Network Resources for Astronomers
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Network Resources for Astronomers Heinz Andernach Observatoire de Lyon avenue Charles AndreF SaintGenisLaval Cedex France heinzadelunivlyonfr Rob ert J Hanisch Space Telescope Science Institute San Martin Drive Baltimore MD hanischstsciedu Fionn Murtagh Space Telescope Europ ean Co ordinating Facility Europ ean Southern Observatory KarlSchwarzschildStr D Garching Germany fmurtaghesoorg Running Head Network Resources Send pro ofs to Heinz Andernach astro-ph/9411028 7 Nov 1994 Aliated to Astrophysics Division Space Science Department Europ ean Space Agency Contents Introduction Network Services Electronic Mail Listservers Usenet FTP and Anonymous FTP Archie Internet and DECNet No de Names and Addresses Remote Logins Information Discovery Tools WAIS Gopher and the WorldWide Web Astronomical Catalogs and OnLine Databases Astronomical Catalogs NASA Space Science Data Center Centre de DonneesAstronomiques de Strasb ourg Canadian Astronomy Data Center Pune India CDROM Catalogs and Databases OnLine Databases Atomic Databases DIRA EINLINE EXOSAT HEADSBrera OnLine Service HEASARC LEDA NED SIMBAD STARLINK Observatory Archives of Raw or Calibrated Data CanadaFranceHawaii Telescope Cosmic Background Explorer Europ ean Southern Observatory Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Compton Gamma Ray Observatory CGRO HIPPARCOS Hubble Space Telescope Infrared Pro cessing and Analysis Center IRAS Infrared Space Observatory International Ultraviolet Explorer James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Archive La Palma Archive ROSAT Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope Archive Lunar and Planetary Institute Solar Data Distributed Databases Astrophysics Data System Europ ean Space Information System Plate Catalogs Digital Optical Sky Surveys and Finding Charts Plate Catalogs The UK Schmidt ESO Schmidt and AAT Plate Catalogs Digital Optical Sky Surveys Automated Plate Measuring Machine COSMOS ST ScI Guide Star Plate Scans Minnesota Automated Plate Scanner Finding Charts Bibliographical Services and Preprints Bibliographic Services Pro ject STELAR Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service Lunar and Planetary Institute UnCover Abstracts and Indices of Astronomical Journals Acta Astronomica Archive Preprint Services Los Alamos National Lab oratory CERN SISSA Preprint Lists from NRAO and ST ScI Astrolib OnLine Library Card Catalogs Electronic Publishing Dictionaries Thesauri Directories Meetings and Jobs Dictionaries and Thesauri Directories Astronomical Meetings Jobs Astronomical Software Other Information Systems and Services Conclusions A URLs of Note B List of Acronyms ABSTRACT The amount of data pro duced by large observational facilities and space missions has led to the archiving and online accessibility of much of this data available to the entire astronomical community This allows a much wider multifrequency approach to astronomical research than previously p ossible Here we provide an overview of these services and give a basic description of their contents and p ossibilities for accessing them Apart from services providing observational data many of those providing general information eg on addresses bibliographies software etc are also describ ed The eld is rapidly growing with improved network technology and our attempt to keep the rep ort as complete and uptodate as p ossible will inevitably b e outdated shortly We will endeavor to maintain an up dated version of this do cument online Subject headings Astronomical Catalogs Astronomical Databases Astronomical Archives Astronomical Software DataHandling Techniques YellowPage Services Networking Internet FTP WWW General Notes Miscellaneous Introduction With the growth of widearea networking services such as electronic mail le transfers information services bibliographic information software libraries etc as well as online catalogs and databases astronomers have access to a wealth of information via the terminal or workstation on their desks This rep ort provides an overview of many of these services most of them available for free via network connection The present rep ort arose from do cumentation written separately by Hanisch Andernach and Feigelson and Murtagh Some general references on the sub ject include Jaschek and Heintz Jaschek Murtagh and Heck Albrecht and Egret Heck and Murtagh Davenhall b c Heck and Murtagh and Crabtree Hanisch and Barnes a While further information on many of the services presented here may b e found in these texts we have made extensive use of information presented in gray literature like newsletters observatory rep orts and electronic circulars An excellent overview of network resources and services not limited to astronomy is the b o ok by Krol Our rep ort is certainly not complete and likely biased somewhat by our own interests Moreover the information presented in this rep ort is sub ject to rapid change For this reason an online version will incorp orate changes and corrections It will b e available by anonymous FTP and other ways at sites stsciedu and ecfhqesoorg Network Services Electronic Mail Electronic mail email is a widelyused service One needs to know an exact address for ones corresp ondent Dierent forms of address may b e feasible due to aliases for machine names which are supp orted at the corresp ondents machine However an unsupp orted form of address or a mistyping of the address will in most cases lead to a returned b ounced message and in some cases the failure to arrive at the intended destination will not b e indicated to.