW, and access through this method is typically faster, easier to use,
and does not require registration. The majority of the catalogs can be accessed at URL
http://adswww.harvard.edu/catalog service.html. The ADS Abstract Service is available via
the URL http://adswww.harvard.edu/abstract service.html. Other ADS services available via the
WWW are listed at URL http://adswww.harvard.edu/ads services.html. [References: Weiss and Good
(1991), Giovane (1992), Murray et al. (1992), Kurtz (1993), Kurtz et al. (1994), Eichhorn (1994).]
3.4.2. European Space Information System
ESIS (European Space Information System) aims at providing the user with a set of tools to access,
exchange, and handle information from a great variety of sources including space mission archives, databases
of scientific results, bibliographical references, white and yellow page directories (also see x7.2), etc. The
ESIS bibliographic service (ESISBIB) allows abstracts from the NASA RECON collection to be retrieved.
Different from the ADS abstract servive (see x3.4.1), ESISBIB uses abstracts from a wider range of other
astronomy­related topics (e.g. geophysics, computer sciences, theoretical mathematics, etc.) with altogether
¸500,000 abstracts. ESISBIB makes use of the SIMBAD references and automatically links any SIMBAD
reference with its abstract, if available in the system. Access to all information on ESIS is possible through
a homogeneous query and data managing­language based on a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Version 2.0
was released in February 1994 and client software is available for VAX/VMS and SUN/UNIX machines
and is installed at about 40 sites. Access to ESIS is via telnet to esis.esrin.esa.it (192.106.252.127 or
192.106.252.100) or SET HOST ESIS (29617). Login as astronomy with password evalme. The user will be
required to register on first login, and identify him/herself in subsequent sessions. ESIS is also available on
the WWW via the URL http://mesis.esrin.esa.it/html/esis.html. Send queries to ESIS::ISDHELP
or isdhelp@mail.esrin.esa.it.
ESIS NEWS is a newsletter to which one may subscribe (send requests to
ESIS::ISDHELP). It is available also via anonymous FTP as a color Postscript file
(mesis.esrin.esa.it:pub/esis/newsletter/esisnews.ps). [References: Albrecht (1991, 1992),
Giommi and Ansari (1994a,b).]
4. Plate Catalogs, Digital Optical Sky Surveys, and Finding Charts
Many relevant contributions on this matter can be found in Digitized Optical Sky Surveys (MacGillivray
and Thomson 1992), in the newsletters of the IAU Working Group on Wide­field Imaging (contact
the editor, H. T. MacGillivray at hmg@star.roe.ac.uk for copies), and in the proceedings of the IAU
Symposium 161 (MacGillivray et al. 1994).
4.1. Plate Catalogs

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There are many observatories keeping archives of their plate materials. Lists of such observatories
have recently been compiled (Tsvetkov and Tsvetkova 1993, Dluzhnevskaya 1994) and some are available
electronically on request to tsvetkov@bgearn.bitnet.
4.1.1. The UK Schmidt, ESO Schmidt, and AAT Plate Catalogs
An extensive photographic plate library is maintained at the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh (ROE).
It contains some 15,000 original plates taken with the UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST) in Australia, some
6,500 original plates taken with older telescopes of ROE, and copies of all major photographic sky surveys.
A complete catalog of all plates taken with the UK Schmidt Telescope is accessible via DECNet (SET
HOST REVAD (19889) or RLESIS::REVAD) or through telnet to star.roe.ac.uk. Login as user UKSCAT; no
password is required.
Plate catalogs for the Anglo­Australian Telescope (AAT) and ESO Schmidt Telescope are also
maintained. (Note that the AAT catalog does not include digitally recorded observations.) To access either
of these catalogs proceed as for the UKST catalog, replacing the login name by either AATCAT (for the AAT
catalog) or ESOCAT (for the ESO Schmidt catalog) and follow the instructions. For further information
contact ROE staff (ukstu@star.roe.ac.uk on Internet or REVAD (19889) ::UKSTU on DECNet).
4.2. Digital Optical Sky Surveys
The digitization of several large­scale optical sky surveys (the Palomar and ESO/SERC atlases) has
been completed in recent years using high­performance plate­scanning machines. The raw scan data are
so bulky that remote access to this data is still prohibitive. However, the object catalogs extracted from
these scans are being made accessible over the network. An overview of the various projects is given by
MacGillivray and Thomson (1992).
4.2.1. Automated Plate Measuring Machine
The Automated Plate Measuring Machine (APM) is located at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge,
UK. It has been used to scan the POSS­I survey plates at galactic latitudes above jbj = 20 ffi . Both colors
were scanned and objects cross­identified, so that color information is available (so far unique in all­sky
surveys) for a matched object catalog of well over 100 million objects down to m=22 in blue (O) and
m=20 in red (E). At this time, no copies of the entire catalog are distributed, but potential users will be
given access to smaller subsets for their own use. The northern hemisphere catalog above \Gamma3 ffi declination is
available for routine interrogation and the southern hemisphere catalog based on UKST B j and R plates is
about half complete and also available. A captive account for remote catalog interrogation can be accessed
via telnet to 131.111.68.56, login as user catalogues and follow the instructions. Contact: M. Irwin
(mike@mail.ast.cam.ac.uk or R. McMahon (rgm@mail.ast.cam.ac.uk). [Reference: McMahon and
Irwin (1992); Irwin, Maddox, and McMahon (1994).]
4.2.2. COSMOS
COSMOS (COordinates, Sizes, Magnitudes, Orientations, and Shapes) is a plate scanning machine at
the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, which has been used to scan the whole southern sky (DEC ! +2:5 ffi )

