Access to UKIDSS Data from AstroGrid

In order to access UKIDSS you will need to create a Smartlist in VOExplorer (hint: select resources where any main field contains ukidss. You will get a list of resources similar to the screenshot at the right).

At the moment there are three data releases. The UKIDSS Data Release 1 (DR1) is world public so every user is able to query the database. In order to use Data Releases 2 and 3 the user needs a UKIDSS account. Note that Astrogrid provides access to the catalogues, not the images.

Resources with a cone interface (i.e. identified by the icon) provide a way of quickly returning a set of data around a position in the sky using the AstroScope interface. Resources identified with the icon provide a way of sending ADQL queries to the whole database or submitting cone searches using the Task Runner and saving the results to a file in VOSpace.

UKIDSS DR1 Cone Search

Using AstroScope

This method is appropriate when running a quick search around a small area of sky or otherwise known to return a small subset of results. The data are transfered to the AstroScope application (from where they can be loaded in TOPCAT or saved to local disk) which keeps them in memory. For cases in which the data to retrieve exceeds several hundred of MB please have a look at the next section on performing the cone search using the Task Launcher and saving the results to a file in VOSpace.

Select all DR1 resources with a cone interface and under the Actions menu click Query. An AstroScope interface will appear which will allow you to insert the coordinates and search radius. See the VOScope Example Usage for instructions on how to use VOScope.

Using the Task Runner

Selecting the first resource (the one with the icon and clicking on Execute Task under Actions will bring up a new window (the Task Runner) which allows you to submit a cone search to any of the UKIDSS source tables and save the results to your VOSpace. Usage of this interface is described here.

ADQL queries of UKIDSS Catalogues

• Example SQL queries of the UKIDSS data base