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sci.space FAQ - Online sources of images, data, et

Archive-name: space/data
Last-modified: $Date: 92/09/02 14:48:08 $

ONLINE AND OTHER SOURCES OF IMAGES, DATA, ETC.

INTRODUCTION

A wide variety of images, data, catalogs, information releases, and
other material dealing with space and astronomy may be found on the net.
A few sites offer direct dialup access or remote login access, while the
remainder support some form of file transfer. Many sites are listed as
providing 'anonymous FTP'. This refers to the File Transfer Protocol on
the Internet. Sites not connected to the Internet cannot use FTP
directly, but there are a few automated FTP servers which operates via
email. Send mail containing only the word HELP to [email protected]
or [email protected], and the servers will send you instructions
on how to make requests.

The sources with the broadest selection of material are the NASA Ames
SPACE archive and the National Space Science Data Center.

Don't even ask for images to be posted to the net. The data volume is
huge and nobody wants to spend the time on it.

VIEWING IMAGES

The possible combinations of image formats and machines is forebodingly
large, and I won't attempt to cover common formats (GIF, etc.) here. To
read PDS and VICAR (and many other) formats on Unix systems running X,
use XV 2.11, available by anonymous FTP from export.lcs.mit.edu
(18.24.0.12) in contrib/xv-2.11.tar.Z and the other standard X11 FTP
sites.

The FAQ for the Usenet group alt.binaries.pictures discusses image
formats and how to get image viewing software. A copy of this document
is available by anonymous FTP from the Usenet FAQ archives at
pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58), in directory
pub/usenet/alt.binaries.pictures.

ONLINE ARCHIVES

NASA AMES

Extensive archives are maintained at NASA Ames and are available via
anonymous FTP or an email server. These archives include many images and
a wide variety of documents including this FAQ list, NASA press
releases, shuttle launch advisories, and mission status reports. Please
note that these are NOT maintained on an official basis.

FTP users should connect to ames.arc.nasa.gov (128.102.18.3) and look in
pub/SPACE. pub/SPACE/Index contains a listing of files available in the
archive (the index is about 200K by itself).

To access the archives by email, send a letter to
[email protected] (or ames!archive-server). In the
subject of your letter (or in the body), use commands like:

send SPACE Index
send SPACE SHUTTLE/ss01.23.91.

The capitalization of the subdirectory names is important. All are in
caps. Only text files are handled by the email server at present; use
one of the FTP email servers described in the introduction to this
section for images or programs.

The Magellan Venus and Voyager Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus CD-ROM image
disks have been put online in the CDROM and CDROM2 directories. The
disks will be rotated on a weekly basis. Thousands of images are
available in these collections.

The GIF directory contains images in GIF format. The VICAR directory
contains Magellan images in VICAR format (these are also available in
the GIF directory). A PC program capable of displaying these files is
found in the IMDISP directory (see the item "VIEWING IMAGES" below).

The NASA media guide describes the various NASA centers and how to
contact their public affairs officers; this may be useful when pursuing
specific information. It's in MISC/media.guide.

Any problems with the archive server should be reported to Peter Yee
([email protected]).

NASA SPACELINK

SpaceLink is an online service located at Marshall Space Flight Center
in Huntsville, Alabama. The system is specifically designed for
teachers. The data base is arranged to provide easy access to current
and historical information on NASA aeronautics, space research, and
technology transfer information. Also included are suggested classroom
activities that incorporate information on NASA projects to teach a
number of scientific principles. Unlike bulletin board systems, NASA
Spacelink does not provide for interaction between callers. However it
does allow teachers and other callers to leave questions and comments
for NASA which may be answered by regular mail. Messages are answered
electronically, even to acknowledge requests which will be fulfilled by
mail. Messages are generally handled the next working day except during
missions when turnaround times increase. The mail system is closed- loop
between the user and NASA.

SpaceLink also offers downloadable shareware and public domain programs
useful for science educators as well as space graphics and GIF images
from NASA's planetary probes and the Hubble Telescope.

You can dial in at (205)-895-0028 (300/1200/2400/9600(V.32) baud, 8
bits, no parity, 1 stop bit), or telnet to spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov
(128.158.13.250, also known as xsl.msfc.nasa.gov) if you're on the
Internet. Anonymous FTP capability will be offered in the future.

Most of this information is also available from the Ames server in
directory SPACELINK.

NATIONAL SPACE SCIENCE DATA CENTER (NSSDC)

The National Space Science Data Center is the official clearinghouse for
NASA data. The data catalog (*not* the data itself) is available online.
Internet users can telnet to nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.36.23) and
log in as 'NODIS' (no password). You can also get the catalog by sending
email to '[email protected]'.

You can also dial in at (301)-286-9000 (300, 1200, or 2400 baud, 8 bits,
no parity, one stop). At the "Enter Number:" prompt, enter MD and
carriage return. When the system responds "Call Complete," enter a few
more carriage returns to get the "Username:" and log in as 'NODIS' (no
password).