-- 27 --
from the IIIa­J and Short Red Surveys, and has led to an object catalog of several hundred million objects.
During 1994 public access to the catalog will be provided through the Anglo­Australian Observatory (AAO).
Retrieve the file cosmos catalogue.lis from the directory aaoepp2.aao.gov.au:aao obs (Drinkwater
1994) or contact M. Drinkwater (mjd@aaocbnu1.aao.gov.au). A new digitization of the southern sky
survey using the SuperCOSMOS machine will give an even better quality object database, which is
planned to be made available on CD­ROM by 1995. Contact H. T. MacGillivray (hmg@star.roe.ac.uk).
[References: Yentis et al. (1992), MacGillivray (1992).]
4.2.3. ST ScI Guide Star Plate Scans
Digitizations of both the Quick­V and the POSS E and O plates and ESO­IIIa­F red plates (limiting
magnitude is 20 and 22, respectively) are available in a near on­line manner to local ST ScI users or any
visitor to ST ScI. Compressed versions of the southern survey scans are available on a set of 60 CD­ROMs
since 1994, while the images from the northern POSS­E (red) plates will be distributed on 40 CD­ROMs
in early 1995. In addition to this set of 100 CD­ROMs with a compression factor of 10, another set of 10
CD­ROMs will be produced with a compression factor of 100. This latter one (to be available in 1995) will
be useful mainly for educational purposes and for amateurs and will be sold by the ASP. For other optical
sky surveys being digitized at ST ScI see the list by McLean (1994). [Reference: Lasker (1992); Postman
(1994); editorial note in PASP 106, 108 (1994).]
The scanning of the first plates of the POSS­II survey has begun at ST ScI, while the object catalog is
being prepared at Caltech (see Weir and Djorgovski 1992, Weir et al. 1994). The proceedings of the IAU
Symposium 161, (``Astronomy from Wide­Field Imaging,'' H. T. MacGillivray et al., 1994) provides more
information.
4.2.4. Minnesota Automated Plate Scanner
A digitization of the POSS­I E­ and O­survey plates was also performed with the Automated
Plate Scanner (APS) at the Astronomy Department of University of Minnesota. So far all plates (E
and O) have been scanned for jbj ? 20 ffi . All of the images detected on both E and O plate are being
entered in a catalog with ¸ 10 9 stellar objects and a few times 10 6 galaxies. This catalog is available
at URL http://isis.spa.umn.edu/homepage.aps.html. Object catalogs for some Palomar plates have
become available as ADS catalogs (see 3.4.1). Contact address: C. Cornuelle at aps@aps1.spa.umn.edu.
[References: Pennington et al. (1992, 1993), Aldering et al. (1994).]
4.3. Finding Charts
Finding charts may be used for locating suitable guide stars for a particular telescope, for transparent
overlays to find objects on Schmidt survey plates, and for visualization purposes when cross­correlating
catalogs. The largest catalog of stars currently available for this purpose is the ST ScI Guide Star Catalog
(GSC), which is available on CD­ROM from the ASP. It contains positions which are precise to between
0: 00 4 and 0: 00 7. Note, however, that this catalog is not magnitude­limited, but that the selection of stars has
been carried out so as to provide a homogeneous density of guide stars over the sky. The EXOSAT and
SIMBAD databases (see x3.2.9) and others (e.g., the GASP package in IRAF/STSDAS, or STELLA, which
is described below) allow guide stars to be selected from user­defined areas of the sky. A ``pocket version''
(300 MB) of the GSC has been produced by Preite­Martinez and Ochsenbein (1994).

-- 28 --
SKYMAP is a computer program which produces maps of arbitrary portions of the sky in a variety of
projections and coordinate systems. Over the past 10 years it has been used to produce finding charts for
very different purposes. It can display multiple source catalogs, including the HST Guide Star Catalog, as
well as solar system objects with astrometric accuracy. SKYMAP can be tuned to a specific task using an
ASCII parameter file which controls how information is displayed on any Tektronix­compatible graphics
display or hardcopy device. The program contains a variety of interactive graphic and image processing
features and has been ported to a variety of computer systems. The program is available by anonymous FTP
from cfa0.harvard.edu (128.103.40.1) in the pub/gsc directory. Contact D. Mink mink@cfa.harvard.edu
for an illustrated manual of the program. [Reference: Mink (1993).]
Other packages to produce finding charts from the GSC have been developed, e.g., by Megevand
(1992), Smirnov and Malkov (1993), and Malkov and Smirnov (1994). Finding charts based on the SAO
star catalog can be produced with the CHART option within the Starlink software package (Allan 1989). SAO
star charts as well as images of the surroundings of 58,000 galaxies (from POSS--I) can also be generated
using LEDA (see x3.2.7). ``Preview'' images of galaxies from the Surface Photometry Catalogue of the
ESO­Uppsala Galaxies (Lauberts and Valentijn, 1989), are available through the STARCAT interface (see
x3.3.7).
SkyView is a facility available over the net which allows users to retrieve data from public all­sky
surveys conveniently. The user enters the position and size of the region desired and the catalogs
desired, and the data is extracted and formatted for the user. SkyView handles coordinate conversions
and provides the user with data in the desired coordinate system. A description of SkyView is in
the SkyView User's Guide and SkyView Design document, both available via anonymous FTP in
skview.gsfc.nasa.gov:pub/doc. SkyView also has extensive internal help available. Access to SkyView
is via telnet to legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov, login as user xray. No password is required, but when you first
log in you will be asked for information to set up your own user file area. To start SkyView, type skyview
and you will start up the SkyView GUI user interface. An article on SkyView will be appearing in the
next issue of Legacy, the Journal of the High Energy Astrophysics Archive Research Center (HEASARC).
A scaled down WWW version is available as the URL http://skview.gsfc.nasa.gov/skyview.html.
For questions or problems with SkyView contact K. Scollick (scollick@skview.gsfc.nasa.gov) or T.
McGlynn (mcglynn@grossc.gsfc.nasa.gov). [Reference: McGlynn, White, and Scollick (1994).]
STELLA is a chart generator supporting access to the GSC, SAO, PPM, IRAS, and other catalogs.
These are accessed through STARCAT (see x3.3.7). STELLA is available to users at ESO (contact B.
Pirenne at bpirenne@eso.org).
5. Bibliographical Services and Preprints
Until recently, bibliographic services were only available on a fee­for­use basis. Overviews of the
available services were previously given by Rey­Watson (1988), Watson (1991), and more recently by
Davenhall (1993c,d). The commercial or fee­for­use bibliographic databases available via the network
include INSPEC, SPIN, PHYS, STN, and Dialog; ideally your local librarian should be the expert in access
to and use of these facilities. A number of bibliographic and other information services are available on the
net at no charge, however. Some of these are described below.
5.1. Bibliographic Services
5.1.1. Project STELAR

