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HST FAQ

Proposal

Retrievals

Searches

StarView

Documentation

Tapes and Paper Products

ASCII Catalogs

HST Archive Answers


Who do I contact for help with proposal preparation?

STScI is maintaining a hotseat from 9:00am to 5:00pm Eastern Time at 410-338-1082 or (toll-free in the U.S.) 800-544-8125, and e-mail to help@stsci.edu. There is also the ST European Coordinating Facility, at 49-89-320-06-291, email: stdesk@eso.org, as well as a list of contacts in Appendix A of the Call For Proposals.

If you have a question regarding Archive facilities used in preparing your proposal (such as duplication checking or the Planned and Archived Exposures Catalog), please contact us at archive@stsci.edu

Can I do duplication checking on the web?

You can use the web-based duplication search to do check you proposals for duplication conflicts. Duplication checking is still available via StarView.

Why can't I log into archive.stsci.edu as guest ?

The archive guest account has been discontinued. You can install StarView6 on your machine. You can also use the Web form. If neither of these approaches is sufficient to meet your needs, please let us know.

How do I get the latest FOS calibrated data?

Improved calibrations for FOS data are available using STSDAS software available from the www.stecf.org web site. Additional FOS information is also available from this site.

How can I retrieve HST data?

You'll need to register for a retrieval account. Your retrieval account will give you access to any science, calibration, or engineering data in the Archive. PIs need a special authorization attached to their retrieval accounts which allows them to retrieve proprietary data from their own proposals; see this answer for details. You can retrieve public data using one of the following options:
  • by installing and running StarView6 at your site;
  • by using the HST Archive Search on the Web;
  • The archive guest account has been discontinued.

The data can be retrieved either to the staging disk using the HOST option or directly to your own site using the NET option. Both options are now available via StarView6 or the HST Archive Searches on the Web.

If you use the HOST retrieval option, DADS will retrieve the data to the staging disk of the host machine listed in your retrieval completion message.

If you use the NET retrieval option, you will need to specify the machine address, login, password and directory where you wish the data to be retrieved.

    DADS will ftp the data directly to a directory on your computer. (Note that we protect your destination information when it is transferred to us with the same kind of secure-web mechanism that is used by commercial sites conducting online commerce.)

Note that the NET option is the only one available to retrieve proprietary data across the internet.

If internet transfers are not feasible, both public and authorized proprietary data can also be retrieved to tape-- just use the TAPE retrieval option. We will ship it to the address given in your account registration.

I'm the PI on proposal xxxx. Can I use StarView or the Web to retrieve my data?

We're happy to tell you that you can! You can have your retrieval account set up so that you will be able to retrieve proprietary data from those proposals directly to a directory on your home machine.

Just send an email to archive@stsci.edu. Please note the proposal id's, and designate any others who you believe should have access to the data.

You can't retrieve any proprietary data to the Archive hosts; it has to be delivered to your machine using the NET option or to tape using the TAPE option.

You can also designate your co-investigators for this privilege.

I'm the PI on proposal xxxx. Why can't I retrieve the data?

You can, but you'll need to let us know you want it. Currently, PIs do not receive automatic electronic access to their data. (This is a technical limitation, not a policy.) If you are the PI and want electronic access to your proposal, contact archive@stsci.edu and let us know the proposal ID and your archive username. We will attach the proper access privileges to your account to allow you to retrieve this data electronically.

You can also authorize co-investigators and co-workers to have electronic access as well. Just tell us the proposal ID and the names and archive usernames of those to whom you wish to grant access. (If they don't have accounts, or you're not sure if they do, then let us know their email addresses to we can help them set up accounts for access.)

Authorization may be set up only on a per-proposal basis; we cannot restrict access to certain data within the proposal.

How do I get permission to retrieve my proprietary data and documents?

We ask that the PI send us an email (to archive@stsci.edu). In that email, note the proposal id's, and designate any others who you believe should have access to the data.

Once an individual is authorized for a particular proposal, they have access to all proprietary data in that proposal only.