The system is menu-driven; topics available as of 4/10/92 are:

1 - Master Directory - NASA & Global Change
2 - Personnel Information Management System
3 - Nimbus-7 GRID TOMS Data
4 - Interplanetary Medium Data (OMNI)
5 - Request data and/or information from NSSDC
6 - Geophysical Models
7 - CANOPUS Newsletter
8 - International Ultraviolet Explorer Data Request
9 - CZCS Browse and Order Utility
10 - Astronomical Data Center (ADC)
11 - STEP Bulletin Board Service
12 - Standards and Technology Information System

Data can be ordered from the NSSDC on CD-ROM and other formats. Among
the many types of data available are Voyager, Magellan, and other
planetary images, Earth observation data, and star catalogs. Viewers for
Macintosh and IBM systems are also available. As an example of the cost,
an 8 CD set of Voyager images is $75. Data may ordered online, by email,
or by physical mail. The postal address is:

National Space Science Data Center
Request Coordination Office
Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 633
Greenbelt, MD 20771

Telephone: (301) 286-6695

Email address: [email protected]

NSSDCA is also an anonymous FTP site, but no comprehensive list of
what's there is available at present.

SPACE AND PLANETARY IMAGE FACILITY

Available 24 hours a day via anonymous FTP from pioneer.unm.edu. Has
approximately 150 CD-ROM's full of imagery, raw, and tabular data. To
start, get the file:

pioneer.unm.edu:pub/info/beginner-info

This will hopefully give you all of the information you need to get data
from their machine. beginner-info has been translated to other
languages, you should look inside pub/info for the particular language
that meets your needs.

Contact [email protected].

SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE

stsci.edu (130.167.1.2) has a large amount of information about the
Hubble Space Telescope available by anonymous FTP, such as status
reports and newsletters, in addition to material oriented towards HST
observers and proposers. Get the top level README file to begin with.
Contact Pete Reppert ([email protected]) or Chris O'Dea
([email protected]).

ASTRONOMICAL DATABASES

The full SAO stellar database is *NOT* available online, probably due to
the 40 MB size. It may be ordered on magnetic tape from the NSSDC. A
subset containing position and magnitude only is available by FTP (see
"Astronomy Programs" below).

nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) has a large collection of astronomical
programs for many types of computers, databases of stars and deep sky
objects, and general astronomy information in directory /pub/astro. This
site is mainly for European users, but overseas connections are
possible.

mandarin.mit.edu (18.82.0.21) has the following data available via
anonymous FTP in directory /astro: StarChart v3.2, orbital elements for
bright comets and asteroids, the Yale Bright Star catalog, Saguaro
Astronomy Club Deepsky and Double Star databases, some PC astronomy
programs, and possibly more. Get astro/README. Contact
[email protected] with questions.

The Ames archives contain a database of 8,436 galaxies including name,
RA, declination, magnitude, and radial velocity in MISC/galaxy.dat.
Supplied by Wayne Hayes ([email protected]).

iris1.ucis.dal.ca (129.173.18.107) has a number of GIFs from Voyager,
Hubble, and other sources available by anonymous FTP in pub/gif (most of
this data is also in SPACE/GIF on the Ames server). Please restrict
access to 5pm - 8am Atlantic time.

pomona.claremont.edu has the Yale Bright Star catalog for anonymous FTP
in directory [.YALE_BSC]. Contact James Dishaw
([email protected]).

The Hubble Guide Star catalog is available on CD-ROM for the Mac and PC
for $49.95 US (catalog # ST101).

Astronomical Society of the Pacific
390 Ashton Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94112
Phone: (415) 337-2624 9 AM - 3 PM Pacific Time
FAX: (415) 337-5205

For German (and possibly other European) readers, Jost Jahn has a
service to distribute astronomical data to interested amateurs at cost.
About 30-40 catalogs are available for DM 6..8/disk. Several floppy disk
formats are available. Because of the expense of receiving email on his
system, he asks that you contact him by physical mail:

Jost Jahn
Neustaedter Strasse 11
W-3123 Bodenteich
GERMANY
Phone: FRG-5824-3197

ASTRONOMY PROGRAMS

Various astronomy-related programs and databases posted to the net in
the past are archived for anonymous FTP at multiple sites, including
ftp.uu.net (137.39.1.9). Also see the ASTRO-FTP list posted to sci.astro
monthly, which is more complete than this list.

Astonomical/Space-related sources of interest in comp.sources.unix:

Volume 8: phoon moon phase and date routines
Volume 12,13: starchart starchart program & Yale Star data
Volume 15: moontool shows moon phase picture on Suns
Volume 16: sao reduced SAO catalog

Astonomical/Space-related sources of interest in comp.sources.misc:

Volume 8: moon another moon phase program
Volume 11: starchart starchart program, version 3.2
Volume 11: n3emo-orbit orbit: track earth satellites
Volume 12: starchart2 starchart program, update to version 3.2.1
Volume 13: jupmoons plotter for Jupiter's major moons [in perl]
Volume 13: lunisolar lunisolar (not sure what this does)
Volume 14: ephem-4.21 astronomical ephemeris, v4.21
Volume 14: n3emo-orbit patch to orbit 3.7
Volume 18: planet planet generation simulator

Elwood Downey ([email protected]), the author of
"ephem", has offered to mail copies to people who can't find it on one
of the archives.

