Cream of the Crop 11/Cream of the Crop 11-1.iso/math/nr.zip/NR.MEM

Text File | 1996-01-26 | 31KB | 569 lines

                    Network Resources for Astronomers

                      Compiled by Robert J. Hanisch
            Chair, AAS Working Group on Astronomical Software
                    Space Telescope Science Institute
                          3700 San Martin Drive
                           Baltimore, MD  21218
                            [e-mail]
                               October 1992

                  --------------------------------------

With the growth of wide-area networking services such as electronic mail,
information servers (bibliographic information, software libraries, etc.),
and on-line catalogs and databases, astronomers have access to a wealth of
information via the terminal or workstation on their desks.  This article
provides an overview of many of the services available, most for free, via
simple network connections.  It is certainly not complete, and I apologize
to anyone whose system or service has not been mentioned.  If you send me
information about your services, I will try to incorporate it into future
updates.

The Internet is actually a collection of networks that are all connected
together.  Systems on the Internet use a communications protocol known as
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).  The network
resources described in this article generally require that you have access
to the Internet, which allows for remote logins and file transfers.  Many
astronomers are connected via the NASA Science Internet (NSI), which
provides support for both TCP/IP and DECNet communications.  NSI also
provides excellent user support, and astronomers should be familiar with
the network services provided by NSI at recent AAS meetings.

The primary mechanisms for establishing an interactive session on a remote
computer are "telnet" on systems running TCP/IP and "SET HOST" on systems
running DECNet.  In either case, in order to use the resources that
require an interactive login you will need to know a username on the
remote system and, in some cases, a password.  Many sites provide on-line
archives of information and data that can be copied using a facility
called "anonymous FTP" (FTP = File Transfer Protocol).  The details of
using FTP depend somewhat on the type of system you are using, but
basically you type a command such as "ftp remote_system_name" and login as
user "anonymous".  The password you enter is arbitrary, but network
etiquette is to provide your e-mail address as the password.  This allows
the provider of the FTP archive to track usage more easily and contact
users should that be necessary.  Finally, another popular network resource
is the Usenet News.  Usenet is an informal electronic bulletin board
system that carries user-contributed articles and comments on hundreds of
different topics.  Usenet is described further below.

Throughout this article system names are given in both the usual TCP/IP
format [e.g., host.(subdomains.)domain] and in DECNet format (HOSTNAME).
In addition, the numeric addresses have been provided in case your local
system has not been set up to resolve host names (either using an address
table or the name-domain service).  TCP/IP numeric addresses consist of 4
numbers separated by decimal points (e.g., 130.167.1.2).  DECNet numeric
addresses are sometimes given as two numbers separated by a decimal point,
or as a single number (the convention used here).  If you are given a
DECNet address such as 6.405, you must convert it to a single number by
multiplying the first number by 1024 and adding the second number (6 x
1024 + 405 = 6549).


Electronic Mail
---------------

The AAS Membership Directory provides a summary of the various methods for
sending e-mail from one network to another, and lists the e-mail addresses
for most of the society's members.  For on-line help in sending e-mail you
can try the NSI On-line Network Aide (NONA); telnet to nic.nsi.nasa.gov
(128.183.112.71) or SET HOST to node NSINIC (15480).  Login as user
"nsinic" and follow the menus.  NONA also has information about other
network services and about NSI in general.

A few services provide access through automated e-mail answering programs,
called "listservers".  These can be used with both BITNET connections,
which only provide e-mail, and with Internet connections.  There are a
number of listservers on the network.  A well-known example is
[e-mail], which will send you any one of a number of
numerical algorithms if you send a mail message of the form "send
name_of_routine".  Send a message saying "send index" to see what's
available.


Astronomical Catalogs and Data -- On-line Services
--------------------------------------------------

A number of astronomical catalogs and data sets are available on the
Internet.  This list is not intended to be complete, but should provide
you with a good starting point for exploring these resources.  An
excellent reference for on-line services is "Databases & On-Line Data in
Astronomy," Miguel Albrecht and Daniel Egret, eds. (Kluwer Academic
Publishers, 1991).

