XCATSCAN: X-Window Catalog Scanning

IPAC has developed new, easy-to-use software for scanning IRAS catalogs and extracting information about sources which meet specified criteria (available by Internet). XCATSCAN is a point-and-click X-Window graphical user interface designed especially for scientists who wish to make queries of IRAS databases in conjunction with other major astronomical catalogs. For example, you may want to find the IRAS sources nearest to newly-discovered X-ray sources, or to determine which stars in the Gliese catalog are IRAS sources. Catalogs may be queried by specifying location on the sky (position and search radius, coordinate boxes or IRAS source name), column constraints (eg., fnu(60) > 10.5), and positional associations between IRAS sources and objects in other catalogs. Catalog columns may be easily queried by filling in a table, or by direct entry of constraints in Structured Query Language (SQL). The results may be saved as ASCII or FITS tables and transferred via FTP to your computer for analysis. Users may up-load coordinate lists (private catalogs) by FTP and scan the catalogs for positional matches. You can access XCATSCAN remotely if your computer runs X-Windows (such as Motif, OpenWindows, DEC Windows,} or other X11-compatible window system, but not SunView) and your workstation is connected directly to the Internet. A connection to IPAC may be established with the command telnet xcatscan.ipac.caltech.edu; the login to use is xcatscan, and no password is needed. After you answer a few questions, the main XCATSCAN menu will appear on your computer screen with complete on-line instructions.