To begin, head to the LCO Science Archive.
How to search by name
- To search for a target object by name enter it into the Point field. Ensure you use a well-known target name and the object coordinates will be automatically entered. Otherwise you may enter the coordinates manually.
- Use the Calendar at the top of the menu to alter the time period from which results will appear. There are a few pre-defined date ranges to choose from, including the last 7 days, the last 30 days and All Time.
- The archive is the repository for all science data, both raw and processed. To remove raw data files, we recommend setting the reduction level to reduced (BANZAI)
- You can narrow down your results to only show data taken from a particular LCO observing site, with a specific telescope or instrument or using a specific filter. Check the archive documentation for a full description of the codes and more information on how to adjust your search.
Download the data files
1. The search results will show in a table with 8 columns of information. These include:
- Image name: the image name is unique and includes the location, telescope and instrument codes, and date. The ending ‘e91’ indicates reduced/processed data.
- Time: the date and time the image was taken
- Object: the name of astronomical object in the image
- Filter: the filter used to take the image, e.g. V =visual (green) filter, B = blue filter, and rp = red filter.
- Exp. Time: the exposure time of the observation
2. The search will show all the observations which match your request. To see a quicklook thumbnail image, click the plus symbol on the row that contains the data you wish to view. Click the minus icon to close this information.
3. To download data, select the row that contains the data you wish do download using the checkbox (multiple rows can be selected at once), then click the download button. You will be prompted to download a .zip file containing your data.
4. There are 4 download options. The first option is to download the compressed FITS files, which are smaller than the uncompressed FITS files (second option). This is a good download option for file size and speed, and can be used in most common astronomy software applications. The catalog only download option contains the photometry data that is in the FITS files. The final option, for more advanced, command-line users is to download a wget script instead that can be run as an executable on your machine.
