Volume 8, Issue 4
October 1999
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INTRODUCTION
In our last issue Ed Shaya described ADC's XML project. That project
continues to progress well. We expect to demonstrate aspects of it at the AAS
meeting in Atlanta next January, including an experimental ADC search service
with capabilities beyond those of our current search engine.
This issue includes an article about the fledgling Radio JOVE educational
outreach project. Our readers may find this radio astronomy project of
interest. Do you know an amateur astronomer or radio amateur who might like
to help a local school explore planetary radio astronomy? If so, please show
them this article.
A proposed mechanism to represent World Coordinate Systems in FITS headers and
tables has taken a major step toward adoption. See the article below for more
details.
- James E. Gass (Raytheon ITSS), Editor
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ADASS Supports Review of Proposed Representations of WCS in FITS
James E. Gass (Raytheon ITSS)
The Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems (ADASS) Conference is held
each year at a different hosting astronomical institution. This Conference
provides a forum for scientists and programmers concerned with algorithms,
software and software systems employed in the acquisition, reduction and
analysis of astronomical data. The 9th annual ADASS Conference was held on
the Kohala Coast of Hawaii, during 3-6 October.
At this year's conference a consensus was reached that the regional FITS
panels should begin serious review work on the papers about the
representation of World Coordinate Systems (WCS) in FITS. Eric Greisen (NRAO)
and Mark Calabretta (ATNF) have been working on the proposed mechanism to
transfer coordinate information in detail in FITS headers and tables. There
are three papers to be reviewed:
I. Representations of world coordinates in FITS by Greisen & Calabretta
II. Representations of celestial coordinates in FITS, by Calabretta & Greisen
III. Representations of spectral coordinates in FITS by Greisen.
Paper I describes a very general method for specifying coordinates. Paper II
applies the general rules of Paper I to the specific problem of specifying
celestial coordinates in a two-dimensional projection of the sky. Paper III
applies the general rules and practices developed in the first two papers to
spectral coordinates, namely frequency, wavelength, velocity, and the radio
and optical conventional "velocities". All three papers are available for
download and comment from the NRAO's Charlottesville, Virginia headquarters at
the Web address http://www.cv.nrao.edu/fits/documents/wcs/wcs.html .
The vote taken at ADASS means that the papers will be submitted for
publication, as well as for formal review by the FITS panels, including the
IAU. This is considered to be a major step forward for FITS WCS.
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The Radio JOVE Educational Outreach Project
James E. Gass (Raytheon ITSS)
Earlier this year Dr. James Thieman of the ADC's parent organization, the
Space Science Data Operations Office (SSDOO) and Dr. Charles Higgins (now at
Penn State), led the creation of a new educational outreach project called
Radio JOVE. The project is being conducted with partners from the University
of Florida, the Florida Space Grant Consortium and others. Radio JOVE
involves students in basic planetary and solar radio astronomy. The focus of
this project is to observe Jupiter's decametric radio emissions and Solar
bursts in the shortwave radio spectrum near 20 MHz.
The goals of Radio JOVE are to:
* Educate people about planetary and solar radio astronomy space physics and
the scientific method
* Provide teachers and students with a hands-on radio astronomy exercise as a
science curriculum support activity by building and using a simple radio
telescope receiver/antenna kit
* Create an on-line radio observatory that provides real-time data for those
with Internet access
* Allow interactions among participating schools by facilitating exchanges of
ideas data and observing experiences
Kits for version 1.1 of the JOVE radio telescope have been available since
Spring of 1999. Since that time, more than 90 middle schools, high schools,
and colleges have ordered and received the kits. The kits feature a simple
radio receiver, designed for the Project by Richard Flagg (RF Associates of
Honolulu, Hawaii), materials for constructing a dual-dipole HF antenna array,
and a CD-ROM containing chart recorder and audio spectral display software
for PCs, designed by Dr. Ronald Parise (CSC/NASA Goddard). The kit is being
produced and distributed by INSPIRE, inc. The cost is $100. The concept has
proved very successful. A number of schools have successfully built their
kits, and some of these groups have made their first observations. Many
more have begun to build their kits in recent weeks.
Construction and testing of the radio telescope kit are only part of the
unique educational experiences offered by Radio JOVE. Collecting and
analyzing science data is the real object of the project. Many groups will
choose to set up their RJ telescope from field sites removed from
concentrations of man-made radio noise. The chart recorder software aids in
recognizing emissions from Jupiter, and includes data recording and playback
functions. Some schools may elect not to make their own observations,
choosing instead to make use of the data from the University of Florida Radio
Observatory's on-line service.
