WUPPE Search Output Columns

This document defines the catalog entries describing the WUPPE Data Archive as delivered to STScI by NSSDC. The documentation below was obtained primarily from Marilyn Meade from the WUPPE project at the University of Wisconsin, as well as from the online documentation available from the ADF at Goddard Space Flight Center, and the WUPPE home page at the University of Wisconsin.

Archive Background:

The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) was flown as part of the ASTRO-1 mission on the space shuttle Columbia in December, 1990, and again with the ASTRO-2 mission in March, 1995 on the space shuttle Endeavor. Altogether, WUPPE made 183 polarization measurements of 121 objects, and obtained 89 spectra for 75 objects.

Mark
Clicking on this box will mark the entry for retrieval.

To Retrieve:
The selected datasets will be downloaded in a single file. You may select the file type: .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.Z, and .zip. After selecting the file type, click on the "Download selected files" button and the selected files will be downloaded to your disk.

To Coplot:
After selecting up to 15 observations to be plotted, click on the "Plot marked spectra" button to coplot the selected observations.

The spectra that you selected will be automatically scaled to the full range of wavelengths and nearly the full range of fluxes (i.e., y axis plot scale runs from 0 (or .25 * the minimum flux for spectra with negative fluxes) to the 10th highest flux). Each spectrum is automatically assigned a color, up to a maximum of 15. The spectra are labelled by their dataset names, with a summary of the datasets plotted given below the plot. After inspecting the plot, you may wish to change the selection of datasets which are displayed. Use your browser "Back" button to do this.

Plot range
Adjust the minimum and maximum wavelengths (in \305ngstroms) and minimum and maximum fluxes (in erg /cm2/sec/\305) to select the spectral region of interest and to exclude noisy data.

Plot dimensions
Adjust the X size and Y size in pixels to create the size of plot desired. The maximum dimensions ar e 850 by 640 pixels.

Redraw plot
Use this button to replot the spectra when you have changed the plot range or plot dimensions.

Object Name
The name of the astronomical object (e.g., ZET-TAU, HD62542, JUP/IO).

RA (J2000)
Object's Right Ascension in J2000 coordinates specified in hours, minutes, and seconds. (Note the original coordinates provided by the project were B1950.) For moving targets, the coordinates refer to the position of the target in the sky at the start of the observation.

Dec (J2000)
Object's declination in J2000 coordinates specified in degrees, minutes, and seconds. (Note the original coordinates provided by the project were B1950.) For moving targets, the coordinates refer to the position of the target in the sky at the start of the observation.

Galactic Longitude
Object's galactic longitude in decimal degrees derived from the original B1950 RA and DEC.

Galactic Latitude
Object's galactic latitude in decimal degrees derived from the original B1950 RA and DEC.

Mean % Polarization
Mean percent polarization averaged over approximately 1450-3200 Å (calculated for halfwave data only).

Mean Error
Mean error in percent polarization averaged over approximately 1450-3200 Å.

Polarization Position Angle
The mean polarization position angle in degrees averaged over approximately 1450-3200 Å. This describes how the polarization is oriented in the sky as measured from the direction of the North Celestial pole and increasing to the East.

Obs. Start Time
This is the GMT time of the start of the observation (Note, although stored in the database to the nearest second, the default print format truncates the date to the minute.)

Exposure Time
The total useable exposure times in seconds. Note these times were corrected to compensate for pointing problems. In many cases, the target did not stay centered in the aperture.

Object Category
These are broad categories assigned by the WUPPE project using a classification system adopted by the ASTRO mission. The entire list of ASTRO science classes (as obtained from the Astrophysics Data Facility at Goddard Space Flight Center) is listed below. Note that the WUPPE search page lists only those categories for which WUPPE observations were obtained.

  • Astro Science Classes: 
    
        0       Calibration
        0.0             HUT Camera Sensitivity Targets
        0.1             HUT Spectrometer Focus Targets
        0.2             HUT
        0.3             UIT Flat Field Sources
        0.4             UIT
        0.5             WUPPE Aperture Position Calibrators
        0.6             WUPPE Unpolarized & Polarized Standards
        0.7             BBXRT Calibration Sources
        0.8             BBXRT
        0.9             Joint Focus and Alignment Targets

        1       Solar System Objects
        1.1             Comets
        1.2             Planets
        1.3             Asteroids, etc.

        2       Individual Stars
        2.1             Supergiants
        2.2             Oe/Be Stars
        2.3             Wolf-Rayet Stars
        2.4             Rapid Rotators
        2.5             Normal White Dwarfs
        2.6             Magnetic/Pulsating W.D.'s
        2.7             Planetary Nebula Nuclei
        2.8             Normal Stars A0 & Later

        3       Variable and Binary Stars
        3.1             Pre-Main Sequence Stars
        3.2             Cataclysmic Variables
        3.3             Interacting Binaries
        3.4             Symbiotic Stars
        3.5             Active Chromospheres
        3.6             Pulsating Variables
        3.7             Low Mass X-Ray Binaries
        3.8             High Mass X-Ray Binaries
        3.9             X-Ray Transients