SIMBAD.  SIMBAD (the Set of Identifications, Measurements, and
Bibliography for Astronomical Data) is produced and maintained by the
Centre de Donnees Astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS) and is accessible via
the Internet or NSI/DECnet (SPAN).  For stars (over 650,000 entries) data
include coordinates, spectral type, blue and visual magnitudes, and proper
motions.  Data for galaxies and other non-stellar objects (some 100,000
entries) include coordinates, blue and visual integrated magnitudes,
morphological type, and physical dimension.  In addition there are
cross-identifications, observational data for some 20 different types of
measurements, and bibliographic entries complete back to 1950 for stellar
objects and 1983 for non-stellar.  Access to SIMBAD (which charges for its
services) is supported by NASA for astronomers at institutions in the
United States.  Contact SIMBAD/USA, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA  02138, Attn: Ginnie Bukowski, MS 39, for
information on how to get a SIMBAD username and password.  You can connect
to SIMBAD with telnet to simbad.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.4) or SET HOST to
node SIMBAD (28.916 = 29588).  For help on SIMBAD itself, send mail to
[e-mail] or SIMBAD::QUESTION.

NED.  NED is the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database maintained at the
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.  NED is a computer-based central
archive intended to accumulate a broad range of published extragalactic
data, and organize them for fast and flexible retrieval via electronic
networks.  NED provides positions, names, and basic data for some 225,000
extragalactic objects as well as 380,000 bibliographic references to
16,000 published papers and 260,000 photometric data points from catalogs
and papers.  Also available on-line are abstracts of 5,600 recent articles
from the major journals (A&A, AJ, ApJ, MNRAS, PASP) and of doctoral
dissertations of extragalactic interest.  To access NED, telnet to node
ned.ipac.caltech.edu (134.4.10.118) and login as user "ned".  DECNet
access is provided via the NSI DECNet/Internet gateway node EAST (SET HOST
EAST (6913), then enter node name ned.ipac.caltech.edu!).  For help or
more information, send mail to [e-mail].

NSSDC.  The NASA Space Science Data Center supports several on-line
catalogs and database systems, including requests for data from the IUE
archive and the Astronomical Data Center, through its On-line Data and
Information Service, NODIS.  Access is via the Internet
(nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov, 128.183.36.23) or NSI/DECnet node NSSDCA (15548).
In either case, the username for the captive account is NODIS.  You will
be asked to register and then be presented with a self-explanatory menu.

The NSSDC has recently developed an automated data retrieval request
service utilizing the NSSDC Data Archive and Distribution Service (NDADS)
facility.  The NSSDC-held data have been written to optical disk platters
with the disks residing in a robotic "jukebox" near-line environment.  The
NDADS Automated Retrieval Mail System (ARMS) permits researchers to
rapidly retrieve selections from the current NDADS holdings.  Requests are
submitted via electronic mail, and the data may be retrieved via anonymous
FTP or default NSI-DECnet copy.  It is also possible to arrange to have
the data sent directly to the requester's computer.  For more information
on ARMS, send an e-mail message to [e-mail] or
NDADSA::ARCHIVES with a subject line SEND INFORMATION.  No information is
required in the body of the mail message in order to receive a reply.  For
further information, please contact Charleen Perry at NSSDC
([e-mail], NDADS::PERRY).

Einstein On-line Service.  The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
maintains an on-line service called Einline which provides access to over
50 databases related to the Einstein X-ray satellite archive.
Documentation and ASCII files generated by user queries can be
automatically e-mailed to users, and binary data files (such as FITS
images from the Einstein CD-ROM collection) can be retrieved using
anonymous FTP.  The Einline service is accessible via telnet to
einline.harvard.edu (128.103.40.204) or via SET HOST to node CFA204
(6714).  Login as user "einline".  If you have questions, contact Dan
Harris at CfA ([e-mail]).