NASA and UF are working to put the radio observatory on the Internet. When
completed, the link will provide real-time decametric data from the facility
in support of Radio JOVE. Also planned are on-line low-frequency natural
radio emission detections in support of the INSPIRE project
(See http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/inspire/). The UFRO on-line should be
available by early next year.
Two teacher and two student interns worked during the Summer to develop
supporting materials for Radio JOVE. The Project is still young and additional
instructional and explanatory materials are added to the Web site each month.
In July, members of the Radio JOVE team gave a presentation of the Project at
the annual conference of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers, held at
NRAO Greenbank. They even used Greenbank's reproduction of Jansky's original
antenna and an RJ receiver to detect Jupiter during the conference! Interest
in Radio JOVE continues to grow with articles on the Project appearing in the
National Science Teacher's Association newsletter, a Lexington, Kentucky
newspaper, and a major radio hobbyist magazine. Britain's Jodrell Bank
Observatory has requested an RJ 1.1 kit for display at their visitor center.
See the Radio JOVE Web site at http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/ to learn
more about this project.
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ADC Scientist Receives Raytheon Sabbatical Research Award
Kirk Borne (Raytheon ITSS)
Raytheon Information Technology and Scientific Services company (RITSS)
is the support services contractor that provides scientific and technical
support to the operation of the ADC. One of the benefits offered by
RITSS to its scientist employees is the Sabbatical Leave Program.
This year, Dr. Kirk Borne was selected as a RITSS sabbatical award recipient.
Kirk began his 6-month Sabbatical Leave in February 1999. He held a
Sabbatical Visitor position at the Space Telescope Science Institute
in Baltimore for the duration of his leave. He worked on HST observations
of the brightest galaxies in the local universe: the so-called
"UltraLuminous InfraRed Galaxies" (ULIRGs, for short).
Dr. Borne is the P.I. on two large HST (Hubble Space Telescope) projects to
study ULIRGs and he recently received a major NASA grant to conduct numerical
simulations of these galaxies on the Goddard Cray supercomputer. The study of
ULIRGs may hold the key to understanding the quasar phenomenon, galaxy
formation and evolution, cosmic star formation history, and metal enrichment
in the universe. Kirk has frequently found the data holdings of the ADC to
be of tremendous value in pursuing these research topics and in interpreting
his HST observations.
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Newly Acquired and Updated Catalogs/Journal Tables
Gail L. Schneider (Raytheon ITSS)
The following catalogs and journal tables are currently available from the
ADC holdings. The ADC gratefully acknowledges the CDS, AAS, and individual
authors who have recently contributed to our holdings.
See http://adc.astro.umd.edu/adc/acq_new_updated.html#new_list for a hypertext
version of this article containing direct links to each catalog and journal
table listed.
NEW CATALOGS AND JOURNAL TABLES
ID# Abbreviated Title (First Author, Year)
Astrometric and Positional Data
1254 The HST Guide Star Catalogue, Version 1.2 (Lasker+ 1996)
1255 The HST Guide Star Catalog, Version 1.3 (Lasker+ 1996-99)
Photometric Data
2214A Combined General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Kholopov+ 1998)
2223 First Byurakan Survey (FBS), 2nd Program (Abrahamian et al., 1990-1996)
2225 Catalog of Infrared Observations, Edition 5 (Gezari+ 1999)
Combined & Derived Data
5101 Nearest stars until 10pc (Zakhozhaj, 1979-1996)
Miscellaneous Data
6071A Revised version of the ILLSS Catalogue (Coluzzi 1993-1999)
