Here are some questions frequently asked about the Multimission Archive at
STScI. If your question isn't answered here or addressed in other pages,
contact the Archive Hotseat.
Data
"What type of data are supported by MAST?"
The Multimission Archive at STScI supports:
The Hubble Data Archive
(HDA), which contains spectroscopic (1,100 - 11,000 Angstroms
range; slitless spectroscopy up to 2.5 microns with NIC3) and imaging
(1,150 - 25,000 Angstroms) data taken with Hubble Space Telescope.
As of August 1998, the HDA contains over 5.2 Tbytes of science and
engineering data, for a total of approximately 150,000 science
exposures.
The
Far Ultraviolet Exporer (FUSE) covers the 905-1187 Å
spectral region. This active mission contains high resolution spectra
of hot and cool stars, AGNs, supernova remnants,
planetary nebulae, solar system objects and the interstellar medium.
The Hopkins Ultraviolet
Telescope (HUT) Archive, which contains 106
spectrophotometric observations of 77 targets were
obtained in the far-UV (i.e., 912-1850 Å) at a resolution
of ~3 Å. These were obtained during the first ASTRO mission.
An additional 385 observations of 265 targets were obtained during
the ASTRO-2 missions.
The Ultraviolet Imaging
Telescope (UIT) Archive, which contains 1,579 images of 259
targets (covering the 1,200 - 3,300 Å range) obtained
by UIT as part of the ASTRO-1 and ASTRO-2 missions.
The Copernicus
Archive, which includes far- (900 - 1,560 Angstroms) and near-
(1,650 - 3,150 Angstroms) ultraviolet spectra of 551 objects,
primarily bright stars.
The Berkeley Extreme and Far-UV Spectrometer
(BEFS), flew on the Orbiting and Retrievable Far and
Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrograph (ORFEUS)-SPAS I and II space shuttle missions in 1993 and 1996,
returning high-resolution (/3000) FUV spectra (900-1200 Å) of 75 astrophysical objects from the first
flight and more than 100 from the second. EUV spectra (400-900 Å) were obtained for a subset of these
targets.
The The Interstellar Medium Absorption Profile
Spectrograph (IMAPS) obtained high resolution (R=75,000 for
IMAPS-1) objective-grating echelle spectra of hot stars,
over the spectral region 950-1150 Å. The IMAPS archive currently contains
roughly 600 spectral images of 10 hot stars from the first shuttle flight.
Once the proprietary period ends for the second
IMAPS mission, the archive will include an additional 3,900 spectral images
of 29 stars
The Tübingen Ultraviolet Echelle Spectrometer
(TUES)
flew on the Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrograph
(ORFEUS)-SPAS II space shuttle mission in 1996, returning spectra in the 900
Å to 1400 Å wavelength range. The instrument was designed to
achieve a spectral resolution of /=10000 when used with an entrance
aperture of 10" diameter. During the 17.7 day flight, TUES returned 239
spectra of 62 targets.
The Digitized Sky Survey
(DSS). The Catalogs and Surveys Branch of the STScI has been
digitizing the photographic Sky Survey plates from the Palomar and UK
Schmidt telescopes in order to support HST operations and provide a
service to the astronomical community. Archive users can easily
retrieve image data for any part of the sky.
The The Guide Star Catalog I (GSC I) is an all-sky
optical catalog of positions and magnitudes of approximately
19 million stars and other objects in the 6th to 15th magnitude
range.
The GSC II is an all-sky catalog of approximately 2
billion stars and galaxies containing positions, magnitudes, colors
and proper motions complete to a minimum of V =18.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
is using a dedicated 2.5 m telescope and a large
format CCD camera to obtain images of over 10,000 square degrees of
high Galactic latitude sky in five broad bands
(u', g', r', i' and z', centered at 3540, 4770, 6230, 7630, and
9130 Å, respectively).
The first data release, planned for June 2001, includes:
imaging data containing a searchable catalog, images in several
formats (FITS and JPEG),
and spectra in both FITS format and GIF spectra with line
identifications. This first public
data release will contain over 500 square degrees of sky.
The Faint Images of the Radio Sky at
Twenty-centimeters (FIRST) Archive. The FIRST project is designed
to produce a radio survey at 20 cm (1.4 GHz) of over 10,000 square
degrees down to a flux of 1 mJy. MAST provides access to the radio
images and the source catalog, which currently includes about
437,000 entries.
The
ROSAT, the RÖntgen SATellite, was an X-ray observatory
developed through a cooperative program between Germany, the United
States, and the United Kingdom. ROSAT data is maintained and archived
at HEASARC. Except for the search and acknowledgments pages,
all images and linked pages are provided by HEASARC.
Searching and Retrieving Data
"How do I search MAST?"
Every single archive can be searched using its search page. Links to the
Web pages of the various archives included in MAST are available from the
MAST main page. Moreover,
for users wanting to search more than one archive at the same time, two
interfaces are provided:
From the MAST main
page one can conduct a quick search by typing the name of a
target to see if any of the MAST supported archives have
observations of this target.
The MAST Cross Correlation
page provides a facility to allow the user to cross-correlate
lists of positions with data in our archives. You can compile lists
externally or use one of our online catalogs.
"How can I retrieve MAST data?"
All MAST data can be retrieved from the appropriate Web pages. Moreover,
StarView can be also be
used to retrieve HST, FIRST, and DSS data.
Documentation
"Are there manuals available for the MAST Archives?"
Yes. It is sent out electronically to a distribution list. You can also
read it
on-line.
If you would like to subscribe to the mailing list, please send e-mail to archive_news-request@stsci.edu
and put the single word SUBSCRIBE in the BODY of the message.
More FAQ
More FAQ for the single archives are available on the following pages:
Assistance is available for users of the various data included in MAST,
although at different levels. Namely:
Full support for HST data analysis.
Full support for IUE data analysis (except for enhancement of
post-pipeline data products).
Moderate support for EUVE data analysis.
Limited support for DSS, Copernicus, UIT, HUT, and WUPPE data analysis.
Questions about HST data analysis should be sent to
help@stsci.edu. Questions about IUE, EUVE,
Copernicus, and UIT data analysis should be sent to archive@stsci.edu.