Be sure to use the NET retrieval option!!

If while retrieving your data you get a message saying that the data are still proprietary, one of the following has happened:

  • You are trying to retrieve the data to the Archive Host staging disk. The staging disk is an anonymous FTP area, so we can allow only non-proprietary data to be written to it. Have the data sent directly to your disk or sent to you on tape instead.
  • We made a mistake and didn't properly authorize your account. This may be particularly true if you (for some reason) have more than one archive account.
  • The data are under restriction, which means that they were found to duplicate planned or existing proprietary observations, and an access restriction has been placed on them until the data with which it conflicts is released.

I forgot my password...

Don't worry, it happens to the best of us. Just call the Archive Hotseat and we'll reset it for you.

How long should a retrieval take?

The retrieval time depends on a variety of factors:
  • the type of data in the request. Some older data is stored offline and requires an operator's intervention.
  • the size of the request- the larger the request the longer it takes, both to move the request up the queue , and to retrieve the data.
  • the number of requests in the system at the time.
  • the destination of the request. The internet connections between STScI and some sites, especially those overseas, is sometimes a significant source of delay.

If everything is running smoothly, expect a median turn around time of a few hours. If it takes more than one day, and you don't think any of the factors listed above are playing a significant role, please contact us.

When I submit a request, it fails immediately, telling me my host password contains forbidden characters

There are 5 characters that are forbidden:
( ) * " /
In order to successfully submit a request, you will need to change you password to something not containing those characters. We hope to fix this eventually, as it can be a significant inconvenience.

I submitted a retrieval, but never got a notice that my request was submitted and queued...

DADS may be down, so it's not reading its mail. The way a retrieval works is that StarView emails the request to DADS. (If you have your mailer set to automatically log outgoing mail, then you'll see these requests, in their encrypted form, in your outgoing mail folder.) DADS then reads its mail and puts your emailed request onto the retrieve queue.

If DADS is down, or is not reading its mail for some reason, then your message will be held in the folder until DADS comes back up, when it starts reading its mail and queueing requests again. That's when you'll be notified.

I tried retrieving some data, but the staging disk is full...

Fortunately, this doesn't happen as often as it used to, since we installed a bigger staging disk on one of the Archive host machines. (You can check its capacity to be on the safe side.) However, if it does, you can either contact the Hotseat and we'll see if we can do anything to make room (usually by contacting other users and asking them if we can delete their data), or by resubmitting the request and having the data delivered directly to a directory on your home machine (NET option), rather than onto the staging disk.

My request failed. Now what do I do?

If it failed for a reason you can identify (such as a mistyped password/directory/login or no space left on destination device) go ahead and resubmit the request with the necessary alterations. Once a request fails in DADS, it is dropped from the system.

We do not resubmit failed requests for users, you will need to do that yourself.

If the failure occurred for a reason that isn't clear, contact the Archive hotseat with a description of the failure and we will investigate.

I submitted a request two days ago, and it hasn't finished yet.

Chances are it won't finish. Retrievals may have crashed and taken your request with it. We will contact you when that happens, but sometimes we may not be able to.

DADS retrieval times are dependent on the size of your request, the destination you specified and the number of requests in the system. A median retrieval turnaround time is a few hours, so if your request has taken more than a day without you getting a completion message, contact the Archive Hotseat and ask about your request. It has been our experience that users outside the United States sometimes experience longer retrieval times.

How can I find out how my retrieval's doing?
[Updated!]

Via the web, you can check the status using a simple tool at http://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/reqstat.

I retrieved some data and got a notice that it was ready. Where is it?

If you selected the HOST option in StarView or on the Web then the data was retrieved to the staging disk of stdatu.

It has a "lifetime" on that disk of about 3 days.

Use anonymous FTP to get your data (ignore the /stdatu/dads_stage part of the pathname).

If you selected NET as the media option, then the data will have gone to the node name and directory you gave to Starview as the destination directory.