XSAT, an X Window System based satellite tracking program, is
available by anonymous FTP from export.lcs.mit.edu (18.24.0.12) in
contrib/xsat1.0.tar.Z. Contact Dave Curry ([email protected].edu)
for more information.

The "Variable Stars Analysis Software Archive" is available via
anonymous FTP from kauri.vuw.ac.nz (130.195.11.3) in directory
pub/astrophys. This is intended for specialists in this field, and they
would appreciate people from outside New Zealand confining their FTP
access to the astrophys directory, as they pay a significant amount for
Internet access. Contents are relatively sparse at present due to the
youth of the archive - contributions are encouraged. Contact the archive
administrator, Timothy Banks ([email protected]) for more
information.

The "IDL Astronomy Users Library" is available by anonymous FTP from
idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.57.82). This is a central repository for
general purpose astronomy procedures written in IDL, a commercial image
processing, plotting, and programming language. Contact Wayne Landsman
([email protected]) for more information.

ORBITAL ELEMENT SETS

The most recent orbital elements from the NASA Prediction Bulletins are
carried on the Celestial BBS, (513)-427-0674. Documentation and tracking
software are also available on this system. The Celestial BBS may be
accessed 24 hours/day at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud using 8 data bits, 1
stop bit, no parity.

Orbital element sets are available via anonymous FTP from the
following sites:

archive.afit.af.mil (129.92.1.66) NASA,TVRO,Shuttle
directory: /pub/space

ftp.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) NASA,TVRO,Molczan,CelBBS,
directory: /pub/astro/pc/satel Shuttle (*)

kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov (128.149.1.165) NASA,Molczan
directory: /pub/space/

nachos.ssesco.com (192.55.187.18) NASA,Molczan
directory: /sat_elements

SPACE DIGEST ARCHIVES

Copies of back issues of Space Digest are archived on
[email protected]. Send mail containing the message "INDEX SPACE" to
get an index of files; send it the message "GET filename filetype" to
get a particular file.

LANDSAT AND NASA PHOTOS

You can get black-and-white 1:1M prints, negatives, or positives for
$10, $18, $12 respectively for any Landsat data more than 2 years old
from EDC, (Eros (Earth Resources Orbiting Satellite) Data Center). Call
them at (605)-594-6511. You get 80 meter resolution from the MSS
scanner, 135x180 kilometers on a picture 135x180 mm in size. I think you
have to select one band from (green, red, near IR, second near IR), but
I'm not sure. Digitial data is also available at higher prices.

Transparencies of all NASA photos available to the public can be
borrowed from the NASA photo archive; you can have copies or prints
made.

NASA Audio-Visual Facility
918 North Rengstorff Ave
Mountain View, CA 94043
(415)-604-6270

PLANETARY MAPS

The USGS address for maps of the planets is:

U.S. Geological Survey,
Distribution Branch,
Box 25286, Federal Center, Bldg. 41
Denver, CO 80225

Maps cost $2.40 to $3.10 per sheet (a few come in sets of 2 or 3 sheets).

The best global maps of Mars based on Viking images are 1:15,000,000
scale in 3 sheets. These maps are:

I-1535 (2 sheets only) - relief, albedo, names
I-1535
I-1618 (3 sheets) - relief, names
I-2030 (3 sheets) - relief, topographic contours
I-1802-A,B,C (3 sheets) - geology

There are many other maps as well: 30 sheets at 1:5,000,000 scale in
relief, albedo, geology, photomosaic forms (not all 30 sheets available
in all formats); 140 sheets at 1:2,000,000 scale as photomosaics of the
whole planet, about 100 sheets of interesting sites at 1:500,000 scale
in photomosaic format, and lots of special sheets.

Then there are maps of Mercury, Venus, the Moon, the four Galilean
Satellites, six moons of Saturn and five of Uranus. [Phil Stooke
([email protected]), the author of this item, has offered to
respond to email requests for information on any topic relating to lunar
and planetary maps.]

COMETARY ORBIT DATA

The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and the Minor Planet
Center announce the sixth edition of the Catalogue of Cometary Orbits in
IAU Circular 4935. The catalogue contains 1292 entries which represent
all known comets through November 1989 and is 96 pages long.
Non-subscribers to the Circulars may purchase the catalogue for $15.00
while the cost to subscribers is $7.50. The basic catalogue in ASCII
along with a program to extract specific orbits and calculate
ephemerides is available on MS-DOS 5.25-inch 2S2D diskette at a cost of
$75.00 (the program requires an 8087 math coprocessor). The catalogue
alone is also available by e-mail for $37.50 or on magnetic tape for
$300.00.

Except for the printed version of the catalogue, the various magnetic
media or e-mail forms of the catalogue do not specifically meantion
non-subscribers. It is possible that these forms of the catalogue may
not be available to non-subscribers or that their prices may be more
expensive than those given. Mail requests for specific information and
orders to:

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

NEXT: FAQ #4/15 - Performing calculations and interpreting data formats
 
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