The Digitized Sky Survey at
the CADC

This page give you access to the Canadian version of the Digitized Sky Survey, a survey of the complete sky digitized for the Hubble Space Telescope Project.

The following interfaces are available:

• Query by Object Identification
• Query by Coordinate
• Query using a list of object Identifications
• Query using a list of coordinates

The Digitized Sky Survey comprises a set of all-sky photographic surveys in E, V, J, R, and N bands conducted with the Palomar and UK Schmidt telescopes. The Catalogs and Surveys Branch (CASB) is digitizing the photographic plates to support HST observing programs but also as a service to the astronomical community. The 6.5-degree x 6.5-degree plates are scanned using a modified PDS microdensitometer to a pixel scale of about 1.7 arcseconds per pixel for the POSS, SERC, and Palomar Quick-V surveys, and to about 1.0 arcseconds per pixel for the POSS-II surveys. Images of any part of the sky may be extracted from the DSS, in either FITS and JPG format if desired.

To begin an DSS search, select one of the queries in the DSS Queries Menu above.

Plates

Copyright

Each sky-survey file provided by this network server is copyright under one of the provisions listed below. The specific copyright notice that is pertinent can be identified from the FITS header file. Eventually, a provision to furnish specific copyright information to GIF users will be incorporated; in the meantime, users must obtain this information by a separate request to the Space Telescope Science Institute (ST ScI).

The "Second Epoch Survey" of the southern sky was made by the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) with the UK Schmidt Telescope. Plates from this survey have been digitized and compressed by the ST ScI. The digitized images are copyright © 1993-5 by the Anglo-Australian Observatory Board, and are distributed herein by agreement.

The "Equatorial Red Atlas" of the southern sky was made with the UK Schmidt Telescope. Plates from this survey have been digitized and compressed by the ST ScI. The digitized images are copyright © 1992-5, jointly by the UK SERC/PPARC (Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, formerly Science and Engineering Research Council) and the Anglo-Australian Telescope Board, and are distributed herein by agreement.

The compressed files of the "Palomar Observatory - Space Telescope Science Institute Digital Sky Survey" of the northern sky, based on scans of the Second Palomar Sky Survey are copyright © 1993-1995 by the California Institute of Technology and are distributed herein by agreement.

All material not subject to one of the above copyright provisions is copyright © 1995 by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.

Produced under Contract No. NAS5-26555 with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The Archive Help menu provides information to get you started if you are confused by the query forms. Click on Form Help for more detailed instructions on making efficient use of the query form. In most cases descriptions of each field in a form can also be retrieved by clicking on the field's link.