6.2. Browsing the HDA

StarView, a stand-alone X-windows interface, or WWW pages can be used to browse the Hubble Data Archive. StarView can be installed locally in the user's machine. More information is available at http://archive.stsci.edu/hst/starview.html. The queries via the WWW can be done at http://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/nph-hst, a page just below the archive home page. ⁽¹¹⁾

The interaction with StarView is done through several screens. Each one has fields with information about the properties of the object, the observational parameters and others. These fields are filled by the values in the DADS tables after the initial query. The results of the WWW query are similarly populated.

It is possible to preview the public images and spectra without actually extracting the files. In this way the user can assess the utility of the files for the research program in question. Another useful utility for the preparation of proposals is the duplication checking facility.

A very common issue in trying to find observations of a certain object is doing it by its name. Each user calls it in his or her preferred way (an observer calls a galaxy 3C 84, while another one NGC 1275; the star HD 137603 can also appear as WR 70 or MR 57, for example). It is very easy to solve this problem using a name resolver. By entering a name, the name resolver queries either the NED or SIMBAD databases and retrieves its coordinates. The catalog query is then performed around this position and not using a particular name.

Another common query is the one in which the user tries to find all the observations of certain type of objects (e.g., supernovae remnants, pulsars, gravitational lenses, etc.). The possible keywords are on-line by pressing the Staview's Strategy button.

The easiest way to start a query with StarView is to select the Quick Search screen. Most of the basic information about the observations can be found in it. Remember to use the name resolver and the strategy button to find suggestions on how to proceed.

The data of interest are "marked" and extracted from the HDA. To extract observations it is necessary to register with the archive; the information and form can be found at http://archive.stsci.edu/.

¹¹ Users in Europe can browse the catalog at the ST-ECF (http://archive.eso.org). Those in Canada at the CADC (http://cadcwww.dao.nrc.ca/) ant those in the United Kingdom at the UK HST Support Facility (http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/HST/). Back.