I don't want the data I just requested. Can you kill this request?

Once the request has been queued, we can't kill it-- at least, not without bringing down retrievals completely.

Can I get the data in (GIF/JPEG/whatever) format?

The data are delivered from the Archive in multigroup Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) format only. We currently do not support conversion to other formats; you will have to do this yourself.

How do I display data in FITS format?

There are various FITS readers available. For example SAOimage (ds9), which can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from sao-ftp.harvard.edu in the directory /pub/rd/ds9, runs on various systems. More information on HST data and data analysis software is available on-line (in particular, see the HST Data Handbook).

I know I have an account on stdatu, but I can't log into it any more...

The Archive guest account has been discontinued. Users should either:

  • Install StarView6 at their home sites
  • Use the Web tools for searching the catalog and retrieving data

    If neither of these options meet your needs, please contact us at archive@stsci.edu.

    I don't need the whole dataset. How do I retrieve just one file extension?

    With the current OTFR system, this is not possible. You will get a Dataset does not exit error. For instruments not using On The Fly Calibration or Reprocessing, it will still work.

    This option will eventually be reactivated.

    We recommend not using it in the meantime.

    As of May 15 2000, ST ScI stopped archiving calibrated WFPC2 data. For datasets archived after this date, selecting a calibrated file extension will return a dummy file containing no data. Use the On-The-Fly Calibration option to retrieve calibrated data for WFPC2 datasets archived after May 15 2000.

    StarView6, a Java application released
    [NEW!]

    Developed in Java, StarView version 6 provides an easy to use, highly capable user interface that runs on any Java enabled platform as a standalone application.

    You can download and install it. It requires Java 1.2 or higher to run.

    The old StarView 5.4a has been discontinued. All x-windows and crt-versions of are no longer functional. Users will need to switch to StarView6.

    Does StarView run on platform X?

    StarView6 needs a system that has a Java 2 Runtime Engine. You will need to make sure that you have a version of Java that is 1.2 compliant. See download and install links for more information

    Can I install the StarView software on my machine?

    Yes. StarView6 is available from the web.

    Can I get the source code for StarView and compile it on my machine?

    Please use StarView6.

    How do I run StarView?

    You can install StarView6 and run it from your home site.

    I need to run StarView on archive.stsci.edu. Why can I not login with my archive user id and password?

    The Archive guest account was been discontinued. Users should either:

  • Install StarView6 on their home sites
  • Use the Web tools for searching the catalog and retrieving data

    If neither of these options meet your needs, please contact us at archive@stsci.edu.

    When I try to start StarView5.4 (xwindows distributions), it crashes immediately. What is wrong?

    StarView 5.4 is now obsolete. Please install StarView6.

    I need to recalibrate some data. Can I retrieve the calibration files?

    Yes. In Starview, for each instrument, there is a calibration screen that will show you what files the dataset was calibrated with, and which files you should use if you are recalibrating. Each of these screens has special buttons to mark the used or recommended calibration files for retrieval.

    If you already have the names of the files you want, then you can retrieve them directly. Go directly into the Retrieval screen through the Commands menu and use the "Add dataset by name" or "Add datasets from file" options. In the "File Options" screen, just press the "Calibrated" (or "OTFC" for STIS or WFPC2) button. That will ensure you get the right files.

    Via the Web, select the appropriate choice from the Retrieval Options page: "Best Reference" or "Used Reference" files.

    To search for specific calibration files, you will need to know the names of the files and search for and retrieve them using the Dataset List Search page.

    How do I find observations of an object by name?

    You can try entering this in the "Target name" field of a search screen, but the target names in our database are chosen by the proposer, so they might be a little (or a lot) different than you might guess.
    The best way to search for a specific (fixed) target is to use the "Get Coordinates"/Resolve button. Press this button and a window will pop up asking you for a target name. When you enter a target name and search, it will resolve the target names into RA and Dec through SIMBAD or NED.
    It will then enter the target's RA and Dec on the StarView screen, along with a 10-arcminute search radius (which you can change, if you want). (If you do a lot of extragalactic work, you can choose the NED resolver instead of SIMBAD.)

