Information on Service 'Digitized First Byurakan Survey Browser Interface'

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Further access options are discussed below

The First Byurakan Survey (FBS) is the largest and the first systematic objective prism survey of the extragalactic sky. It covers 17,000 sq.deg. in the Northern sky together with a high galactic latitudes region in the Southern sky. The FBS has been carried out by B.E. Markarian, V.A. Lipovetski and J.A. Stepanian in 1965-1980 with the Byurakan Observatory 102/132/213 cm (40"/52"/84") Schmidt telescope using 1.5 deg. prism. Each FBS plate contains low-dispersion spectra of some 15,000-20,000 objects; the whole survey consists of about 20,000,000 objects.

For a list of all services and tables belonging to this service's resource, see Information on resource 'Digitized First Byurakan Survey (DFBS) Extracted Spectra'

Service Documentation

Usage Hints

Note that the spectra are not flux calibrated. Indeed, they were scanned off of different emulsions, and only spectra from compatible emulsions should be compared. The following emulsions occur in the database:

n emulsion
334409 103aF
18695 103aO
3622 IF
13555 IIAD
2409058 IIAF
16545 IIAF bkd
3254370 IIF
313287 IIF bkd
7871 IIIAJ bkd
6645 IIIF
18967 IIIaF
8122 IIaD
3565737 IIaF
6735 IIaO
16755 OAF
8794 ORWO CP-3
8097 ZP-3
23702 Zu-2

Upper- and lowercase versions of the emulsions are actually different (e.g., IIAD was produced in England, IIaD in the US). Their properties are different enough to make mixing spectra for the different emulsions unwise.

Also note the sp_class column. Unless you take great precaution, you probably should only use spectra with sp_class='OK'.

Spectra can be retrieved in VOTable form (via SSA or the accref field from the TAP table), but it will usually be faster to directly pull them from the spectral and flux arrays.

Actually, array indices in the flux arrays correspond to fixed wavelengths. In other words, the spectral column is constant in the database, except that because the flux arrays are of different length, the blue end of the spectral column is shortened. The spectra always start at to 690 nm. The blue end depends on how far some signal was suspected by the extraction machinery.

Use Cases

Locate Spectra by Features

While ADQL support for array operations is rather weak, you can subscript arrays. Because of the fixed bins, you can therefore select by flux ratios (never use absolute numbers here; they are meaningless). For instance, to select objects with a high (apparent) Halpha emission (656 nm, corresponding to array index 3), you might so something like:

select * from dfbsspec.spectra
where
  flux[3]/(flux[40]+flux[41]+flux[42])>30
  and sp_class='OK'

Since the table needs to be sequentially scanned for this, it will take a minute or so. Combine with an object selection (see below) or other criteria if possible.

Get Average Spectra

You cannot currently use the ADQL aggregate function AVG with arrays (which should be fixed at some time in the future). Meanwhile, you can work around this with a clumsy construction like this (this query will give you average spectra by magnitude bin; don't run it just for fun, it'll take a while):

select round(magb) as bin, avg(flux[1]) as col1, avg(flux[2]) as col2,
  avg(flux[3]) as col3, avg(flux[4]) as col4, avg(flux[5]) as col5,
  avg(flux[6]) as col6, avg(flux[7]) as col7, avg(flux[8]) as col8,
  avg(flux[9]) as col9, avg(flux[10]) as col10, avg(flux[11]) as col11,
  avg(flux[12]) as col12, avg(flux[13]) as col13, avg(flux[14]) as col14,
  avg(flux[15]) as col15, avg(flux[16]) as col16, avg(flux[17]) as col17,
  avg(flux[18]) as col18, avg(flux[19]) as col19, avg(flux[20]) as col20,
  avg(flux[21]) as col21, avg(flux[22]) as col22, avg(flux[23]) as col23,
  avg(flux[24]) as col24, avg(flux[25]) as col25, avg(flux[26]) as col26,
  avg(flux[27]) as col27, avg(flux[28]) as col28, avg(flux[29]) as col29,
  avg(flux[30]) as col30, avg(flux[31]) as col31, avg(flux[32]) as col32,
  avg(flux[33]) as col33, avg(flux[34]) as col34, avg(flux[35]) as col35,
  avg(flux[36]) as col36, avg(flux[37]) as col37, avg(flux[38]) as col38,
  avg(flux[39]) as col39, avg(flux[40]) as col40, avg(flux[41]) as col41,
  avg(flux[42]) as col42, avg(flux[43]) as col43, avg(flux[44]) as col44,
  avg(flux[45]) as col45, avg(flux[46]) as col46, avg(flux[47]) as col47,
  avg(flux[48]) as col48, avg(flux[49]) as col49, avg(flux[50]) as col50,
  avg(flux[51]) as col51, avg(flux[52]) as col52, avg(flux[53]) as col53,
  avg(flux[54]) as col54, avg(flux[55]) as col55, avg(flux[56]) as col56,
  avg(flux[57]) as col57, avg(flux[58]) as col58, avg(flux[59]) as col59
from dfbsspec.spectra
where sp_class='OK'
group by bin

