Information on Service 'Wide-Field Plate Database WFPDB'

Further access options are discussed below

The Wide-Field Plate Database (WFPDB) contains the descriptive information for the astronomical wide-field (>1°) photographic observations stored in numerous archives all over the world. The total number of these observations, obtained since the end of the 19th century with more then 200 instruments (telescopes) is about 2 550 000 from 509 archives.

The WFPDB is continually being updated, providing currently access to the information for about 640 000 plates from 117 plate archives (30% of the estimated total number of wide-field plates)

For a list of all services and tables belonging to this service's resource, see Information on resource 'Wide-Field Plate Database WFPDB'

Overview

You can access this service using:

external -- a renderer with some custom access method that should be mentioned in the service description
form -- an interface for web browsers through an HTML form
scs.xml -- a standard SCS interface as defined by the IVOA to access catalog-type data; SCS clients use http://dc.zah.uni-heidelberg.de/wfpdb/q/cone/scs.xml? to access the service

This service is published as follows:

Within the set(s) ivo_managed with the renderer dali
Within the set(s) local,ivo_managed with the renderer external
Within the set(s) ivo_managed with the renderer scs.xml

local means it is listed on our front page, ivo_managed means it has a record in the VO registry.

Spatial Coverage

Input Fields

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

Name	Table Head	Description	Unit	UCD
DEC	Delta (ICRS)	Declination (ICRS decimal)	deg	pos.eq.dec
epoch	Obs. Epoch	Epoch of observation start (UT)	yr	time.epoch
hscs_pos	Position/Name	Coordinates (as h m s, d m s or decimal degrees), or SIMBAD-resolvable object	N/A	N/A
hscs_sr	Search radius	Search radius in arcminutes	N/A	N/A
maxrec	Match limit	Maximum number of records returned. Pass 0 to retrieve service parameters.	N/A	N/A
object	Object	Object or field name as given by observer	N/A	meta.id;src
object_type	Type	Type of the target object	N/A	src.class
RA	Alpha (ICRS)	Right Ascension (ICRS decimal)	deg	pos.eq.ra
responseformat	Output Format	File format requested for output.	N/A	meta.code.mime
SR	Search Radius	Search radius	deg	N/A
verb	Verbosity	Exhaustiveness of column selection. VERB=1 only returns the most important columns, VERB=2 selects the columns deemed useful to the average user, VERB=3 returns a table with all available columns.	N/A	N/A
waveband	Band	Spectral Band	N/A	instr.bandpass
wfpdbid	Wfpdbid	WFPDB identifier of the plate, consisting of an observatory identifier, the instrument aperture, an instrument suffix, a plate number, and a suffix to it.	N/A	meta.id;meta.main

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.

Name	Table Head	Description	Unit	UCD
_r	Dist.	Distance to cone center	deg	pos.distance
coord_problem	Coords?	Quality flag for the coordinates (empty means no known problems)	N/A	meta.note
dej2000	Dec	Declination of the plate center (ICRS) Note p	deg	pos.eq.dec;meta.main
emulsion	Emulsion	Emulsion type	N/A	instr.plate.emulsion
epoch	Obs. Epoch	Epoch of observation start (UT)	yr	time.epoch
exptime	Exp. Time	Exposure time (for multiple exposures, this is for the first exposure; for the others, see notes)	s	time.duration;obs.exposure
filter	Filter	Filter type	N/A	meta.id;instr.filter
instr_id	Instr.	WFPDB instrument identifier. TDB: Foreign key	N/A	meta.id;instr
method	Method	Method of observation	N/A	instr.setup
notes	Notes	Various longer remarks	N/A	meta.note
object	Object	Object or field name as given by observer	N/A	meta.id;src
object_type	Type	Type of the target object	N/A	src.class
quality	Quality	Quality-related information in free text.	N/A	meta.note
raj2000	RA	Right ascension of the plate center (ICRS) Note p	deg	pos.eq.ra;meta.main
time_problem	Epoch?	Quality flag for the epoch (empty means no known problems)	N/A	meta.note
waveband	Band	Spectral Band	N/A	instr.bandpass
wfpdbid	Wfpdbid	WFPDB identifier of the plate, consisting of an observatory identifier, the instrument aperture, an instrument suffix, a plate number, and a suffix to it.	N/A	meta.id;meta.main

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.

Name	Table Head	Description	Unit	UCD	Verb. Level
wfpdbid	Wfpdbid	WFPDB identifier of the plate, consisting of an observatory identifier, the instrument aperture, an instrument suffix, a plate number, and a suffix to it.	N/A	meta.id;meta.main	1
raj2000	RA	Right ascension of the plate center (ICRS) Note p	deg	pos.eq.ra;meta.main	1
dej2000	Dec	Declination of the plate center (ICRS) Note p	deg	pos.eq.dec;meta.main	1
epoch	Obs. Epoch	Epoch of observation start (UT)	yr	time.epoch	1
object	Object	Object or field name as given by observer	N/A	meta.id;src	5
_r	Dist.	Distance to cone center	deg	pos.distance	10
instr_id	Instr.	WFPDB instrument identifier. TDB: Foreign key	N/A	meta.id;instr	15
coord_problem	Coords?	Quality flag for the coordinates (empty means no known problems)	N/A	meta.note	15
time_problem	Epoch?	Quality flag for the epoch (empty means no known problems)	N/A	meta.note	15
object_type	Type	Type of the target object	N/A	src.class	15
method	Method	Method of observation	N/A	instr.setup	15
exptime	Exp. Time	Exposure time (for multiple exposures, this is for the first exposure; for the others, see notes)	s	time.duration;obs.exposure	15
emulsion	Emulsion	Emulsion type	N/A	instr.plate.emulsion	15
filter	Filter	Filter type	N/A	meta.id;instr.filter	15
waveband	Band	Spectral Band	N/A	instr.bandpass	15
notes	Notes	Various longer remarks	N/A	meta.note	15
quality	Quality	Quality-related information in free text.	N/A	meta.note	15
xsize	Width	Width of the plate	cm	phys.size;instr.det	23
ysize	Height	Height of the plate	cm	phys.size;instr.det	23
observer	Observer	Name(s) of the persons having performed the observation.	N/A	obs.observer	23
availability	Availability	Free text on how to find the plate.	N/A	meta.note	25
digitization	Digitization	Information on possible ways to access plate scans in free text.	N/A	meta.note	25

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

Note p: Positions are from the observatory logs where a plate solution is not available. They are taken from empirical plate solutions otherwise.

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