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STELAR (STudy of Electronic Literature for Astronomical Research) is a project that NASA has
undertaken to develop on­line access to both abstracts and full text for much of the recent astronomical
literature. Abstracts are being provided from NASA's RECON system. It provides abstracts back to
the mid­1960's, but even for the period covered systematically (1975 onwards) a complete coverage of
any of the sources is not guaranteed. The pages of the ApJ, ApJS, AJ, PASP, and A&A are being
scanned beginning with issues from 1987, with the plan to make the pages available as bit­maps. The
first service to be offered by STELAR is access to journal abstracts, AAS meeting abstracts, and the
AAS Job Register. Access is provided by a WAIS (Wide Area Information Service) server. Details are
provided in the October 1992 issue of the AAS Newsletter. The project STELAR WWW homepage
is http://hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov/STELAR homepage.html. For more information, send e­mail to
stelar­info@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov. [References: Van Steenberg (1992), Van Steenberg et al. (1992),
and Warnock et al. (1992, 1993).]
5.1.2. Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service
The ADS (see x3.4.1) abstract database contained 161,557 abstracts as of October 1993. Five
astronomically­related categories of the NASA STI database are used to select relevant abstracts. The data
include abstracts from all major journals, many minor journals, NASA reports, and many PhD theses.
Users can query by author, object name, keywords, words in the title, and words in the abstract text. Logic
within and between these fields can be changed, and the importance of a given word is weighted based on
the frequency of that word in the database. The resulting list is ranked by how closely the paper matches
the query. From this list, one can obtain all of the information contained in the ADS abstract database
(including the bibliographic code, publication date, category, title, authors, author affiliations, keywords,
and abstract text). Query feedback capability is provided which uses the results of one query to form
another.
Collaboration with SIMBAD (see x3.2.9) has enabled ADS to provide the capability of
searching by object name, and references from SIMBAD are correlated with those in the ADS
abstract database. Access to the ADS abstract service is available on the WWW at URL
http://adswww.harvard.edu/abstract service.html.
5.1.3. Lunar and Planetary Institute
The Lunar and Planetary Institute offers a bibliographic service which can be accessed by telnet to
cass.jsc.nasa.gov (192.101.147.17). Login as user cass with password online.
5.1.4. UnCover
UnCover is a database of tables of contents of over 14,000 journals, including ApJ, A&A, AJ, ApJS,
MNRAS, Nature, PASP, and Science. In late 1993 it included more than 4,000,000 articles and over
1,000,000 articles are added annually. It can be accessed by telnet to pac.carl.org or database.carl.org
and offers keyword searches for article titles or authors. Data ingest started in September 1988 and the
first year of complete coverage is 1989. The contents pages of an individual journal issue can be viewed
by volume and number, and further details can be obtained on individual articles. Copies of all retrieved
articles can be ordered (by FAX only) for a charge indicated by the database. A telnet connection to
pac.carl.org also allows one to access other library databases and browse the library catalogs of several
North American libraries. Send inquiries to help@carl.org or database@carl.org.

-- 30 --
5.1.5. Abstracts and Indices of Astronomical Journals
The Center for Astrophysics provides on­line access to the contents pages of the ApJ, ApJS, AJ, and
PASP, as well as to the abstracts of articles that have been submitted to the ApJ Letters. Both services
are available via telnet to cfaN.harvard.edu (where N = 3, 4, 5, 7, or 8) or SET HOST to DECNet node
CFAn (n as above). To review titles of papers login as user apjaj. To see the ApJ Letters abstracts, login
as user aplett. Both logins provide simple instructions on how to use the facilities. PASP abstracts and
ToCs are available via anonymous FTP to stsci.edu:pasp, via Gopher to stsci.edu and on the WWW
at http://cdsweb.u­strasbg.fr/CDS.html.
Following an agreement with the Editors of Astronomy & Astrophysics, the CDS provides access to
the abstracts from this journal, starting in January 1994. These abstracts are made available four weeks
before the publication of the corresponding issue. The abstracts can be viewed and retrieved on the WWW
at URL http://cdsweb.u­strasbg.fr/Abstract.html. They are also available through anonymous FTP
from the directory cdsarc.u­strasbg.fr:pub/abstract. A WAIS server is in preparation. Send remarks
and comments to question@simbad.u­strasbg.fr.
The NED database (see x3.2.8) is systematically entering the abstracts of papers of extragalactic
interest from five major journals (A&A, AJ, ApJ, MNRAS and PASP) complete since 1988, the IAU
Circulars since 1991, and Soviet Astronomy (now Astronomy Reports) and PASJ complete since 1992.
5.1.6. Acta Astronomica Archive
The journal Acta Astronomica (Poland) keeps an electronic archive of its recently published papers.
They can be retrieved via anonymous FTP to node sirius.astrouw.edu.pl (148.81.8.1). Papers are
stored in subdirectories named acta/year of volume/author page/, e.g., acta/1992/kal 29/ where
``author'' is an abbreviation of the first author's last name, appended with the starting page of the paper
(see also Acta Astr. 4, issue 4, Editorial).
5.2. Preprint Services
The AstroWeb Consortium (x2.7) maintains a list of on­line preprint services of interest to astronomers.
Some of the major facilities are described in more detail below.
5.2.1. Los Alamos National Laboratory
A fully automated bulletin board for preprints is available at Los Alamos National Laboratory. To
get information on its use, send the word HELP in the subject field of a message to hepth@xxx.lanl.gov.
Information on subscribing, accessing, etc., will be automatically returned. Access by anonymous FTP is
also possible. Typically 200--300 papers are available each month.
5.2.2. CERN
The European Centre for Nuclear Research (Geneva) supports a preprint server. Via WWW use
address http://darssrv1.cern.ch provides access to hundreds of subdirectories, each associated with one
or a few institutes. An X Windows based access mechanism is also supported. Refer to van Herwijnen
(1993) for details of this.