6099 Merged Log of IUE Observations (NASA-ESA, 1978-1999)
Radio Sources
8055 DRAO Penticton P-survey Database (Caswell+, 1983-1987)
8056 Compendium of Radio Measurements of Bright Galaxies (Haynes+ 1975)
8057 Fluxes of Faint Radio Sources at 2.7/4.75 GHz (Forkert+, 1987)
8058 A Survey of Radio H II Regions in the Northern Sky (Lockman+ 1989)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
J/A+A/285/785 3C 295 BRri photometry (Thimm+, 1994)
J/A+A/318/53 UBV photometry of EG And (Skopal 1997)
J/A+A/318/256 Planetary nebulae properties (Gorny+ 1997)
J/A+A/318/347 Absorption lines in QSO 0000-2619 (Savaglio+, 1997)
J/A+A/318/416 Radial velocities & photometry of classical Cepheids(Pont+ 1997)
J/A+A/322/159 H_2_O maser emission from irregular variables (Szymczak+ 1997)
J/A+A/322/817 Theoretical RRab light curves properties (Feuchtinger+ 1997)
J/A+A/328/167 BV photometry in supergiant shell LMC4 (Braun+, 1997)
J/A+A/330/881 Radial velocities of Cartwheel Galaxy (Amram+ 1998)
J/A+A/330/990 VRIJHK photometry of the Serpens cloud core (Giovannetti+ 1998)
J/A+A/336/35 Shape and orientation of superclusters (Jaaniste+, 1998)
J/A+A/338/813 Galaxy clusters {sigma}-T relationship (Wu+ 1998)
J/A+A/338/1066 Optical Spectra of DENIS Brown Dwarf Candidate (Tinney+ 1998)
J/A+A/339/34 Bright galaxies from the WENSS minisurvey (de Ruiter+ 1998)
J/A+A/339/123 PSR J1012+5307 evolutionary tracks (Driebe+ 1998)
J/A+A/339/165 The red spectrum of HD 101065 (Cowley+ 1998)
J/A+A/339/423 Velocities of red giants in NGC 752 (Mermilliod+ 1998)
J/A+A/346/955 Magnetic field around the Local Bubble (Leroy, 1999)
J/A+A/347/69 Galactic halo early-type stars abundances (Rolleston+, 1999)
J/A+A/347/164 HD 59435 Geneva photometry (Wade+, 1999)
J/A+A/347/348 Solar abundance of iron (Grevesse+, 1999)
J/A+A/347/583 EZ CMa spectroscopy (Georgiev+, 1999)
J/A+A/347/841 HST Observations of SMC N88A (Heydari-Malayeri+, 1999)
J/A+A/348/184 WZ Cygni BV photometry (Rovithis+, 1999)
J/A+A/349/448 Open star clusters. I. NGC 581 (M 103) (Sanner+, 1999)
J/A+A/349/515 DL Cygni ubr differential photometry (Borkovits+ 1999)
J/A+A/350/513 V368 Cep UBVRI time series (Kahanpaa+, 1999)
J/A+A/350/955 Atmospheric parameters in metal-poor stars. II (Gratton+, 1999)
Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series
J/A+AS/35/23 Survey of the Galactic Plane at 4.875 GHz (Altenhoff+ 1979)
J/A+AS/65/485 22MHx flux densities of radio sources (Roger+, 1986)
J/A+AS/108/611 CaII & MgII data base (Lastennet+, 1994)
J/A+AS/131/469 MWC 314 spectroscopy (Miroshnichenko+ 1998)
J/A+AS/132/155 Main-sequence and subgiants ROSAT data (Huensch+ 1998)
J/A+AS/132/173 New weak-line T Tauri stars in Taurus-Auriga (Li+ 1998)
J/A+AS/132/181 Very luminous IRAS galaxies spectra. II. (Wu+ 1998)
J/A+AS/132/195 Astrolabe observations of the Sun in 1995-1997 (Noel 1998)
J/A+AS/132/211 SiO masers (Harju+ 1998)
J/A+AS/132/233 PHA I observations (Xu+ 1998)
J/A+AS/132/237 Double stars measurements (Alzner 1998)
J/A+AS/132/253 9 visual double stars orbital elements (Alzner 1998)
J/A+AS/132/255 A catalogue of Mg_2_ indices (Golev+ 1998)
J/A+AS/132/305 Extragal. radio sources at 22, 37 and 87GHz (Terasranta+ 1998)
J/A+AS/132/341 ROSAT GPS optical identification (Motch+ 1998)
J/A+AS/132/361 Optical observations of eight BL Lacs (Raiteri+ 1998)
J/A+AS/132/367 Geneva photometry of the Algol system TZ Eri (Barblan+ 1998)
J/A+AS/137/233 UBVI imaging photometry of NGC 6231 (Baume+, 1999)
J/A+AS/137/305 IC 348 proper motion catalogue (Scholz+, 1999)
J/A+AS/137/351 A supergiants UV and visible spectra (Verdugo+, 1999)
J/A+AS/137/419 Dynamics of blue compact galaxies I. The data (Oestlin + 1999)
J/A+AS/137/451 Radial velocities. IX. (Duflot+, 1999)
J/A+AS/137/495 Halpha Catalogue of HCG Galaxies (Severgnini+, 1999)
J/A+AS/137/521 8500-8750{AA} high resolution spectroscopy (Munari+, 1999)
J/A+AS/138/87 UBVRI photometry of EUV stellar sources (Cutispoto+ 1999)