        4       ISM & Nebulae
        4.1             Planetary Nebulae
        4.2             Reflection Nebulae
        4.3             H II Regions
        4.4             Super Nova Remnants
        4.5             I.S. Polarization Probes
        4.6             I.S. Absorption Probes (Nearby & Hot)
        4.7             Herbig-Haro Objects
        4.8             Dark Clouds
        4.9             Diffuse Galactic X-Ray Emission Regions

        5       Star Clusters
        5.1             Metal Poor Globulars
        5.2             Metal Rich Globulars
        5.3             Open (Galactic) Clusters
        5.4             O/B Associations

        6       Normal Galaxies
        6.1             Nearby Galaxies
        6.2             Spirals
        6.3             Ellipticals
        6.4             Irregulars
        6.5             Dwarfs
        6.6             Edge On Systems

        7       Abnormal Galaxies
        7.1             Interacting Galaxies
        7.2             Amorphous Galaxies
        7.3             Rapid Star Formation
        7.4             W/Circumgalactic Matter
        7.5             E/S0 with I.S. Matter

        7       X-Ray Miscellany
        7.6             X-Ray Background
        7.7             Unidentified X-Ray Sources


        8       Active Extragalactic
        8.1             Seyfert I Galaxies
        8.2             Seyfert II Galaxies
        8.3             Radio Galaxies
        8.4             Radio Loud Quasistellar Objects
        8.5             Radio Quiet Quasistellar Objects
        8.6             BL Lacertae Objects
        8.7             LINERs
        8.8             Optically Violent Variable (OVV) Quasars

        9       Clusters of Galaxies
        9.1             Spiral Poor Clusters
        9.2             Spiral Rich Clusters
        9.3             X-Ray Selected Clusters
        9.4             Deep Survey Fields
        9.5             Cooling Flow Clusters

        9       Spacecraft Specific
        9.7             TAPS Tests
        9.8             Gyros/IMC/IPS
        9.9             Waterdumps/Handovers

    Comments
    Remarks about the observation and/or data reduction.

    Mission Number
    Either 1 for ASTRO-1, or 2 for ASTRO-2 observations.

    Publication Reference
    A pointer to papers in which data from the specific observation was published. The field entry includes a letter followed by a sequential number where the letter is defined as follows:. J=refereed paper, C=conference proceeding, A=AAS Abstract.

    Aperture Wheel Position
    The aperture used for the observation as defined below:

    Wheel Position Function Size (arcsec) Res (Å)
    0 Calib 1.5, 3, 6 -
    1 Acquisition 40 diam -
    2 Stellar 4.2 diam -
    6 Diffuse 3.0 x 12 8
    7 Diffuse 3.0 x 50 8
    8 Stellar/Diffuse 6.0 x 50 16

    Day/Night Flag
    Describes whether the observation occurred during the day or night. Vaild entries include: D=Day, N=Night, DN=target observed during day and night, and ND=target observed night and day.

    Polarization Filter
    Type of polarization filter used. Valid entries include: HW=halfwave filter, L2=Lyot filter, medium resolution, L4=Lyot filter, low resolution. (Note cuurently only halfwave data is available.)

    Spectral Type
    Spectral type, luminosity class, and/or object class.

    Visual Magnitude
    Apparent visual magnitude.

    Polarization Quality
    A measure of the polarization data quality for halfwave data based on signal/noise estimates. The valid entries include: G=good, F=fair, P=poor, N=none.

    Flux Quality
    A measure of the flux quality based on signal/noise estimates. The valid entries include: G=good, FG=fair/good, F=fair, PF=poor/fiar, P=poor, N=none.

    Image Motion Compensation System (IMCS)
    Indicates the status of the image motion compensation system which corrected pointing errors at the secondary mirror. The valid entries include: -1=manually disabled, 0=automatically disabled, 1=enabled, 2= out of limits.

    Mission Elapsed Start Time
    The Mission Elapsed Time (MET) in days/hr:mm:ss measured from the time of launch to the start of the observation.

    Prime Instrument
    The prime ASTRO instrument used during a given observation. The valid entries include: H=HUT, U=UIT, W=WUPPE.

    Data ID
    The WUPPE entry_id uniquely defines each WUPPE observation. The name is of the form MISSION-OBJECTID-nnnnnn where
    • MISSION = either WUPPE1 or WUPPE2
    • OBJECTID = object name (e.g., GAM-GEM or NGC4151), identical to the entries under "Target Name",
    • nnnnnn = a unique six-digit number (also known as the PointingID), based on the 2-digit ASTRO Science Class, a 2-digit preassigned target number for a given science class (although some targets have more than one target number), and a 2-digit pointing number (i.e., jotfid) for a particular target. The first digit of the pointing number is a sequential number indicating the nth observation at a particular roll angle, and the second digit is the nth exposure at that roll angle.

    As an example, entry_id WUPPE1_HD5980_226911 designates an observation of HD5980, which is in science class 22, was the 69th selected target in class 22, the first observation at a given roll angle, and the first observation at that roll angle. Within the ASTRO project, the number 226911 would be referred to as the PointingID and the jotfid is 11.

    Note that for each observation, several data sets may be produced representing different stages of processing.