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5.2.3. SISSA
Fully automated bulletin boards for preprints in astronomy and astrophysics are available at SISSA
(International School for Advanced Studies), Trieste, Italy. Preprints can be submitted and retrieved.
It is also possible to subscribe to a daily distribution list containing authors and abstracts of the
papers submitted to the bulletin board. The service is operated by listserver software at the address
astro­ph@babbage.sissa.it (147.122.1.21). Preprints are mostly in T E X/L A T E X format but Postscript
format as well as compression and/or encoding is also common. Facilities to use special macros are
available, and figures in Postscript format may also be submitted. Anonymous FTP access is also possible.
For further details, instructions, disclaimers, etc., send mail with a subject line saying help to the address
given above. The same host also supports abstract services for other fields of physics.
5.2.4. Preprint Lists from NRAO and ST ScI
The libraries of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the Space Telescope Science
Institute (ST ScI) cooperate in producing lists of preprints received. The lists are distributed electronically
every two weeks by the librarians of ST ScI and NRAO (see below). Both preprint lists are also available
through WAIS.
STEPsheet (``Space Telescope Exhibited Preprints'') is a list of all preprints received during the
last two weeks at the ST ScI and is prepared by the ST ScI librarian, Sarah Stevens­Rayburn. It is
delivered by electronic mail and subscription requests should be sent to library@stsci.edu. Each list
presently contains well over 100 titles. Note that the preprints themselves are not distributed by the
ST ScI librarian and must be requested from the individual author. The full current ST ScI database
contains everything received in the last several years, along with all papers received since 1982 and not
yet published. It is searchable on­line by connecting to stlib.stsci.edu (130.167.1.175) and logging in
as stlib. Note that VT100 keypad emulation is required to use the EDT editor for searching. Both the
current ST ScI database and the full database of all preprints received since 1982 are searchable via WAIS as
stsci­preprint­db.src and stsci­old­preprint­db.src in the WAIS directory­of­servers. These
files are also available on WWW from the library's homepage, http://sesame.stsci.edu/library.html.
For additional information, contact library@stsci.edu.
The RAPsheet (``Radio Astronomy Preprints'') is a listing of all preprints received in the Charlottesville
library of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the preceding two weeks. It is meant to serve
as an alert service only --- the NRAO library does not copy or distribute the preprints listed. Interested
persons should request copies of preprints from the authors. The unRAPsheet is a listing of papers which
appeared previously on the RAPsheet for which citations have been added in the preceding two weeks.
The tables of contents of all incoming journals and meeting proceedings are scanned in order to find
citations and update the records. The RAPsheet is posted to the sci.astro Usenet group and the full
database is available via anonymous FTP in the pub/rapsheet directory on polaris.nrao.edu and is
updated once every two weeks. A database of preprints received, along with their added citations, from
1986 forward, including unpublished ones since 1978, is also searchable using WAIS. The necessary source
file is polaris.nrao.edu:pub/rapsheet/nrao­raps.src. Please address any questions, comments, or
corrections regarding the RAP/unRAPsheets to library@nrao.edu.
5.3. Astrolib

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Astrolib is an e­mail distribution for astronomy librarians whose purpose is to share relevant information
widely and rapidly. Astrolib was born out of the desire expressed at IAU Colloquium 110 (Wilkins and
Stevens­Rayburn 1988) to continue the valuable exchange of information begun there. Astrolib messages
vary widely in content, including information on difficult­to­find and noncommercial items (both print and
non­print), information on publication problems or defective journal issues, duplicate items offered to other
libraries, reports from conference attendees, reports on ongoing projects (e.g., the IAU Thesaurus, see x7.1),
questions about technical library matters, and information on resource sharing. E. Bouton of the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory acts as manager and moderator for the Astrolib distribution. She receives
and redistributes all messages, editing them and combining them as necessary or convenient. Information
about librarians' e­mail addresses is regularly and actively solicited by the manager and by other librarians.
In late 1993 there were 120 people from 23 countries receiving Astrolib messages. For further information
contact E. Bouton, library@nrao.edu.
5.4. On­Line Library Card Catalogs
ST ScI (Space Telescope Science Institute) offers public access to its library catalog. Telnet to
stlib.stsci.edu and login as user stlib (no password) and follow the menu. A user guide is available on
request from library@stsci.edu.
The contents of the ESO libraries at Garching bei M¨unchen and La Silla can be browsed remotely.
Access is via telnet to libhost.hq.eso.org, login as user library. Two user guides are available: ``The
ESO Libraries On­line Catalogue in a Nutshell'' and ``The ESO User Guide to the On­Line Catalogue.''
Both are available from the ESO Library in Garching (esolib@eso.org). [Reference: ESO Messenger 74,
1993, p. 37.]
The card catalogs of hundreds of libraries (including the Library of Congress, which can be accessed via
telnet to locis.loc.gov) are available over the net. Look into the directory ftp.unt.edu:pub/library.
The UnCover system (x5.1.4) also provides access to several larger US libraries (not specialized in
astronomy).
6. Electronic Publishing
Introductions to this wide and growing field were recently given by Heck (1992a), Heck (1992b), and in
the Newsletter of the American Astronomical Society No. 62 (October 1992), Special Insert. The first and
last references discuss the prospects of future directions for electronic publishing, the standards for text
editors, page scanning, etc.
Below we list the currently available macro packages for preparation of papers for major astronomical
journals.
ffl ApJ, AJ, PASP. These journals encourage the use of the AAST E X package, available via FTP. To
obtain details on the retrieval and installation of the current version (3.0), send an empty message to
aastex­instruct@blackhole.aas.org.
ffl A&A. Send e­mail to svserv@dhdspri6.bitnet with either the command send tex/plain/p­aa.zip
or send tex/latex/l­aa.zip in the main body of the message, to receive the T E X or L A T E X mark­ups
for papers in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

