Japanese version Home Page Updated on July 8, 2001
July 7, 2001Image Information Search ServiceMISAO Project Announce Mail (July 7, 2001) Hello. I am Seiichi Yoshida working on the MISAO project. Now 45090 images have been offered to the MISAO Project, examined by the PIXY System, and registered to the database. The MISAO Project database has been hidden. However, some people proposed us that it will be useful if people can search and know where in the sky is covered, what magnitude the sky is covered down to, by the MISAO Project images. So I set up the web service to search among the image information database and open it to the public today. The URL of the Image Information Search Service is as follows. http://www.aerith.net/misao/service/info_search.html Akimasa Nakamura, Hideo Fukushima, KenIchi Kadota, Ken'ichi Torii, Kenji Kawakami, Kyoto University Team, Masayuki Suzuki, Nobuo Ohkura, Seiichiro Kiyota, Toshikazu Muramatsu and Yusuke Ezaki (in alphabetical order) kindly permit us and their images can be searched by the service. The search service returns such information as the image file name, the image observer's name, the date and time of exposure, the image size, R.A. and Decl. of the center, field of view, limiting magnitude, and so on. Unfortunately, the images themselves cannot be downloaded via the service. When you need the images, please make a contact to the image observer if the observer's mail address is available, or to the MISAO Project staff (comet@aerith.net). The coverage map, which shows what magnitude the sky is covered by the MISAO Project images down to, is also available at the Image Information Search Service page. The current coverage ratio and number of images are as follows. Coverage north of Decl. -40 deg ----------------------------------- down to 8 mag 76.4% 45037 images down to 10 mag 31.3% 44392 images down to 12 mag 23.1% 43854 images down to 14 mag 17.4% 27953 images down to 16 mag 6.0% 9223 images down to 18 mag 0.2% 576 images Two methods of search are supported in the service: query by R.A. and Decl., and query by orbital elements and date period. For example, let's search images for Nova Sco 2001 discovered last month. Look up the position of the nova in IAUC 7647, and input
R.A. : 17 57 06.98
Decl.:-32 23 05.0
in the query form. Then set the magnitude to retrieve images covering 10 mag or fainter. Finally, push the Search button and the information of three images are output as follows. Date Image Observer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1998 June 20.66016 19980620/105mm/1810-3400-01.fts KenIchi Kadota 2000 Feb. 24.84247 20000224/530mm/1800-3200-none-01.mtf KenIchi Kadota 2000 Feb. 24.84301 20000224/530mm/1800-3200-none-02.mtf KenIchi Kadota Although about 50 thousand images are registered in the database, the search finished in 3 seconds. But the time can be changed by the condition of the Internet and the server machine. IAUC 7647 reports that no star brighter than 14 mag was found on the Kadota's images on 2000 Feb. 24. After this, we can research the past images on the MISAO Project images, as Kadota did for the nova. Next, let's search images of Comet C/1999 H1 ( Lee ), 6 mag bright comet in 1999. Please see the Seiichi Yoshida's Comet Catalog web page: http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/1999H1/1999H1.html and input the orbital elements in the query form. Then set the date to retrieve images between 1999 Sept. 1 and Nov. 1, and set the magnitude to retrieve images covering 13 mag or fainter. Finally, push the Search button and we can see 91 images taken by KenIchi Kadota and Masayuki Suzuki exist in the database. Because the search area size becomes wider in case of the query by orbital elements, it takes some time. In the case of this example, it took 45 seconds. In the results of the Image Information Search Service, the (x,y) position where the target object locates on the image is also output. So we can see the image and check whether the object is found or not at the position immediately. All of the images registered in the database have been examined by the PIXY System. Therefore, the position and magnitude of all stars on the images have been measured in principle. When you need the position or magnitude of stars, not the images themselves, please make a contact to the MISAO Project staff (comet@aerith.net). We are very glad if the MISAO Project images and data can help you.
P.S. http://www.aerith.net/misao/ -- Seiichi Yoshida comet@aerith.net http://www.aerith.net/ |