Well, that's a bit of a coincidence.

VizieR has just taken up the Spitzer GLIMPSE Point Source Catalogues I, II and 3D. They've been available for a while via IRSA IPAC GATOR, but as they've now just appeared today on VizieR then Bill's fetch data from VizieR system can be used.

http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/Cat?II/293

and

http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR?-source=II/293


Take a small .bmp file, a toobar button file, from the Gude directory, there are several, and use a simple paint programme to pixel edit it so it reads something like GPSC (for GLIMPSE Point Source Catalogue).

Load the file TOOLBAR.dat into a text editor _AFTER BACKING IT UP FIRST_!!! Search for the word 2MASS, you'll have something like this as an entry :-

2458 !2mass.bmp 2MASS data from Vizier

immdediately after it place :-

2804 !glimpse.bmp GLIMPSE I, II, 3D from Vizier

if you already have a number 2804 option, use another number, just remember what number you used as you'll need it in download.txt.

Go to the TOP of toolbar.dat and increment the number on the first line by one, as you've added an extra line to the file.

Save it.

Now, !!!backup download.txt!!!, load it into a text editor, and enter this line after the last listed item at the top :-

2804 -cII/293/out&-out.all=0 glimpse.dat

again, if 2804 used, use the number you used in toobar.dat.

And save that.

Now an equivalent to your screen field width in Guide will have GLIMPSE magnitudes automatically downloaded to a file called glimpse.dat, just the same was as such downloads work for usno b1.0, or ucac3, or 2mass, when those toolbar buttons are used. Do not use too big a field, there are lots and lots of these objects. In fact the TDF will only show them for fields of 6 arcminutes or less, although that can be adjusted via the right click on object, press DISPLAY button, route.

Currently small reddish kite shapes are plotted at position, astrometry's good to an arcsec, and help gives position, 2MASS J and Ks mags if they exist, and SPITZER GLIMPSE magnitudes for each of the four IRAC (infrared camera) passbands, when a magnitude is available for each. The four bands are centred on 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 microns respectively. A magnitude is not always available for each passband. If the identifier name ends in C it's from the reliable catalogue, if it ends in A it's from the bigger, but low signal to noise archive, which has more chance of having false detection objects. Many objects will appear in both catalogue and archive it seems, use catalogue data as preference.

The Catalogue is also mostly restricted to a range of +/- 2 degrees in Galactic Latitude, about +/- 65 degrees of Galactic Centre, and not going all the way to the centre. So it is a very big catalogue, but probably not much use to observers. People who use 2MASS information in Guide for whatever reason may find a use for it. Who knows. Frankly the SPITZER GLIMPSE Point Source Catalogue seems to be one of the more expensive white elephants out there, however, SPITZER images can be very interesting in terms of science.

In more info there are three linkouts to web resources. First, 2MASS images of two and a half arcminute area around the object can be shown.

Second, a link to the full VizieR entry for an 'object' or star can be found, with extra information to the magnitudes, such as flux, or more error and flag information.

And third is a link out to the IRSA IPAC SPITZER post-BCD service.

Pardon?

Basically this service is the direct route to SPITZER products. Images, when available, of the field, in JPEG quicklook cutouts or downloadable in full FITS format can be found via this link, and the sky seen in the passbands. People who are interested in such can generate pseudo-colour images of nebulae etc by merging three of these passbands in an RGB sort of way, very much like the SPITZER teams themselves issue from time to time, eg http://www.astro.wisc.edu/glimpse/gallery-archive.html

A research example can be found in ATEL 2564 http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=2564
here the researchers couldn't find a non-xray counterpart for this object, neither in optical nor in infrared.

Going to the coordinates given in that ATEL, ie 17h00m19.30s -42d20'19.2" , and zooming in in Guide and pressing the GLIMPSE button no the toobar finds a GLIMPSE counterpart, namely :-

SSTGLMC G343.7749-00.0290

RA 2000 17h00m19.31s
Dec2000 -42 20' 19.0"

3.6um mag 12.603 err 0.063
4.5um mag 11.970 err 0.091
5.8um mag 11.505 err 0.104
8.0um mag 11.771 err 0.173

so hidden by dust and interstellar extinction it is just detectable in 2MASS Ks bands (as the ATEL states) but 2MASS couldn't measure a magnitude for it as it was too faint.

The 2MASS images and full GLIMPSE entry in VizieR can be investigated by More Info links :-

<http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/2MASS/IM/nph-im_pos?type=at&ds=asky&POS=255.08048d+-42.33862d&subsz=150&date=&scan=&coadd=&key=&band=A>

<http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-5?-out.add=.&-source=II/293/glimpse&-c=255.080487-42.338629,eq=J2000,rs=0.005>

and the processed data products, images and other information, from the NASA SPITZER Space Telescope itself can be searched for (the MIPS camera provides images at 24, 70 and 160 microns, when available) :-

<http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/Spitzer/Spitzer/nph-spitzer?locstr=255.08048-42.33862&radius=1&unit=arcmin>

the fits files can be viewed in CDS Aladin with full astrometric solution.

And lots of stuff like that.

Cheers

John

The TDF follows, cut and paste it to a text editor and save in the Guide directory as glimpse.tdf in order to display as red kite symbols the data from glimpse.dat which is downloadable via toolbar button presses once the modifications noted above are made to toolbar.dat and download.txt.

The three http url links are one line each, so in case of word wrap in email, they need to be edited to always have a line starting with ~r and to be only three lines :-

file glimpse.dat
title GLIMPSE I, II and 3D Catalogues and Archives
RA H 43 9
units0 -2
de d 55 9
~b 3 1 SSTGLM%s %[6,17]\n\n
~r 43 9 RA 2000 %R\n
~r 55 9 Dec2000 %D\n\n
~b 67 6 J mag %s\n
~b 83 6 Ks mag %s\n\n
~b 91 6 3.6um mag %s
~b 99 5 err %s\n
~b106 6 4.5um mag %s
~b114 5 err %s\n
~b121 6 5.8um mag %s
~b129 5 err %s\n
~b136 6 8.0um mag %s
~b144 5 err %s\n\n
~r 3 1 \n^2MASS Image//xhttp://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/2MASS/IM/nph-im_pos?type=at&ds=asky&POS=%[43,9]d+%[55,9]d&subsz=150&date=&scan=&coadd=&key=&band=A^\n\n
~r 55 10 ^GLIMPSE Entry//xhttp://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-5?-out.add=.&-source=II/293/glimpse&-c=%[43,10]%s,eq=J2000,rs=0.005^\n\n
~r 3 1 ^SPITZER postBCD//xhttp://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/Spitzer/Spitzer/nph-spitzer?locstr=%[43,9]%[55,9]&radius=1&unit="arcmin"^\n

epoch 2000
type sC8888ff;m0,-20;l20,0;l0,20;l-20,0;l0,-20;
field 0.00 1.00
shown 5
end



I know it all works because because I'm using it currently, to test.

Further details and references and acknowledgement details with respect to the SPITZER GLIMPSE Catalogue can be found here http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/SPITZER/GLIMPSE/