    For solar-system targets, you may still need to search by target name. In this case, it would be wise to wildcard the target name. For example, to search for observations of Jupiter, enter *JUP* into the target name field. Also, you can constrain your search to solar-system proposals by entering Solar System*" in the "Description" field, if there is one on the screen. (Note the wildcard!)

    How do I find all the observations for a class of objects (like Seyferts?)

    Specify a target description. Pull down the "Help" menu and select "On Targets". This help topic will show you how to search for observations of classes of objects. There is also an up-to-date list of target descriptions currently in the HST Archive.

    Can I use StarView or the Web to cross-correlate a list of my targets?

    Both StarView and the web offer cross correlation.
    There are instructions on how to use the StarView cross correlation in the online StarView help documentation.

    Cross correlation is also available on the web at http://archive.stsci.edu/search/. There are help texts that describe how to use this function.

    I had some observations made recently, but I haven't yet received a tape...

    As of August 1, 2000, we are no longer generating tapes for proposals. If you wish to have a tape of your data, please submit a retrieval request as you normally would, and use the TAPE retrieval option.

    Can I have multiple copies of a tape made for my collaborators?

    Because of the volume of data that we handle, we can only make one copy of the data. However, see the question about PIs retrieving their own data for information on how to let your CoIs retrieve the data from the Archive directly.

    Can I get my tapes sent via a next-day carrier?

    All tapes are sent out via FedEx Next Day Air by default.

    How do I generate paper products myself?

  • We offer paper products electronically in PDF format. As of August 1, 1999 we no longer manufacture hardcopies of the paper products, but will still provide them for extreme need cases. Please contact us if this is the case.

    Users will need to retrieve their paper products using the PDF Search Page

    Files are password protected (unless the proposal is a calibration program) and users will need their archive name and password to access documents (as well as authorization to access the proposal). This interface is not intended for general archive users but specifically for PIs of HST programs.

  • You can also generate paper products from your data using a task in IRAF/STSDAS called pp_dads.

    Where can I get the Archive Manual?

  • The Archive Manual is also available on-line.

  • The HST Data Handbook can be found here.

  • You can get these via anonymous FTP from:
    • ftp.stsci.edu, in the directory archive-html
    • archive.stsci.edu, in the directory pub/manuals

  • You can also use our document request form to order printed copies (they're free), or just contact the Archive Hotseat.

    How do I find out the latest versions of the Archive Manual?

    We will keep the most up to date manual we have available on-line.

    Is there an Archive Newsletter?

    Yes. The electronic newsletters provide information about the various archives supported by the Multi-mission Archive at STScI (MAST). In addition to HST data, MAST also provides support for VLA First, IUE, Copernicus, and EUVE data. Data from the FUSE, Astro-1 and Astro-2 missions for the UIT, HUT, and WUPPE instruments will be added in the future.

    It is sent out electronically to a distribution list. You can also read it on-line.

    Where do I find the ASCII catalogs, namely the AEC and PAEC?

    The ASCII catalogs are online at http://archive.stsci/hst/catalogs.html.

    How often are the catalogs updated?

    The AEC is updated monthly. Check the file README.AEC for the date through which the AEC is complete.

    The PAEC and proposal catalogs are usually done once or twice each proposal cycle.

    What does this error message mean?

    General FTP error: Transfer failed due to ftp errors. If it isn't clear from the code and comments what caused the error, and it continues to occur, please contact us and we will investigate.

    File not found: Usually a result of a hardware error on our end. You can resubmit the request and usually the problem goes away. If it doesn't, please contact us.

    File not processed: If you receive this error and cannot subsequently retrieve the data, please let us know.

    Dataset does not exit: This can result when you have submitted a request using the customize retrieval options, or have edited your request file. Double check that there are no errors in the filenames, classes and extension you requested. If you are certain that this file should exist, please contact us and we will look into it.