-- 33 --
ffl MNRAS. Macros for electronic papers to be submitted to MNRAS are obtainable via anonymous
FTP to tex.ac.uk. The T E X files are in [tex­archive.macros.plain.contrib.mnras] and the
L A T E X files are in [tex­archive.macros.latex.styles.contrib.mnras].
ffl Ap&SS. Prospective authors for Astrophysics and Space Science should request a T E X macro from
the editor, Kluwer Academic Publishers at editdept@wkap.nl.
7. Dictionaries, Thesauri, Directories, Meetings, and Jobs
7.1. Dictionaries and Thesauri
The Second Dictionary of the Nomenclature of Celestial Objects has just appeared (Lortet, Borde and
Ochsenbein 1994a,b). Authors of survey­type source lists are strongly encouraged to check that designations
of their objects do not clash with previous namings and are otherwise commensurate with recommendations
on nomenclature. An on­line installation of the Interactive Dictionary of Acronyms is provided by telnet
to simbad.u­strasbg.fr (130.79.128.4); login as info (no password). The command info cati ACR will
then provide information on the over 3000 acronyms ACR of which over 700 are also recognized by SIMBAD.
The command info ­l cati ACR provides more details on a given acronym. [Reference: Lortet, Borde,
and Ochsenbein (1994a,b).]
The dictionary StarBriefs, maintained by A. Heck (Strasbourg), is available and searchable via
WWW under URL http://cdsweb.u­strasbg.fr/CDS.html. It currently comprises about 70,000
abbreviations, acronyms, contractions and symbols from astronomy and space sciences, as well as related
fields. Astronomers are invited to consult this dictionary to avoid assigning an acronym that has been used
previously. [Reference: Heck (1993).]
On behalf of the IAU several librarians of large astronomical institutions have been working
since 1986 on the compilation of a thesaurus of astronomical terms. The first version (1.1) was
distributed in paper form to various observatories, and is now available electronically in the directory
aaoepp2.aao.gov.au:lib thesaurus. There are versions for three different operating systems (MS­DOS,
Macintosh and Unix). The thesaurus will be essential in many respects, e.g., to aid authors in better
selection of keywords for their papers, and to aid librarians in better classification of publications. It will
also be used as a basis for sophisticated bibliographical search algorithms using the full text of papers
(Kurtz et al. 1994, also see x3.4.1).
To allow searching and classification of non­English literature, a French, German, Italian and Spanish
version of the primary terms is being worked on. The second draft version of this ``Multi­Lingual Supplement
to The Astronomy Thesaurus'' has been distributed in May 1994. For their own benefit in future literature
searches, all astronomers are invited to check the terms in their respective fields of specialization and make
suggestions to R. Shobbrook, librarian at AAO (lib@aaoepp2.aao.gov.au). [References: Shobbrook and
Shobbrook (1992a, 1992b, 1993).]
7.2. Directories
Reviews of ``Astronomical Directories'' were given by Heck (1991) and Heck (1992c).
A few years ago C. Benn and R. Martin undertook the task of collecting e­mail addresses of individual
astronomers in a single ASCII table. The table is arranged in five columns (name, institution, network,
electronic address, and date code, the latter indicating when update information was last received from a

-- 34 --
given institution), and updates are released every year. They are available via anonymous FTP in three files
located at ftp.ast.cam.ac.uk:guide/ASTRO*. The same directory also contains some useful documents
on electronic mail and T E X macros to print the RGO directory. This list of individual e­mail addresses
is ASTROPERSONS.LIS and the current version of April 1994 contains ¸11,000 entries, of which 92%
are on the Internet. Alternative e­mail addresses for observatories and astronomy departments are given
in file ASTROPLACES.LIS. Postal addresses are given in file ASTROPOSTAL.LIS. Requests for copies
of these files, corrections, and additional information for inclusion in the next edition can also be sent to
email@mail.ast.cam.ac.uk or directly to C. Benn crb@lpve.ing.iac.es.
The dictionary StarGuides, maintained by A. Heck (Strasbourg), is available and searchable via WWW
under URL http://cdsweb.u­strasbg.fr/CDS.html. It comprises practical information on associations,
societies, scientific committees, agencies, organizations, etc., in astronomy, space sciences, and related
fields. Currently about 5000 items from 100 countries are offered, with information on postal and electronic
addresses, phone and FAX numbers, staff, activities, geographical coordinates of observing sites, awards or
prizes granted, etc. StarGuides supersedes the book Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Related Organizations
of the World (ASpScROW). For additional information contact A. Heck (heck@cdsxb6.u­strasbg.fr).
[References: Heck (1994b).]
The Unix commands whois and netfind are both valuable tools for tracking down network contacts.
Both may be accessed by going to Phone Books on most Gopher servers.
7.3. Astronomical Meetings
E. Bryson, Librarian at the Canada­France­Hawaii Telescope Corporation in Kamuela, Hawaii has
been compiling a list of forthcoming astronomical meetings, to which one can subscribe electronically (by
request to library@cfht.hawaii.edu). Each mailing has the new meetings marked with an asterisk.
Bryson does her best to achieve completeness for the new meetings, but clearly relies on timely information
from the meeting organizers. The current listing of astronomy meetings is available via anonymous
FTP from the file ftp.cfht.hawaii.edu:pub/library/meetings.doc as well as on the WWW at URL
http://cadcwww.dao.nrc.ca/meetings/meetings.html.
7.4. Jobs
The American Astronomical Society offers its monthly list of job openings in astronomy (the ``Job
Register'') by anonymous FTP from the directory blackhole.aas.org:jobs/jobreg. Note that usually
only the latest month is kept as an on­line file. Contact ssavoy@blackhole.aas.org if you want to be on
the mailing list.
STARJOBS is an electronic notice board maintained at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and
sponsored by the European Astronomical Society (EAS). Telnet to star.rl.ac.uk or SET HOST RLSTAR
and login as starjobs. You will enter a hierarchical help library at the subtopic called JOBS. To read a job
notice type the first few characters of the title of the notice and follow with a carriage return. Note that
there is no facility for mailing back the notices to you. For local hardcopies it is best to keep a log of your
session or cut and paste to extract text. See the EAS Newsletter No. 7 (Jan. 1994) for more details.
Under the URL http://chronicle.merit.edu/ users can find an electronic listing of academic job
openings in all fields, including astronomy. This service is provided by the Chronical of Higher Education
and contains primarily but not exclusively openings in the United States.

