Chapter 1:
Getting HST Data
1.1 Archive Overview
1.1.1 Archive Registration
1.1.2 Archive Documentation and Help
1.2 Getting Data with StarView
1.2.1 Downloading and Setting Up StarView
1.2.2 Simple Use of StarView
1.2.3 Marking and Retrieving Data with StarView
1.2.4 Using StarView to Retrieve Calibration Files and Proposal Information
1.2.5 Advanced Features of StarView
1.2.6 StarView and the Visual Target Tuner
1.2.7 Quick Proprietary Data Retrieval with StarView
1.3 Getting Data with the World Wide Web
1.3.1 WFPC2 Associations
1.3.2 High Level Science Products
1.4 Reading HST Data Disks
This chapter describes how to obtain Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data files. All HST data files are stored in the Hubble Data Archive (HDA), which forms part of the Multimission Archive at STScI (MAST)1. HST Guaranteed Time Observers (GTOs), Guest Observers (GOs) and Archival Researchers can retrieve data in either of two ways:
- Electronically over the Internet from the HDA, where data are stored immediately after they pass through HST pipeline processing.
- On data storage media written at STScI from the HDA. Data can be written to CDs or DVDs.
Non-proprietary data in the HDA can be retrieved electronically either by registered HDA users or via anonymous login. However most GO and GTO observations carry a proprietary period of up to one year after observation. Proprietary data may not be retrieved except by a registered HDA user who has the permission of the program's Principle Investigator (PI). Note that HST PIs are not automatically registered. PIs should register before their first observations have been taken. All calibration observations as well as observations made as part of the GO Parallel programs are immediately public. All observations made as part of the Treasury Programs begun in Cycle 11 will either be immediately public or have only a brief proprietary period. The High-Level Science Products section of MAST also contains several sets of fully reduced HST data, including the Hubble Deep Field, the Ultra Deep Field, and the GOODS Treasury program. These data are also public. As of September 2002, WFPC2 associations are also available through MAST. Read more about this in Section 1.3.1.
This chapter describes how to search the HDA, how to electronically retrieve files from it, and how to request and read disks containing HST data. As an aid to retrieving their data, PIs will automatically receive e-mail notification of the status of their observations two times: first, when the first datasets for their proposal are archived, and second, when all the datasets for their proposal and all necessary calibration files have been archived.
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Note for Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Users: Calibrated ACS images are approximately 168 MB in size, larger than those of any other HST instrument. Therefore, the preferred option for data retrieval is from the HDA staging disk via ftp/sftp. Users retrieving large numbers of ACS files should also consider requesting them on DVDs. In addition, the archive recommends to ask for compressed data, which distinctly shortens the retrieval times without any information loss.
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1MAST currently includes data from HST, FUSE, GALEX, IUE, EUVE, ASTRO, HUT, UIT, WUPPE, ORFEUS, BEFS, IMAPS, TUES, Copernicus and ROSAT. Data from the FIRST radio survey, Digital Sky Survey (DSS) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) are also available.