J/A+AS/138/247 Uranian satellites 1995-1998 (Veiga+, 1999)
J/A+AS/138/253 Supernova light echoes (Boffi+, 1999)
J/A+AS/139/305 Position of Saturn's satellites (1982-1988) (Veiga+, 1999)
J/A+AS/139/321 Stellar variability towards Galactic Bulge (Dominici+ 1999)
J/A+AS/139/359 B3-VLA sample. II. The database (Vigotti+, 1999)
J/A+AS/139/393 Young Massive Star Clusters. II. (Larsen, 1999)
Astronomical Journal
J/AJ/87/1429 Active Extragalactic Objects II. (Condon+ 1982)
J/AJ/90/1437 Active Extragalactic Objects III (Coleman+ 1985)
J/AJ/114/1087 Omega Cen radial velocities (Mayor+ 1997)
J/AJ/116/1998 Outer planetary systems (Levison+, 1998)
J/AJ/117/238 LMC extended catalog (Bica+, 1999)
Astrophysical Journal
J/ApJ/348/253 Late type giants and supergiants in X-Ray (Maggio+, 1990)
J/ApJ/515/610 New PN in southern Galactic Bulge (Beaulieu+, 1999)
Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
J/ApJS/82/1 Optical Identification of Texas Survey Radio Sources(Bozyan 1992)
J/ApJS/99/501 Spiral galaxies rotation curves (Persic+ 1995)
J/ApJS/110/1 Galaxies around HCGs (de Carvalho+ 1997)
J/ApJS/123/79 Third EGRET catalog (3EG) (Hartman+, 1999)
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
J/MNRAS/305/259 EFAR galaxies redshifts & velocity dispersions (Wegner+, 1999)
J/MNRAS/306/592 UBVR CCD sequences for wide-field surveys. II. (Croom+, 1999)
J/MNRAS/308/473 Cygnus X-3 IR spectra (Fender+, 1999)
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
J/PASP/111/438 Updated Zwicky catalog (UZC) (Falco+, 1999)
Astronomicheskij Zhurnal
J/AZh/71/189 Gas Kinematics from Ha line in NGC 4151 (Sergeev, 1994)
J/AZh/72/447 Optical Monitoring of Quasar 3C345 (Babadzhanyants+, 1995)
J/AZh/72/495 Moving Star Clusters in the Solar Neighborhood (Orlov+, 1995)
J/AZh/72/613 Optical identification of radio sources (Kopylov+, 1995)
Pis'ma v Astronomicheskij Zhurnal
J/PAZh/24/443 Cepheid radii (Sachkov+, 1998)
J/PAZh/25/276 KV Cyg, V435 Cyg, V699 Cyg UBVR photometry (Zakirov 1999)
J/PAZh/25/403 Optical variability of NGC 4151 (Lyuty+, 1999)
J/PAZh/25/447 Identification of radio sources. I. (Gubanov+, 1999)
Acta Astronomica
J/other/AcA/49.59 ISM polarization with HPOL (Weitenbeck+, 1999)
EXTERNAL DATA SET LINKS
Astrometric and Positional Data External Databases
E1006 Orbits of Minor Planets (Bowell 1999)
Miscellaneous Data External Databases
E6005 Evolutionary Stellar Population Models (Worthey 1994)
Nonstellar and Extended Objects External Databases
E7005 A Catalog of Digital Images of 113 Nearby Galaxies (Frei+ 1996)
Radio Sources External Databases
E8007 A 408 MHz All-sky Continuum Survey (Haslam+ 1982)
E8008 A Synthesis Map of the Sky at 34.5 MHz (Dwarakanath+ 1990)
E8009 Radio Continuum Survey of the Northern Sky at 1420 MHz (Reich+ 1986)
E8010 90GB 4.85 GHz Sky Maps Covering Decl. -40 to +5 (Condon+ 1991)
E8011 Galactic Plane Survey at 10 GHz (Handa+ 1987)
E8012 Northern Sky Survey at 820 MHz (Berkhuijsen 1972)
E8013 87GB 4.85 GHz Sky Maps Covering Decl. 0 to +75 (Condon+ 1989)
E8014 1400-MHz Sky Survey, Maps Covering Dec -5 to +82 (Condon+ 1985-86)
High-Energy Data External Databases
E9003 The Second ROSAT High Resolution Imager Source Catalog (Arida+ 1999)
UPDATED CATALOGS AND JOURNAL TABLES
Data corrected:
Photometric Data
2150A Parameters for Eclipsing Binaries (Brancewicz, Dworak 1980)
Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series
J/A+AS/118/481 ROSAT all-sky survey catalogue of OB stars (Berghoefer+ 1996)
Additional data files added:
Astronomy and Astrophysics
J/A+A/336/667 PN abundances in five galaxies (Stasinska+ 1998)
Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series
J/A+AS/138/87 UBVRI photometry of EUV stellar sources (Cutispoto+ 1999)
Publications of the Astrophysical Letters
J/other/ApL/30.1 Southern catalogue of isolated pairs extension (Reduzzi+ 1995)
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