V/51 Data Inventory of Space-Based Obs, Ver 1.1 (Brotzman+ 1987)
Data Inventory of Space-Based Celestial Observations, Version 1.1
Brotzman L.E., Hill R.S., Mead J.M.
ADC_Keywords: References; Space observations
Description:
The "Data Inventory of Space-Based Celestial Observations Version
1.0" (DISCO) is a directory to data contained in sixteen catalogs
dealing with observations from space. (Sounding rocket, solar, and
planetary observations have been excluded.) The information
extracted from the catalogs includes names of objects observed, 1950
equatorial coordinates, and the name of the catalog or instrument. A
second file contains full references to the source catalogs and
other pertinent information.
The purpose of creating DISCO is (1) to unify astronomical
observations from space, which are at present scattered and hard to
locate, and then (2) to provide a machine-readable index to these
observations, thus enabling easy access by computer. Such a
directory will permit an astronomer to find out what objects have
been observed from space, which spacecraft and instruments made the
observations, and where to go to find the data themselves.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
disco.dat 118 74821 Catalog Data
refs.dat 80 131 References
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: disco.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 15 A15 --- PID *Primary or "mission" id
16- 30 A15 --- SID *Secondary id
31- 45 A15 --- TID *Tertiary id
47- 48 I2 h RAh *RA 1950 hours
50- 51 I2 min RAm *RA 1950 minutes
53- 57 F5.2 s RAs *[0.,60.] RA 1950 seconds
59 I1 --- pRA *RA precision
61 A1 --- DE- Sign of dec
62- 63 I2 deg DEd Dec 1950 degrees
65- 66 I2 arcmin DEm Dec 1950 arc minutes
68- 72 F5.2 arcsec DEs [0.,60.] Dec 1950 arc seconds
74 I1 --- pDE *Dec precision
76- 78 I3 --- r_RAh *Coordinate reference number
80-114 A35 --- Cat *Mission or catalog
116-118 I3 --- r_Cat *Primary reference number
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Note on PID, SID, TID:
Space is provided for three object identifiers. The identifiers are
listed according to the following priority: (1) "Mission id",
(2) HD or NGC, (3) other. Namely, (1) Primary id, (2) Secondary, and
(3) Tertiary id.
Note on RAh, RAm, RAs:
Equatorial coordinates, equinox 1950.0. Some of the original catalogs
do not have coordinates, in which case coordinates have been obtained
from a standard ground-based catalog. See coord reference below.
Note on pRA:
RA precision. Number of digits HH MM SS.SS given in the source
catalog; for example, 6 is the code for whole numbers of seconds.
Note on pDE:
DEC precision. Number of digits DD MM SS.SS given in the source
catalog; for example, 8 is the code for hundredths of seconds.
Note on r_RAh:
Coord reference. Reference number for the source of coordinates, as
given in the reference file; see refs.dat.
Note on Cat:
Mission or catalog. Identification of the satellite or instrument
that observed the object or the name of the catalog from which the
data were taken.
Note on r_Cat:
Primary reference. Reference number for the primary source of
information, as given in the reference file; see refs.dat below.
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: refs.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 3 I3 --- RefNum *? Reference number
5- 8 A4 --- StatNum *ADC Status Report number
10- 18 A9 --- SCAbbr *Satellite or catalog abbrev.
19- 23 I5 --- Rcount *? Record count
25- 80 A56 --- Ref *Reference
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Note on RefNum:
Reference number. The number given the catalog when compiled into the
DISCO. If this field is blank, the record is a continuation of the
previous record. If the reference number is greater than or equal to
100, the referenced catalog was used only to find coordinates of
objects.
Note on StatNum:
Status Report no. The number under which the catalog may be located in
the ADC Status Report.
Note on SCAbbr:
This is the abbreviation given the satellite or catalog by ADC
personnel.
Note on Rcount:
Record count. The number of records from this reference that can be
found in DISCO.
Note on Ref:
Reference. This field includes the full title and reference of the
original paper that presented the data; or the name of a catalog used
for coordinates only if the reference number is greater than 100 (see
above). See the description for bytes 75-78 and 115-118 in disco.dat.
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History and Remarks:
The ReadMe file incorporates the original ADC documentation by
Brotzman, Hill, and Mead (1986).
"The Data Inventory of Space-Based Celestial Observations" (DISCO) was
produced at the Astronomical Data Center (ADC), NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center.
A search through the ADC Status Report was conducted for all catalogs
containing data from satellite observations. Individual Fortran
programs were written that produced a DISCO "submaster" from each
catalog. The submasters were then merged and sorted by equatorial
coordinates. In some cases, the input catalogs were edited with
Fortran programs or a text editor to produce a preliminary dataset
that was more amenable to conversion to DISCO format. In addition,
coordinates were obtained from ground-based catalogs for objects that
do not have them in the original space-based lists (see the
description of the coordinate reference in "Main Inventory File
disco.dat above). Complete versions of the catalogs represented in
DISCO are available from the ADC.
Reference:
Brotzman, L. E., Hill, R. S., Mead, J. M. 1986, Astronomical Data
Center Bulletin (in publication).
(End) C.-H. Joseph Lyu [Hughes STX/NASA] 16-Aug-1995