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Paper: An On-Line Database of APS POSS Images
Volume: 101, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems V
Page: 501
Authors: Cornuelle, C. S.; Aldering, G.; Sourov, A.; Thurmes, P.; Humphreys, R. M.
Abstract: We are making available our digitized images from the APS scans of the red and blue first-epoch Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS I) photographic plates, forming an on-line image database. Image requests are through the APS homepage at URL http://isis.spa.umn.edu/homepage.aps.html and are initially limited in field width and sky region. To create this database, images from each scanned POSS I plate are processed into a set of coordinate-referenced index and pixel files. Database management software then refers to each object's pixels within a requested sky region by plate, by sub-plate, and finally by each scanned image. These images are then assembled into a mosaic FITS format file, whose header contains astrometric and photometric information. While the current APS Catalog of the POSS I includes only matched images, the image database will include images above 25 mu m in diameter. Thus for a given sky region, users have access to both the object (star and galaxy) catalog data and to the actual pixel data. This project is sponsored by NASA ADP contract NAS5-32670.
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