To map col<n> to wavelenghts, see the contents of (any) spectral column.

Build Templates

To compute an average spectrum for a class of objects, we suggest to pull positions of such objects from SIMBAD and then fetch the associate spectra from this database. Since the response function of the photographic plates had a strong magnitude dependence, restrict the objects to a small magnitude range, for instance:

select
    otype, ra, dec, flux
from basic
join flux
on (oid=oidref)
where
    otype='HS*'
    and dec>-15
    and filter='G'
    and flux between 12.5 and 13.5

(to be executed on SIMBAD's TAP service, see also SIMBAD object types).

With the resulting table, go do this service and execute a query like:

SELECT
specid, spectral, flux
FROM dfbsspec.spectra AS db
JOIN TAP_UPLOAD.t1 AS tc
ON DISTANCE(tc.ra, tc.dec, db.ra, db.dec)<5./3600.
WHERE sp_class='OK'

(adjust t1 according to your client's rules; in TOPCAT, that's t plus the table number from the control window).

History of this Data Collection

The original aim of the First Byurakan Survey was to search for galaxies with UV excess (1986ApJS...62..751M, Markarian et al. 1989,1997- catalogue No. VII/172 at CDS). Successively, the amount of spectral information contained in the plates allowed the development of several other projects concerning the spectral classification of Seyfert Galaxies (Weedman and Kachikian 1971), the first definition of starburst galaxies (Weedman 1977 ), the discovery and investigation of blue stellar objects (Abrahamian and Mickaelian, 1996, Mickaelian et al 2001, 2002, CDS catalogue No II/223) and a survey for late-type stars (Gigoyan et al. 2002). All these results were obtained by eye inspection of the plates performed with the aid of a microscope at the Byurakan Observatory. The number and classes of new objects discovered FBS made clear the need of open access to FBS for the entire astronomical community.

Overview

You can access this service using:

Coverage

1.79693 3.96648 eV

1966.11 1980.37

This resource is not (directly) published. This can mean that it was deemed too unimportant, for internal use only, or is just a helper for a published service. Equally likely, however, it is under development, abandoned in development or otherwise unfinished. Exercise some caution.

Other services provided on the underlying data include:

Input Fields

The following fields are available to provide input to the service (with some renderers, some of these fields may be unavailable):

NameTable Head DescriptionUnitUCD
magb mag. B Source object magnitude in Johnson B mag phot.mag;em.opt.B
ssa_location Location ICRS location of aperture center deg pos.eq

Default Output Fields

The following fields are contained in the output by default. More fields may be available for selection; these would be given below in the VOTable output fields.

NameTable Head DescriptionUnitUCD
accref Product key Access key for the data N/A meta.ref.url;meta.dataset
accsize File size Size of the data in bytes byte N/A
magb mag. B Source object magnitude in Johnson B mag phot.mag;em.opt.B
magr mag. R Source object magnitude in Johnson R mag phot.mag;em.opt.R
ssa_dstitle Title A compact and descriptive designation of the dataset. N/A meta.title;meta.dataset
ssa_location Location ICRS location of aperture center deg pos.eq
ssa_snr SNR Signal-to-noise ratio estimated for this dataset N/A stat.snr

VOTable Output Fields

The following fields are available in VOTable output. The verbosity level is a number intended to represent the relative importance of the field on a scale of 1 to 30. The services take a VERB argument. A field is included in the output if their verbosity level is less or equal VERB*10.