-- 35 --
8. Astronomical Software
An article by Feigelson and Murtagh (1992) discusses publicly available astronomical software and
numerical libraries and offers additional hints about using the network. An example of one of these services
is the node netlib@research.att.com, which will send any one of a number of numerical algorithms upon
receipt of an e­mail message of the form send name of routine. Send a message saying send index to see
what is available. A similar service for statistical software is available from statlib@temper.stat.cmu.edu
(128.2.241.142).
An Astronomical Software Directory Service has been initiated by the second of the present authors
(Hanisch, Payne, and Hayes 1994). The objective of this project is to provide astronomers with the ability
to search for certain types of algorithms, applications programs, or utilities, across the many software
packages in use in the community. Users will be able to read documentation, learn about software and
hardware requirements for the code, and get pointers to anonymous FTP archives where code may be
retrieved.
Many of the data analysis packages used in the astronomy community are available in FTP archives. A
table of such systems is given below. Note that some groups require that you make previous arrangements
with them in order to retrieve their software, although patches are usually freely available.
TABLE 1 GOES HERE

-- 36 --
Information about the FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) data format standard is also available
on­line. The NSSDC provides the NASA description of the FITS standard on nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
(128.183.36.23). More FITS­related documents, sample data, test files, and a log of the transactions in
the Usenet newsgroup sci.astro.fits are available on fits.cv.nrao.edu (192.33.115.8). Most of the
files can also be found on ftphost.hq.eso.org (134.171.8.4). A library of I/O routines for reading and
writing FITS files has been developed by Bill Pence at HEASARC; look in the directory pub/fitsio3 on
tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.8.77), or send e­mail to pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov.
At Penn State University the Statistical Consulting Center for Astronomy has recently been created (see
the directory ftp.stat.psu.edu:pub/scca or the URL http://www.stat.psu.edu/scca/homepage.html).
Pointers to other software packages of interest to astronomers are listed within the MediaTheque
project of CDS; see URL http://cdsweb.u­strasbg.fr/CDS.html (Heck 1994a).
9. Other Information Systems and Services
ATNF (Australia Telescope National Facility) maintains the Australia Telescope, a radio interferometer
at Narrabri. Observing proposals and documentation on this facility can be obtained via anonymous FTP
from files in the directory atnf.csiro.au:pub/atnfdocs. A README file in this directory contains
further details.
ESO (European Southern Observatory) has all press releases including accompanying
photographs, lists of all preprints, some full preprints, continually updated weather images of
South America and Europe, instrument information, and so on available through its WWW URL
http://www.hq.eso.org/eso­homepage.html.
IAU Circulars are posted on various electronic bulletin boards. Contact addresses are
marsden@cfa.harvard.edu or green@cfa.harvard.edu.
IRAM (Institut de Radioastronomie Millim'etrique, Grenoble, France) offers an electronic newsletter
containing documentation on the IRAM telescopes on Pico Veleta (Granada, Spain) and the radio
interferometer on Plateau de Burre (near Grenoble) and on reduction software, files for proposal
preparation, etc. For details use anonymous FTP to retrieve the file dist/newsletter/README on node
iraux2.iram.fr (193.48.252.22) or send e­mail to newsserv@iram.fr with only the word HELP in the
body of the mail. If you want to be notified when a new newsletter becomes available, send a message to
iramusers­request@iram.grenet.fr with the one word SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. For
further questions send e­mail to Robert Lucas at lucas@iram.fr or lucas@iramfr51.bitnet.
The La Palma Observatories (Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos) distribute an electronic
newsletter, the ``Isaac Newton Group --- La Palma Information Bulletin''. Its purpose is to keep the
community of users of the optical telescopes on La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) informed of the actual
situation on the mountain top. Distribution is by e­mail only. For subscriptions send your e­mail address
to bulletin@ing.iac.es, or, for UK users, to dxc@castro.ast.cam.ac.uk.
NASA Headquarters maintains a WWW server at http://www/mtpe.hq.nasa.gov/HQ homepage.html.
Of particular interest to astronomers are the anonymous FTP directories for Astrophysics, which include
the full text of NASA Research Announcements and the newsletters of the Astrophysics Division (the FTP
host is ftp.astrophysics.hq.nasa.gov).
NRAO is performing two sky surveys with the VLA. Within the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) the
whole sky north of \Gamma42 ffi declination is being mapped at 20 cm. The survey will run from 1993 to 1996 at an
angular resolution of ¸ 50 00 and be complete to a flux density limit of 2 mJy. The NVSS is being made as a

-- 37 --
service to the astronomical community, and the uv data and maps are being released via anonymous FTP
in the directory gibbon.cv.nrao.edu:pub/nvss immediately as they are taken, calibrated, and mapped.
Later there will be CD­ROMs and hardcopy listings. An introduction to the NVSS is also available on the
WWW at URL address http://info.aoc.nrao.edu. Within another survey (FIRST, or Faint Images of
the Radio Sky at Twenty­cm) the north Galactic cap (b ? +30 ffi ) will be surveyed from 1993 to 2000 at 20
cm at an angular resolution of ¸ 5 00 ) to a flux density level of 1 mJy. [References: Condon (1994); Condon
et al. (1994); Becker, White, and Helfand (1994).]
NOAO (National Optical Astronomy Observatory) maintains several public FTP archives on node
gemini.tuc.noao.edu (140.252.1.11), including weather (weather satellite pictures), noao (information
about NOAO), and preprints (Postscript versions of selected NOAO preprints). Past issues of the NOAO
Newsletters are available for searching via WAIS on pandora.tuc.noao.edu.
SMTO (Submillimeter Telescope Observatory, Tucson, USA) has commissioned a 10­m telescope for
sub­mm observations on Mt. Graham (Arizona) and distributes a newsletter about current progress of the
project. Send a message to mailserv@gaffel.as.arizona.edu to receive further details on how to obtain
these newsletters.
VLAIS (Very Large Array Information System), supported by the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory (NRAO, USA), contains information about the VLA radio interferometer in New Mexico and
provides access to the observations log of all observations made with the VLA, and also with the VLBA
(Very Long Baseline Array), a network of radio antennas distributed over the US. Other general information
is available, e.g. a master address list for astronomers, NRAO employees e­mail addresses, etc. To access,
telnet to zia.aoc.nrao.edu (146.88.1.4) and login as user vlais. Instructions are provided on­line. It is
possible to e­mail yourself some of the information in the system; follow the instructions under MAILIT.
Send queries to Carl Bignell (cbignell@nrao.edu). [Reference: Bignell (1990).]
Weather information, especially for North America, is provided at many sites. Meteosat and other
images of Europe, Australia, North America, etc., are updated regularly during the day. The ``Sources
of Meteorological Data FAQ'' gives information about images and forecasts, and is available from
rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/weather­data.Z. Chilean weather forecasts are available via
Gopher at tortel.dcc.uchile.cl (146.83.4.40); log in as gopher, and then choose successively: ``Servicios
Miscelaneos'', ``Pronosticos Meteorologicos'', ``Informe Diario Direccion Meteorologica de Chile'').
E. Bryson, Librarian at the Canada­France­Hawaii Telescope Corporation in Kamuela, Hawaii, is
working on a database with a WAIS client that will be an international clearing house of observatory
manuals and the address of how to acquire them. Send inquiries to her at library@cfht.hawaii.edu.
10. Conclusions
This paper may be the last of its kind to be published on paper, as increasing amounts of information
are offered via network tools like WAIS and WWW. Relevant information is changing so fast that upon
failure to connect using the information given in the present paper, the reader is encouraged to use other
pointers from this article to find the desired information.
Many of the descriptions of the various systems were taken from published introductory information
provided by the system sponsors. We are grateful to A. C. Davenhall for providing us with his reviews prior
to publication and for his careful reading of the manuscript. Many other people have contributed valuable
information and suggestions, in alphabetical order: L. Benacchio, P. Boyce, L. Brotzman, E. Bryson,
G. Dulk, G. Eichhorn, P. Giommi, D. E. Harris, J. Hayes, A. Heck, G. Helou, F. Hill, K. Long, R. Isaacman,

