HEASARC Browse: List of MASTER-CATALOG Catalogs

List of MASTER-CATALOG Catalogs

This table contains a list of known cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments, with links to their home pages (if available), a brief description, some of the more important properties of the experiment, and, whenever possible, links to internal Legacy Archive for Microwave Background Data Analysis (LAMBDA: http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/) pages which provide the publicly available data from these experiments. LAMBDA serves as a long-term repository for these archives. If an experiment of interest to you is missing from the list, or there is experimental data you would like to provide, please contact the LAMBDA team via the suggestion form at http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/contact/contact.cfm.

The table contains links to the individual project websites, which will typically provide the most comprehensive collections of data. The data_type and lambda_data_link parameters contains descriptions of the type of data from the specified experiment that is available at LAMBDA, and the link to that data held at LAMBDA, respectively. Initially the data at LAMBDA might be a subset of the data at the project website, but the LAMBDA holdings will grow with time and they will be maintained as a permanent archive.

Two of the listed LAMBDA data sets, namely those from the IRAS and SWAS satellites, are not, strictly speaking, directly related to the CMB, but, for historical reasons, are (partially in the case of IRAS, fully in the case of SWAS) located at LAMBDA.

EUV Catalog

The EUV database table is the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Master Catalog and contains a compendium of EUV sources. It is comprised of selected fields from the following HEASARC EUV database tables:

 * EUVEBSL - First Extreme UltraViolet Explorer Bright Source List

 * EUVECAT2 - Second Extreme UltraViolet Explorer Source Catalog

 * ROSWFC2RE - ROSAT Wide Field Camera 2RE Catalog

 * ROSATXUV - ROSAT Wide Field Camera Pointed Phase Catalog of XUV Sources

 * EUVERAP1 - First Extreme UltraViolet Explorer Right Angle Program Catalog

 * EUVERAP2 - Second Extreme UltraViolet Explorer Right Angle Program Catalog

 * EUVERAP3 - Third Extreme UltraViolet Explorer Right Angle Program Catalog

 * EUVEXRTCAT - All-Sky Catalog of Faint EUV Sources

Notice that we have not included EUVECAT1 (First Extreme UltraViolet Explorer Source Catalog) and WFCBSC (ROSAT Wide Field Camera Bright Source Catalog), as these are obsolete catalogs superceded by EUVECAT2 and ROSWFC2RE, respectively.

The EUVEBSL database table contains a detailed list of verified bright EUVE sources detected during the survey phase of the EUVE mission (calibration targets are also included). Two distinct surveys, the all-sky and deep surveys, were conducted by the four EUVE telescopes during the first six months of the mission. EUVEBSL contains 356 sources.

EUVECAT2 is the 2nd Catalog of EUV objects detected by the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) and published by Bowyer et al. in 1996 (ApJS, 102, 129). The data include (i) all-sky survey detections from the initial 6-months scanner survey phase, (ii) additional scanner detections made later during specially programmed observations designed to fill in low-exposure sky areas of the initial survey, (iii) sources detected with deep-survey telescope observations along the ecliptic plane, (iv) objects detected by the scanner telescopes during targeted spectroscopy observations, and (v) other observations. Plausible optical, X-ray, radio, and/or UV identifications are available for about 65% of the EUV sources. EUVECAT2 contains 801 sources.

ROSWFC2RE is the ROSAT Wide Field Camera 2RE Source Catalog. It contains 479 EUV sources found during the ROSAT all-sky survey of July 1990 to January 1991. The information in this database is based on what has been published by Pye et al. (1995, MNRAS, 274, 1165). It supersedes the earlier WFC Bright Source Catalog (WFCBSC), but we have retained the latter in the EUV database for reasons of completeness

The ROSATXUV database table is a catalog of XUV sources (Kreysing H.C., Brunner H., and Staubert, R. 1995, A&AS, 114, 465), extracted from observations by the ROSAT Wide Field Camera during the pointed phase. The 5916 WFC pointed observations that were included are from the calibration and verification phase in June 1990 and from the period of pointed observations from February 9, 1991 to July 15, 1994. The catalog contains 1022 independent source detections corresponding to 4 different filters (S1, S2, P1 and P2) and 328 individual sources, many of which were observed repeatedly. Only ROSATXUV detections in the S1 filter band are included in the EUV table. If there are multiple observations of a single source/position in ROSATXUV, then only one entry for that source will be present in the EUV Master Catalog.

The EUVERAP1 database table contains the detections of 114 extreme-ultraviolet (EUV; 58 - 740 Angstrom) sources, of which 99 are new serendipitous sources, based on observations covering approximately 8% of the sky which were made with the imaging telescopes on board the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) during the Right Angle Program (RAP). These data were obtained using the survey scanners and the Deep Survey instrument during the first year of the spectroscopic guest observer phase of the mission, from January 1993 to January 1994. The data set consists of 162 discrete pointings whose exposure times are typically two orders of magnitude longer than the average exposure times during the EUVE all-sky survey.