NameTable Head DescriptionUnitUCD Verb. Level
accref Product key Access key for the data N/A meta.ref.url;meta.dataset 1
plate Src. Plate Number of the plate this spectrum was extracted from. Technically, this is a foreign key into dfbs.plates. N/A N/A 1
ra RA ICRS RA of the source of this spectrum. deg pos.eq.ra;meta.main 1
dec Dec ICRS Dec of the source of this spectrum. deg pos.eq.dec;meta.main 1
ssa_location Location ICRS location of aperture center deg pos.eq 5
ssa_dateObs Date Obs. Midpoint of exposure (MJD) d time.epoch 5
ssa_timeExt Exp. Time Exposure duration s time.duration 5
ssa_length Length Number of points in the spectrum N/A N/A 5
accsize File size Size of the data in bytes byte N/A 11
ssa_dstitle Title A compact and descriptive designation of the dataset. N/A meta.title;meta.dataset 15
ssa_creatorDID C. DID Dataset identifier assigned by the creator N/A meta.id 15
ssa_pubDID P. DID Dataset identifier assigned by the publisher N/A meta.ref.ivoid 15
ssa_cdate Proc. Date Processing/Creation date N/A time;meta.dataset 15
ssa_pdate Pub. Date Date last published. N/A N/A 15
ssa_bandpass Bandpass Bandpass (i.e., rough spectral location) of this dataset; this should be the most appropriate term from the vocabulary http://www.ivoa.net/rdf/messenger. N/A instr.bandpass 15
ssa_cversion C. Version Creator assigned version for this dataset (will be incremented when this particular item is changed). N/A meta.version;meta.dataset 15
ssa_targname Object Common name of object observed. N/A meta.id;src 15
ssa_targclass Ob. cls Object class (star, QSO,...; use Simbad object classification http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-display?data=otypes if at all possible) N/A src.class 15
ssa_redshift z Redshift of target object N/A src.redshift 15
ssa_targetpos Obj. pos Equatorial (ICRS) position of the target object. N/A pos.eq;src 15
ssa_snr SNR Signal-to-noise ratio estimated for this dataset N/A stat.snr 15
ssa_aperture Aperture Angular diameter of aperture deg phys.angSize;instr.fov 15
ssa_specmid Mid. Band Midpoint of region covered in this dataset m instr.bandpass 15
ssa_specext Bandwidth Width of the spectrum m instr.bandwidth 15
ssa_specstart Band start Lower value of spectral coordinate m em.wl;stat.min 15
ssa_specend Band end Upper value of spectral coordinate m em.wl;stat.max 15
ssa_dstype Data type Type of data (spectrum, time series, etc) N/A N/A 15
ssa_publisher Publisher Publisher of the datasets included here. N/A meta.curation 15
ssa_creator Creator Creator of the datasets included here. N/A N/A 15
ssa_collection Collection A short handle naming the collection this spectrum belongs to. N/A N/A 15
ssa_instrument Instrument Instrument or code used to produce these datasets N/A meta.id;instr 15
ssa_datasource Src Method of generation for the data (one of survey, pointed, theory, custom, artificial). N/A N/A 15
ssa_creationtype Using Process used to produce the data (archival, cutout, filtered, mosaic, projection, spectralExtraction, or catalogExtraction) N/A N/A 15
ssa_reference Ref. URL or bibcode of a publication describing this data. N/A meta.bib.bibcode 15
ssa_fluxStatError Err. flux Statistical error in flux N/A stat.error;phot.flux.density;em 15
ssa_fluxSysError Sys. Err flux Systematic error in flux N/A stat.error.sys;phot.flux.density;em 15
ssa_fluxcalib Calib Flux Type of flux calibration (ABSOLUTE, CALIBRATED, RELATIVE, NORMALIZED, or UNCALIBRATED). N/A N/A 15
ssa_binSize Spect. Bin Bin size in wavelength m em.wl;spect.binSize 15
ssa_spectStatError Err. Spect Statistical error in wavelength m stat.error;em 15
ssa_spectSysError Sys. Err. Spect Systematic error in wavelength m stat.error.sys;em 15
ssa_speccalib Calib. Spect. Type of wavelength calibration N/A meta.code.qual 15
ssa_specres Spec. Res. Resolution (in meters of wavelength) on the spectral axis m spect.resolution;em.wl 15
magb mag. B Source object magnitude in Johnson B mag phot.mag;em.opt.B 15
magr mag. R Source object magnitude in Johnson R mag phot.mag;em.opt.R 15
mime Type MIME type of the file served N/A meta.code.mime 20
owner Owner Owner of the data N/A N/A 25
embargo Embargo ends Date the data will become/became public yr N/A 25
ssa_region Coverage Rough coverage based on location and aperture. N/A pos.outline;obs.field 30

Citation Info

VOResource XML (that's something exclusively for VO nerds)