-- 38 --
R. Jackson, A. de Jonge, D. Kester, H. T. MacGillivray, M.­C. Marthinet, W. C. Martin, K. Nakajima,
M. Nanni, F. Ochsenbein, H. Payne, B. Pirenne, A. Reynolds, M. Schmitz, F. Simien, K. Smale, P. L. Smith,
S. Stevens­Rayburn, R. M. Shobbrook, C. Stern Grant, M. Van Steenberg, M. Vazquez, and M. Wenger.
We thank the referees, E. D. Feigelson and D. R. Crabtree, as well as the Editor, H. Bond, for pointing out
several other useful services to us. H. A. acknowledges a research grant of CNRS and is grateful for the
hospitality he received at Instituto de Astrof'isica de Canarias and Observatoire de Lyon.
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Zuiderwijk, E. J., Martin, R., Raimond, E., and Van Diepen, G. N. J. 1994, PASP, 106, 515
This preprint was prepared with the AAS L A T E X macros v3.2Beta.

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A. URLs of Note
URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) provide the address information needed to make a link with a World­
Wide Web site. A popular user interface to the WWW is NCSA Mosaic. A number of lists of astronomical
resources have been established, and coordination between those maintaining these lists has been undertaken
by a group calling itself the ``AstroWeb Consortium''. Current members are: Jackson (CSC/STScI),
Wells (NRAO), Koekemoer (Mount Stromlo), Egret and Heck (Strasbourg Observatory), and Adorf and
Murtagh (ST­ECF). The AstroWeb Consortium has formed a common resource listing, and assembled
various tools -- in particular, automated submission procedures for new URLs, and automated checking
procedures to verify that URLs still respond to accesses as expected. Currently, more than around 1000
astronomically­relevant URLs are available. At URL http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/www/astronomy.html,
these astronomical resources are categorized under: Observing Resources, Data Resources, Organizations,
Software Resources, Publication­Related Resources, People­Related Resources, Various Lists of Astronomy
Resources, Astronomical Imagery, and Miscellaneous Resources.
A short list of URLs for sites which support user services --- archive research, or observing --- is given
below. No guarantee can be made that required information will be found at these sites. However, the
momentum behind the World­Wide Web is currently very great, and the information available through
Mosaic (or other browsers) is growing constantly in quality and quantity. The World­Wide Web is
thoroughly compatible with other network­based access mechanisms: WAIS, Gopher, FTP, telnet, etc., and
in fact provides a common user interface to all of these.
ADS (NASA Astrophysics Data System)
http://adswww.harvard.edu/adswww/adshomepg.html
CADC (Canadian Astronomy Data Center)
http://cadc.dao.nrc.ca/CADC­homepage.html
CDS (Strasbourg Data Center)
http://cdsweb.u­strasbg.fr/CDS.html
CEA (Center for EUV Astrophysics)
http://cea­ftp.cea.berkeley.edu/HomePage.html
CTIO (NOAO Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory)
http://ctios2.ctio.noao.edu/ctio.html
ESIS (European Space Information System)
http://mesis.esrin.esa.it/html/esis.html
ESO (European Southern Observatory)
http://www.hq.eso.org/eso­homepage.html
HEASARC (High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center)
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Admininstration Information Services)
http://hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov/NASA homepage.html
Mount Stromlo and Siding Springs
http://meteor.anu.edu.au/home.html
NRAO (National Radio Astronomy Observatory)
http://info.aoc.nrao.edu/
NOAO (National Optical Astronomy Observatories)
http://www.noao.edu/noao.html
NASA (NASA Online Information)
http://mosaic.larc.nasa.gov/nasaonline/nasaonline.html
National Solar Observatory

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http://argo.tuc.noao.edu/
Planetary Data System
http://starhawk.jpl.nasa.gov/pds home.html
ST­ECF (Space Telescope -- European Coordinating Facility)
http://ecf.hq.eso.org/ST­ECF­homepage.html
ST ScI (Space Telescope Science Institute)
http://stsci.edu/top.html
B. List of Acronyms
AAO Anglo­Australian Observatory
AAS American Astronomical Society
ADC Astronomical Data Center (of NASA's NSSDC)
ADS Astrophysics Data System
AEC Archive Exposure Catalog (of the Hubble Space Telescope)
AIPS Astronomical Image Processing System
APM Automated Plate Measuring Machine (Cambridge, UK)
APS Automated Plate Scanner (Univ. Minnesota, USA)
ARMS Automated Retrieval Mail System (of NASA­ADC)
ASCA Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (formerly Astro­D)
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASP Astronomical Society of the Pacific
ATNF Australian Telescope National Facility
BATSE Burst and Transient Source Experiment (on board CGRO)
BBXRT Broad Band X­Ray Telescope
BICDS Bulletin d'Information du Centre de Donn'ees Astronomiques de Strasbourg
Bitnet Because It's Time network
CADC Canadian Astronomical Data Center (Victoria, BC)
CD­ROM Compact Disk ­ Read­Only Memory
CDS Centre de Donn'ees Astronomiques Strasbourg (Strasbourg Data Center)
CERN European Center for Nuclear Research
CfA Center for Astrophysics
CFHT Canada­France­Hawaii Telescope
CGRO Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
COBE Cosmic Background Explorer
COSMOS Coordinates, Sizes, Magnitudes, Orientations and Shapes (ROE, UK)
DEC Digital Equipment Corporation
DIRA2 Distributed Information Retrieval from Astronomical files
DIRBE Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (on COBE satellite)
DMR Differential Microwave Radiometer (on COBE satellite)
EAS European Astronomical Society
EINLINE Einstein On­Line Service
EMMI ESO Multimode Instrument
EOLS Einstein On­Line Service
ESA European Space Agency
ESIS European Space Information System