The EUVERAP2 database table is a catalog of 235 extreme ultraviolet (EUV) sources, of which 169 are new detections, using the EUVE Observatory's Right Angle Program (RAP) data obtained with the A, B and C scanners and the Deep Survey (DS) instrument in the period from January 1994 through November 1998. The EUVE RAP used the all-sky survey telescopes (also known as the "scanners"), which were mounted at right angles to the Deep Survey and Spectrometer (DS/S) instruments, in order to obtain photometric data in four wavelength bands centered at 100 Angstroms (Lexan/B), 200 A (Al/Ti/C), 400 A (Ti/Sb/Al or Dagwood), and 550 A (Sn/SiO). The EUVERAP2 catalog covers 17% of the sky and includes observations that were made subsequent to the publication of the first EUVE RAP catalog (EUVERAP1, which listed RAP data that had been obtained up until 1994 January); the data from EUVERAP1, together with additional RAP data obtained through 1994 December, are contained in the EUVECAT2 database table (The Second EUVE All-Sky Catalog of Bowyer et al. 1996, ApJS, 102, 129). Thus, RAP sources detected in 1994 will be contained in both EUVECAT2 and EUVERAP2, albeit different selection criteria were used in the two catalogs.

The EUVERAP3 database table is a catalog of 76 extreme ultraviolet (EUV) sources, of which 63 are new detections, using the EUVE's RAP data. This catalog concentrates on observations made in the last years of the RAP, 1999 and 2000, with a sky coverage of 7% of the sky.

The EUVEXRTCAT database table is a catalog of 534 objects detected jointly in the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) (100 Angstrom (AA) band) All-Sky Survey and in the ROSAT X-ray Telescope (XRT) (0.25 keV band) All-Sky Survey. The joint selection criterion within a 1.5 arcminute positional tolerance permitted the use of a low count rate threshold in each survey. This low threshold was roughly 60% of the threshold used in the previous EUVE all-sky surveys, and 166 of the objects listed in this table were new EUV sources, appearing neither in the Second EUVE Source Catalog nor in the ROSAT Wide Field Camera Second Catalog. Preliminary identifications are offered for 105 of the 166 sources not previously reported in any EUV catalog: by far the most numerous (81) of the identifications are late-type (F-M) stars, while 18 are other stellar types, only 5 are white dwarfs, and none are extragalactic. The paucity of WDs and extragalactic objects may be explained by a strong horizon effect wherein interstellar absorption strongly limits the effective new-source search volume, and, thereby, selectively favors low-luminosity nearby sources over more luminous but distant objects. Notice that, with the adopted 1.5 arcminute acceptance criterion, about 50 spurious detections are expected.

INFRARED Catalog

The Fifth Edition of the Catalog of Infrared Observations (CIO) comprises a summary of infrared astronomical observations published in the scientific literature from 1965 through 1997 in the wavelength range 1 micrometer (= 1 micron = 1 um) to 1 millimeter (= 1 mm). This catalog contains infrared observational data for sources outside the Solar System, constructed through a search of the most active scientific journals, IR surveys and catalogs. To date, about 6200 journal articles and 10 major survey catalogs have been included in the database from which this catalog was constructed. The catalog in its original form contains 374,653 individual observations of about 62,000 different infrared sources. More than 8000 of these sources are identifiable with visible objects. For sources with no published IR source position, a nominal position may have been given based on other sources. Nominal positions are usually the best available, but not necessarily the true IR positions. The HEASARC has removed 1136 of the 374,653 entries in the catalog in its original form for which there was no positional information, leaving 373,517 remaining entries in this HEASARC-realized version. The 1136 entries that were removed are listed in the file: https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/FTP/heasarc/dbase/misc_files/infrared/deleted_entries.txt

In addition to the main catalog, the creators of CIO also generated other files, e.g., bibliographical files, an index file, etc., which are available via the web (in the form of gzipped ASCII files) in the directory: https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/FTP/heasarc/dbase/misc_files/infrared/. The bibliographical files (refauth.data.gz refchron.dat.gz, and refs.dat.gz) link observations in the catalog with references to the original articles published in the literature (these references give the standard information plus the full titles). The Index of Infrared Source Positions is contained in the file names.dat.gz and is ordered alphabetically by source name: for sources with no published IR source position, a nominal position (usually the best available, but not necessarily the true IR position) may have been given based on other sources. Nominal position references are indicated in the index.

MGGAMMACAT Catalog

This database table is a revised and updated version of the published General Gamma-Ray Source Catalog (Macomb & Gehrels 1999, ApJS, 120, 335). It contains all 309 gamma-ray point sources listed in Table 1 of the published version of this catalog; 4 gamma-ray point sources (2CG 054+01, A0620-00, GX 340+0, and H1822-000) added by the HEASARC that were listed in Table 2 of the published catalog but were (presumably accidentally) omitted from Table 1 of the published catalog; and 107 sources (106 sources from the 3rd Egret (3EG) catalog of Hartman et al. (1999, ApJS, 123, 79) and GEV J1732-3130) that were compiled by Macomb and Gehrels subsequent to their original publication (Macomb and Gehrels 2001, unpublished). Thus, the present database table is essentially a summary master list of all detected gamma-ray point sources as of circa 2000.

