GSC-II data distribution and publication guidelines

Definitions and Timetable

GSC 2.0 - GEMINI SV fields (Summer 99)
GSC 2.1 – All available sky, preliminary calibrations, J&F passbands (Dec 99)
GSC 2.2 – All sky, improved calibrations (Jun 01)
GSC 2.3 – All sky, final calibrations, proper motions, add available IV-N,V,E,O passbands (Mar 03)

Guidelines

The GSC-II and DSS-II are still evolving products that are primarily required for telescope operations so while we encourage scientific use the following points should be clearly understood -

All data are pre-publication and are subject to change. (ie. plates may be retaken, rescanned, reprocessed or recalibrated at any time). Only public distributions (GSC 2.2 and above) may be considered as stable, with well-defined and published properties.

The prepublication DSS-II compressed image data is publicly accessible on a number of web servers. Access to raw scan data is subject to the same restrictions listed in this document.

Reasonable quantities of data may be shared with collaborators of a GSC-II team member. These data may only be used for the specific projects on which a GSC-II team member is working and may not be further distributed.

Requests for data from investigators who are not collaborating with a GSC-II team member should be submitted to one of the project scientists. These will generally be approved if such requests are scientifically compelling and can be satisfied without burdening project resources. They are subject to the same restrictions described in this document.

Any member of the GSC-II team (past, present or future) who contributed significantly and moves on to a different position, will retain their rights to access the data for scientific purposes under the same restrictions described in this document.

The GSC-II project is willing to pursue active collaborations with other sky survey groups to exchange data to improve the quality of each others final products.

Most processing is optimized for robust all-sky processing and may not reflect the best possible calibration for any specific plate. Additional calibrators and interactive processing are strongly recommended for science fields.

Science projects should be chosen that can be carried out within the known errors and limitations of the data.

GSC-II team member(s) working on a science project should be among the author(s) in any publication.

All publications based on GSC-II data must be approved by one of the GSC-II project scientists prior to submission or preprint distribution.

GSC-II Project Scientists –
Mario Lattanzi (OATo) and Brian McLean (STScI)

GSC-II Team Members –
Miguel Albrecht (ESO), Beatrice Bucciarelli (OATo), Roberto Casalegno (OATo), Ron Drimmel (OATo), Fabio Favata (ESA/ESTEC), Nathalie Fouriol (STECF), Jorge Garcia (GEMINI), Gretchen Greene (STScI), Fabrizia Guglielmetti (OATo), George Hawkins (STScI),Edwin Huizinga (STScI), Charlie Loomis (STScI), Vicki Laidler (STScI), Mike Meakes (STScI), Roberto Mignani (STECF), Roberto Morbidelli (OATo), Jane Morrison (STScI), Renato Pannunzio (OATo), Benoit Pirenne (STECF), Doug Simons (GEMINI), Ricky Smart (OATo), Alessandro Spagna (OATo), Conrad Sturch (STScI), Amy Rosenberg (STScI), Antonio Volpicelli (OATo), Rick White (STScI), David Wolfe (GEMINI)

GSC-II Agreements –

OATo provides data for approved CRA fields to proposers.

STScI, GEMINI and ESO get prepublication access (GSC 2.1) to support telescope operations with no further data distribution.

ESA-SA gets data for approved open cluster fields.

STECF participation is credited towards the ESA contribution of the ESA-NASA MOU on HST/NGST participation.

DSS-II Agreements –

Copies of compressed image data provided to the following institutions (STScI, ESO, CADC, GEMINI, AAO, CDS, NAOJ, ROE, BAO) - Note that all data is subject to change. These data may be placed on webservers for reasonable community access, and for STScI/GEMINI/VLT telescope operations.
Copy of POSS-II raw pixel data provided to Caltech (who are pursuing their own scientific projects and collaborations)

Until these data are officially published, there should be NO additional data redistribution without project scientist approval.

Acknowledgements

Investigators using these data are requested to include these acknowledgments in any publications as appropriate.

[GSC-II catalogue data]
The Guide Star Catalogue – II is produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute in collaboration with the Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino. Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under contract NAS5-26555. Additional support is provided by the Italian Council for Research in Astronomy, European Southern Observatory, Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility, the International GEMINI project and the European Space Agency Astrophysics Division.

[DSS-I = XE or S/XV plates]
The Digitized Sky Survey was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under U.S. Government grant NAG W-2166. The images of these surveys are based on photographic data obtained using the Oschin Schmidt Telescope on Palomar Mountain and the UK Schmidt Telescope.

[XE or XO plates]
The National Geographic Society - Palomar Observatory Sky Atlas (POSS-I) was made by the California Institute of Technology with grants from the National Geographic Society.

[XP, XJ or XN plates]
The Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-II) was made by the California Institute of Technology with funds from the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Geographic Society, the Sloan Foundation, the Samuel Oschin Foundation, and the Eastman Kodak Corporation. The Oschin Schmidt Telescope is operated by the California Institute of Technology and Palomar Observatory.

[S, XV, XS/ER, GR, IS plates]
The UK Schmidt Telescope was operated by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, with funding from the UK Science and Engineering Research Council (later the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council), until 1988 June, and thereafter by the Anglo-Australian Observatory.

Brian McLean --- Last Updated 12th May 1999