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ESO European Southern Observatory
ESRIN European Space Research Institute (ESA)
ESTEC European Space Technolgy and Research Center (ESA)
EUVE Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer
EXOSAT European X­ray Observatory Satellite
FAQ Frequently asked questions
FIRAS Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (on COBE satellite)
FIRST Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty­cm (Survey with NRAO's VLA)
FITS Flexible Image Transport System
FTP File Transfer Protocol
GASP Guide­Star Astrometric Support Package (ST ScI)
GEISHA Groningen Exportable Infrared System for High­Resolution Analysis
GIPSY Groningen Image Processing System
GRO Gamma­Ray Observatory (Compton Observatory)
GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center
GUI Graphical User Interface
HEADS High Energy Astrophysics Database Service
HEAO High Energy Astrophysics Observatory
HEASARC High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Hipparcos High­Precision Parallax Collecting Satellite
HST Hubble Space Telescope
HTML Hypertext Markup Language
IAU International Astronomical Union
ING Isaac Newton Group (of telescopes on La Palma, see JKT, INT and WHT)
INSPEC INformation Services in Physics, Electrotechnology, Computers and
Control
INT Isaac Newton Telescope (2.5­m mirror on La Palma)
IP Internet protocol
IPAC Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
IRAF Image Reduction and Analysis Facility
IRAS Infrared Astronomical Satellite
IRAM Institut de Radioastronomie Millim'etrique
ISO Infrared Space Observatory
ISSA Infrared Sky Survey Atlas (IRAS maps)
IUE International Ultraviolet Explorer
JCMT James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (Hawaii)
JKT Jakobus Kapteyn Telescope (1­m mirror on La Palma)
LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory
LDS Leicester Database System
LEDA Lyon­Meudon Extragalactic Database
LHEA Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics
LPI Lunar and Planetary Institute
MIDAS Munich Image Data Analysis System
MPE Max­Planck Institut f¨ur Extraterrestrische Physik (Garching)
MQQ multiple quick query
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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NCSA National Center for Supercomputing Applications
NED NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
NFRA Netherlands Foundations for Research in Astronomy
NGDC National Geophysical Data Center
NMC NASA's Master Catalog
NODIS NSSDC Online Data and Information Service
NONA NSI On­Line Network Aid
NSI NASA Science Internet
NSSDC National Space Science Data Center
NOAO National Optical Astronomy Observatory
NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory
NTT New Technology Telescope (ESO, La Silla)
NVSS NRAO VLA Sky Survey
OP Opacity Project
PGC Principal Galaxy Catalogue (see A&AS 80, 299)
POSS Palomar Observatory Sky Survey
PPARC Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (UK), previously SERC
PPM Positions and Proper Motions (Star Catalog)
RA Right ascension
RAL Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
RAP Radio Astronomy Preprints (NRAO service)
RECON REmote CONsole (program by NASA STI to access their data)
RGO Royal Greenwich Observatory (Cambridge, UK)
ROE Royal Observatory Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK)
ROSAT R¨ontgensatellit
SAO Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
SCAR Starlink Catalog Access and Reporting System
SCCA Statistical Consulting Center for Astronomy
SDC Space Data Center
SEL Space Environment Laboratory
SERC Science and Engineering Research Council (UK), now PPARC
SGML Standard Generalized Markup Language
SHS Solar and Heliospheric Division
SIMBAD Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for
Astronomical Data
SISSA International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy
SMM Solar Maximum Mission
SPAN Space Physics Analysis Network
SPIN Searchable Physics Information Notices
STARCAT Space Telescope Archive and Catalog
STD Solar Terrestrial Dispatch
ST--ECF Space Telescope -- European Coordinating Facility
STELAB Solar­Terrestrial Environment Laboratory
STELAR STudy of Electronic Literature for Astronomical Research
STEP Space Telescope Exhibited Preprints
STEP Solar­Terrestrial Energy Program
STI NASA's Scientific and Technical Information Program
STN Scientific and Technical information Network

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ST ScI Space Telescope Science Institute (Baltimore, USA)
SUSI Superb Seeing Imager (ESO)
TCP Transport Connection Protocol
UKIRT United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (on Hawaii)
UKST United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope (Siding Spring, New South Wales)
ULDA IUE Uniform Low Dispersion Archive
URL Uniform Resource Locator
VLA Very Large Array (Socorro, New Mexico)
VLAIS Very Large Array Information System
XTE X­ray Timing Explorer
WAIS Wide­Area Information Servers
WHT William Herschel Telescope (4.2­m mirror on La Palma)
WSRT Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope
WWW World­Wide Web

Table 1 : Some Major Astronomical Data Analysis Packages available via FTP
System Org Archive Address e­mail contact
IRAF NOAO iraf.noao.edu iraf@noao.edu
(140.252.1.1)
STSDAS ST ScI stsci.edu stsdas@stsci.edu
(130.167.1.2)
PROS CfA sao­ftp.harvard.edu pros@cfa.harvard.edu
(128.103.42.3)
AIPS NRAO baboon.cv.nrao.edu aipsmail@nrao.edu
(192.33.115.103)
MIDAS ESO ftphost.hq.eso.org midas@eso.org
(134.171.8.4)
VISTA Lowell lowell.edu vista@lowell.edu
(192.103.11.2)
FIGARO AAO aaoepp.aao.gov.au ks@aaoepp.aao.gov.au
(130.155.203.64)
PGPLOT Caltech deimos.caltech.edu tjp@deimos.caltech.edu
(131.215.139.14)
IDL Astr Lib GSFC idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov landsman@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov
(128.183.57.82)