There is another HEASARC database table called the Gamma-Ray Source Detailed Catalog (Macomb & Gehrels 1999 & 2001) or MGGAMMADET that contains detailed information on the gamma-ray properties of these sources such as fluxes and spectral indices and that is based on Tables 2A-2G of the Macomb & Gehrels paper.

MGGAMMADET Catalog

This database table contains the slightly revised contents of the detailed Tables 2A - 2G from the General Gamma-Ray Source Catalog of Macomb & Gehrels (1999). It lists details of all known gamma-ray observations within the energy range from 50 keV to ~1 TeV for 314 discrete gamma-ray sources that were listed in Tables 2A - 2G of the published version of this catalog, including all 310 sources listed in the published Summary Table 1, together with 4 sources (2CG 054+01, A0620-00, GX 340+0, and H1822-000) that were listed only in Table 2 of the published catalog but were (presumably accidentally) omitted from Table 1. The positions for the sources in the present database were taken from Table 1 of the General Gamma-Ray Source Catalog.

Thus, this table is essentially a compilation of gamma-ray observations of discrete sources as known to the authors as of early 1999. There is another HEASARC database table called the Gamma-Ray Source Summary Catalog (Macomb & Gehrels 1999) or MGGAMMACAT that contains the summary information on these sources that was given in Table 1 of the General Gamma-Ray Source Catalog.

As noted above, this is a slightly revised version compared to the published Tables 2A - 2G. The known differences between the HEASARC and published versions are discussed in the HEASARC_Version section of the help documentation.

RADIO Catalog

The RADIO database table is a periodically revised master catalog that contains selected parameters from a number of the HEASARC database tables that have information on radio source flux densities. The contents of this RADIO master catalog are listed in alphabetical order in the References section of this document. Each entry in RADIO has a parameter called `database_table` which indicates the originating database table from which the entry was copied. Users should check out the original database table if they want to examine all of the parameters that are available in that particular database table for the particular source(s) in which they are interested.

Two of the component database tables of RADIO, DIXON and KUEHR, are compilations of radio observations, and individual sources can have multiple entries, representing either observations at different frequencies or multiple observations at the same frequency. In the latter case, notice, the flux density quoted in the RADIO database is an average of the individual flux densities at that particular frequency in the originating database. To see all of the individual entries for a source in RADIO from either of these two component databases, the corresponding entries in the DIXON and KUEHR database tables should be examined.

The HEASARC in certain instances has included radio sources for which the quoted value for the specified band is an upper limit rather than a detection. The HEASARC recommends that the user should always check the original tables to get the complete information about the properties of the sources listed in the RADIO master source list.

VERIMASTER Catalog

The Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) is a major ground-based gamma-ray observatory operating at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in southern Arizona, USA. It is an array of four 12m optical telescopes for gamma-ray astronomy in the GeV - TeV energy range. VERITAS is an imaging air Cerenkov system. Gamma-rays from astrophysical sources create particle showers in the Earth's upper atmosphere that produce Cerenkov photons detected on the ground using the large optical telescopes. These telescopes are deployed such that they have the highest sensitivity in the VHE energy band (50 GeV - 50 TeV), with maximum sensitivity from 100 GeV to 10 TeV. The four telescope array is needed for stereoscopic observations that allow the reconstruction of the particle shower geometry, thus giving precise angular and energy resolution. This very high energy observatory, completed in 2007, effectively complements the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope due to its large collection area as well as its higher energy bound and improved angular resolution.

VERITAS started four-telescope operations in 2007 and collects about 1100 hours of good-weather data per year. The VERITAS collaboration has published over 100 journal articles since 2008 reporting on gamma-ray observations of a large variety of objects: Galactic sources like supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae, and binary systems; extragalactic sources like star forming galaxies, dwarf-spheroidal galaxies, and highly-variable active galactic nuclei. Additional details are available at the VERITAS website.

The catalog lists the sources observed by VERITAS as of April 2022, including cross-matches with other gamma-ray observations and spectral fits. This catalog has associated high-level data products containing data from VERITAS publications.

XRAY Catalog

The XRAY database table contains selected parameters from almost all HEASARC X-ray catalogs that have source positions located to better than a few arcminutes. The XRAY database table was created by copying all of the entries and common parameters from the tables listed in the Component Tables section. The XRAY database table has many entries but relatively few parameters; it provides users with general information about X-ray sources, obtained from a variety of catalogs. XRAY is especially suitable for cone searches and cross-correlations with other databases. Each entry in XRAY has a parameter called 'database_table' which indicates from which original database the entry was copied; users can browse that original table should they wish to examine all of the parameter fields for a particular entry. For some entries in XRAY, some of the parameter fields may be blank (or have zero values); this indicates that the original database table did not contain that particular parameter or that it had this same value there.

The HEASARC in certain instances has included X-ray sources for which the quoted value for the specified band is an upper limit rather than a detection. The HEASARC recommends that the user should always check the original tables to get the complete information about the properties of the sources listed in the XRAY master source list.

Browse Feedback