There are two types of IMAPS-1 data: raw images, and corrected, coadded images. Only the coadded files have assigned wavelengths. To download an IMAPS file, click on any of the listed image numbers for the desired target. This will display a list of links to individual files that can then be downloaded.
To resolve an object name before a search, enter the object name in the Object Name field, select either NED or SIMBAD for the resolver, and hit the Search button. NED is the NASA Extragalactic Database at Caltech in Pasadena, California, and SIMBAD is the Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data at the Centre de Données astronomiques in Strasbourg, France. The object name will be sent to the chosen resolver, which will send back the coordinates. (If the object name is not recognized by the resolver, or there is some other problem with the SIMBAD or NED services, then the search form will be redrawn with an error message at the top.) These coordinates will then be used to search the IMAPS database, along with whatever other query qualifications you have given.
We recommend that you use object name resolution to find observations of specific objects in the database. This is the most reliable way to look up observations, because the observer could have given any object na me at all (for example, NGC1976 instead of M42, or PARALLEL-FIELD). However, if you do know the object name that the observer used, you can select Don't resolve, in which case the object name will not be resolved into coordinates, but will be used as a search qualification in the database. (This will happen only when you press the Search button.)
The SIMBAD and NED object name resolvers can resolve only fixed objects; they cannot compute the positions of moving objects (planets, comets, etc.). To find moving objects, try selecting the appropriate object class, entering an object name that could match what you're looking for, and selecting Don't resolve for the name resolver. NED is an extragalactic database, and generally won't resolve object names within the Milky Way galaxy.
Decimal Degrees
185.63325 29.8959861111111
Hours, minutes and Seconds
12 22 31.98 29 53 45.55
12h22m31.98s 29d53m45.55s
12:22:31.98 +29:53:45.55
12h22'31.98" 29d53'45.55"
12h 22m 31.98s 29d 53m 45.55s
12h 22' 31.98" 29d 53' 45.55"
12h 22' 31.98" -29d 53' 45.55"
12h22'31".98 -29d53'45".55
12h22m31s.98 -29o53m45s.55
12h 22' 31".98 -29d 53' 45".55
Hours/Degrees and Minutes (no seconds)
12 22 29 53
12h22m +29d53m
12h22m 29d53m
12:22m 29:53m
12h22' 29d53'
12h 22m 29d 53m
12h 22' 29d 53'
12h 22' -29d 53'
The RA may be given in decimal degrees by indicating
a D or d after the degrees:
12d 22m 29d 53m
Spacing is not important, as long as the value is unambiguous, and that
you can delimit the hours/degrees, minutes, and (optional) seconds with
letters, colons, spaces, or any character that's not a digit or a
decimal point.
Note also that seconds of the form 31".98 or 31s.98 are accepted. This should make it easy to cut and paste values into these fields from electronic publications.
This used to be the "radius" of a coordinate box, but we now compute the angular separation between each r esult dataset and the search center, so this really is a radius. (The results will be sorted on the angul ar separation by default.) So this really is a circular radius around the search position. One result is t hat you can do fancy stuff like searching for all observations between 2 and 8 arcminutes from the center of a galaxy (just give 2 .. 8 for the radius).
If you hit the Resolve button to get an object's coordinates and redraw the form, the equinox will be set to J2000, since that's the equinox of the coordinates returned by the object name resolvers.
With IMAPS-1, a series of observations were usually taken of a particular star. The series would usually include 2-4 exposures from each of the 4 echelle positions, plus a background exposure which involved leaving the aperture open and the telescope pointed toward the object but turning off the high voltage. Exposures within these series taken at the same echelle position were possible candidates for coadding.
The coadded scan file names are defined as imaps1_nnn-mmm.fits where nnn is the first coadded observation number and mmm is the last.
The default set of columns is:
Mark
File Name
Target Name
RA (J2000)
Dec (J2000)
Obs Start Time
Category (Object Class)
Exp Time
Angular Separation (')
You remove output columns by highlighting the column to be removed and then clicking on the remove button to the right of the list of chosen output columns.
You may determine the order of column placement by highlighting a column and then clicking on the up or down buttons to the right of the list of chosen output columns.
You may add a column to the list of chosen columns. Select the desired column on the pull down menu beneath the list of chosen output columns. Then click on the add button. The column will be added to the bottom of the output column list.
For each field, you can select that the rows be sorted in reverse order on that field by selecting the reverse checkbox. For example, you can sort the rows with the most recent observations first by selecting Observation Date for the first sort field and selecting the reverse checkbox next to it.
SQL (Standard Query Language, pronounced either "ess cue ell" or "sequel") is a language used used by most relational database systems for retrieving information from database tables. The IMAPS Search Page takes your search specifications and converts them to an SQL query to run on our database. Viewing the generated query is often useful for debugging, and may also be useful for SQL-literate users who want to see what logic was used in the query. (In fact, this may be useful for most people, since SQL is pretty easy to understand.)