Getting Started

MAST Tutorial

This page is a general overview of how to get started with the basic services offered by MAST Please use the MAST tutorial and the help links throughout the site for more detailed explanations.

MAST Interfaces

The MAST WWW interface provides access to all of our missions and is likely to be the most convenient option for most users. The JAVA tool Starview provides access to HST, FUSE, IUE and EUVE observations. Some specialized tasks can only be performed or may be more conveniently accomplied with StarView. See The WWW interface vs Starview section of the MAST Tutorial for more information.

Finding Data

List of all MAST searches and tools

MAST provides several ways to find data of interest and they are listed on a "searches" web page for your convenience. Each mission has a specialized search form.

MAST provides several cross-mission searches. Use the VizieR/MAST Cross Correlation search to cross-correlate a catalog downloaded from VizieR with MAST missions. A full list of cross-mission and speciality searches is provided on the "searches" web page.

In addition to raw data from the missions, MAST archives "High-Level Science Products": fully processed (reduced, co-added, cosmic-ray cleaned etc.) images and spectra that are ready for scientific analysis. We have provided several ways to find HLSP of interest including a search by type of data and target.

If you plan to submit large search requests, or retrieve a large number of data sets (e.g., thousands of files), please see the submitting larege requests page.

Obtaining Data

Data Archive and Distribution Service (DADS)

HST and FUSE data are stored within the original HST archiving system called DADS. Users request data after selecting observations of interest from the search results on the web or via StarView. The data will be retrieved (and in the case of the newer HST instruments) reprocessed with the most current calibrations and staged to the users disk or to an ftp area on this server. HST and FUSE data are retrieved in batch mode. Data from the active HST instruments are reprocessed with the most recent calibrations. The current mean retrieval time can be found on the archive status page. HST data may also be distributed on DVD or CD. A Guest Observer requesting proprietary data from HST and FUSE observing programs must be a registered user to obtain this data. Non-proprietary data may be retrieved without registering, although users may always use their registered username.

Other MAST data and HLSP

All MAST data other than HST and FUSE and all the HLSP are stored on spinning disk. Users may select desired data from the search results pages for most MAST missions and download the data directly to disk via their browsers. See the summary of HLSP downloads options for more information.

If you don't quickly find the information you need, try the site search. You may also email us at archive@stsci.edu.