HST Data Handbook for WFPC2

Chapter 1:
Getting HST Data

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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 Data Retrieval with StarView
1.3 Getting Data With the World Wide Web
1.4 Reading HST Data Tapes and 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. The options are Exabyte and DAT tapes, and will include CDs and DVDs in the future.

To retrieve data electronically you must first register as a MAST user². HST Principal Investigators (PIs) are not automatically registered. If you have not recently retrieved data, you should register or renew your registration before retrieving data from the HDA. PIs should register before their observations are made. GTO and GO observations normally remain proprietary for a period of one year, which means that during this period other registered users cannot retrieve them without authorization from the PI. All calibration observations as well as observations made as part of the Public 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 HST section of MAST also contains several Prepared (fully reduced) data sets, including the Hubble Deep Fields, the Hubble Medium Deep Survey Fields, and a composite quasar spectrum, which are also public.

This chapter describes how to search the HDA, how to electronically retrieve files from it, and how to request and read tapes and 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.

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, electronic retrieval of ACS data is enabled only for those with broadband (> 100 KB/s) Internet connections, in order to ensure uninterrupted transmission of individual files. Users retrieving large numbers of ACS files should also consider requesting them on tape or disk.

¹ MAST currently includes data from HST, FUSE, 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.

² By 2002, registration will no longer be required for public (non-proprietary) data.