ESO Archive Frequently Asked Questions

General

• Do you have a gallery of Astronomy pictures?

Yes, please visit the ESO image gallery at our public outreach web site.

• Is it possible to name a star?

The official naming of stars and other celestial objects (asteroids, comets, etc.) is done by the International Astronomical Union.        The IAU does not provide commercial services on naming astronomical objects. Therefore, refer to a detailed discussion of this        and related issues on the IAU web document about naming stars.

There are, however, star-naming companies that can, for instance, be found on the web (we do not list any of them here). Just remember that no matter how official they try to make their procedure sound, it's no more official than if you printed up a certificate yourself. If you still wish to purchase a star, check around and see if you can find a planetarium or museum or astronomy club which is selling stars as a fundraiser. That way, your money is likely to be going to some worthy cause.

• What kind of products and services can I obtain from the Archive Facility?
  The ESO Science Archive Facility offers the following services:
  • Query the ESO observations catalog and related databases such as ambient conditions at observatory sites, observing programme schedule, calibration databases, etc. Please visit the overview page.
  • Access to images, spectra, IFUs, and interferometric science data (raw observations, a growing selection of reduced or calibrated data including the Phase 3 ingested products from Public Surveys and Large Programmes) and calibrations (raw and masters). Data are delivered either via Direct Download (http).
  • On-line access to the images from the Digitized Sky Surveys made available by the Space Telescope Science Institute through its Guide Star Survey group.
  • On-line access to a growing number of astronomical catalogs generated by the Public Surveys and Large Programmes via the Catalogue Facility.
  • On-line access to some reference astrometric catalogs (Hipparcos, Tycho and Tycho 2), and other catalogs (USNO-A2.0, GSC2, etc) via dedicated web forms or via the SkyCat client.
  • On-line access to publications from the ESO User's community (Telbib), and to the abstracts of all major astronomical journals through the ESO mirror of the ADS Abstracts Service.
  • Access to a number of software tools to handle and visualize astronomical data (e.g. SkyCat, FITS Tools, Catalog server SW).
  • On-line tools to prepare observations (Night Sky Almanac, Object Observability, Hourly Airmasses).
  • Access to the repositories of ESO data dictionaries, glossaries and list of acronyms commonly used at ESO.