HST Observation Summary Help

The PDF search page allows users to search for, and display, the HST observation summaries now offered in Portable Document Format (i.e., PDF). These documents were formerly available only in hardcopy form, and were commonly known as the HST "paper products".

This page can be used to select various search criteria to locate particular PDF files. Zero or more criteria can be selected. Submitting the form without entering any criteria will return the entire list of available documents. By default, up to 100 entries are returned. Each row of the search results table describes one PDF file. Each PDF file may describe up to 30 or so observations. To see a summary of the observations contained within each file, or to request the individual data sets themselves, click on the "contents" entry.

The search results page also contains links to the requested PDF files. Clicking on the PDF file names will display the file using Adobe Acrobat Reader. To locate a particular data set name within the displayed PDF file, use the "find" command under the "tools" pulldown menu item in Adobe Acrobat. Note that because the PDF files contain proprietary data, users must first enter a valid HST name and password before the PDF file can be displayed.

Data Set Name

The assigned name of the HST data set (e.g., N4Q809CCQ). The name is a combination of the instrument used (e.g., N for Nicmos), the program id (4Q8 in the above example), the 2-digit, base-36 observation set or visit number (e.g., 09), and the 3-digit, base-36 observation number (CCQ). User entries are case-insensitive, and a wildcard is automatically added following the user-entered value. For example, entering "n4w6" will return all entries with data set names beginning with the string "N4W6". Note that because each PDF file describes numerous data sets, the data set names are not displayed in the search results page.

Observation Set ID

The 2-digit observation set number (e.g., 10). This is a base 36 number (using characters 0-9 & A-Z), so valid values can range from 01 to ZZ. In most (but not all) cases, the obset_id is identical to the visit number.

Proposal Number

The HST proposal number (e.g., 8090). Note that because the pdf files are only stored online for 6 months or so, the valid range of numbers for this field will continue to increase (i.e., proposal number 8090 may not return any entries next year).

PI Last Name

The PI's last name (e.g., SMITH). Searches will be made with a wild card following the entered name and case is not significant. For example, entering "smith" will return all entries in which the observer's last name begins with SMITH.

Target Name

The target name (e.g., HD34700). Wild cards are added after the user-entered value, so entering HD will return all entries beginning with the string "HD" in the target name.

PDF File Name

The name of the PDF file without any extension (e.g., autopi14398). The PDF file name is simply "autopi" followed by an ST-defined sequential number. The search program will automatically add wild cards after the user-defined value and entering "autopi" is optional. Entering "14", for example, will return all entries beginning with "AUTOPI14". (Case is not sigificant.)

PDF File Date

The GMT date and time at which the PDF file was generated. See the "Observation date" description below for the various date formats allowed as input.

HST Instrument

The HST instrument used (e.g., NICMOS). Selecting "any" will return all instruments.

Observation Date

The Observation start date in GMT. Note however that like the data set name, numerous observations are contained in each PDF file, so the observation start date is not displayed in the output search results.

The date can have any of the following formats (the month name can be spelled out or abbreviated to three letters; case is not significant):

      Jul 15 1998
      Jul 1998 15
      15 Jul 1998
      1998 Jul 15
      1998 15 Jul
      7/15/1998
      7-15-1998
      7.15.1998
    

If the day is omitted, the first day of the month is assumed. This means that a specification like "July 1998" will look for observations done on July 1 1998 00:00:00, not for observations done during July 1998. Note also that when entering a date with the month in numerical format, the American ordering is used; i.e., the first number is the month.

To search for observations before a given date, use <, and for observations after a given date, use >. For example,

      > Jul 15 1998
      < Jul 15 1998
    

You can use the .. operator to search on a range of dates:

     Jul 1 1998 .. Aug 1 1998
   

This operator is inclusive on the first date and exclusive on the second . Finally, you can search on a list of dates or date ranges. For example,

     Jul 1 1998 .. Jul 3 1998, Dec 1 1998 .. Dec 6 1998
   

will search for observations done within either one of these date ranges .

Maximum Rows

This value determines the maximum number of rows that will be displayed when the search form is submitted. By default, the returned search list displays up to 100 rows. A message is displayed if the specified maximum row number is less than the number of found entries. If this occurs, the search can be repeated with an increased value for the maximum row number.

Sort Output

Defines the category by which the returned entries are sorted. The default is to sort by file name with results displayed in ascending order. Note that selecting "file date" will return results in descending order (i.e., latest files first).

Show SQL Query

Clicking on this entry will display the SQL (i.e., Structured Query Language) code used to query the database. This may be useful for understanding how the returned entries were determined.