HEASARC.  The High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center was
created to archive and provide access to data from high energy
astrophysics missions; currently more than 50 databases are available.
Most of the databases contain data from high-energy astrophysics missions
(such as EXOSAT, Einstein, Ginga, HEAO-1 and ROSAT), while others contain
well-known ground-based catalogs (e.g., the HST Guide Star, HD, and SAO
catalogs).  This service resides on the NSSDC Data Archive and
Distribution Service, NDADS.  Telnet to ndadsa.gsfc.nasa.gov
(128.183.36.17) or SET HOST NDADSA (15761) and login as user "xray" (no
password required).  First-time users will be asked to give a HEASARC
username, which should be the user's first initial and last name.  The
HEASARC username is used to allocate a user directory where files can be
kept for use in subsequent sessions.

Space Telescope.  Public access to non-proprietary data in the Space
Telescope data archives is currently available from both the Space
Telescope Science Institute and the Space Telescope-European Coordinating
Facility.  Both institutions support the archive via a user interface
known as STARCAT.  To access the HST catalog at ST ScI, telnet to
stsci.edu (130.167.1.2); login as "starcat" with password "starcat".  When
the STARCAT login screen appears, enter the username "dmfuser" and
password "guest".  Users may browse the HST catalog, and requests for
non-proprietary data may then be sent to the ST ScI.  This facility is
being expanded and much improved services should be available early in
1993.  More details can be found in the October 1992 ST ScI Newsletter.
For further information (and to obtain a user's guide), contact the User
Support Branch at ST ScI ([e-mail], STSCIC::USB).

Prospective users of the ST-ECF system can access it via telnet to
stesis.hq.eso.org (134.171.8.100) or SET HOST STESIS (node 28771).  Login
as user "starcat" (no password).  The ST-ECF also provides access to a
variety of astronomical catalogs and observation logs through this same
interface.  The ECF version of STARCAT provides access to quicklooks of
public HST FOC images and GHRS or FOS spectra.  This facility is available
for users at remote sites working on X11 devices.  The ECF has been
distributing HST data to any interested archival researchers since 1991.
Data requests are prepared from within STARCAT.  Catalog browsing is
anonymous; pre-registration is necessary for retrieving data.  The ECF
distributes HST data in FITS or GEIS formats on 9-track, DAT, or Exabyte
tapes. For further information and user guides, contact Benoit Pirenne at
the ST-ECF ([e-mail], ESO::BPIRENNE).

A limited number of sample HST images and spectra are available via
FTP to nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.36.23).  Look in the directory
hst.  These data are in the native HST data format, not FITS.

DIRA2.  The DIRA2 database is available for use by the astronomical
community word-wide.  DIRA2 is an ongoing project to manage data from
astronomical catalogs being carried out by the ASTRONET Data Base Working
Group in Bologna, Italy.  The DIRA2 database contains about 130 original
catalogs (500 MBytes of data) of galactic and extragalactic data written
as ASCII files.  The output of the searches are ASCII files that can be
used in other applications programs.  Catalogs can also be read or written
in the FITS table format.  You may access the DIRA2 services over the
Internet (host bodira.bo.cnr.it, 137.204.51.8) or DECNet (node BODIRA,
37927).  Login using the username DIRA2 with password DIRA2.  You must
have a VT100 terminal or terminal emulator for standard searches, or a
graphics terminal (Tek4010, VT125) to use the graphics tasks.  For help or
more information, contact Mauro Nanni ([e-mail],
ASTBO1::NANNI) at the Istituto di Radioastronomia in Bologna, Italy.

Astrophysics Data System.  ADS is a NASA funded initiative to provide a
common user interface to a wide variety of space-based data sets with the
potential of including ground-based data in the future.  The objective is
to provide users with access to multi-wavelength datasets which may be
physically stored at various locations via a single environment.  Users
need not even know that certain datasets are stored at, for example, IPAC,
and others at NSSDC.  The system is now in beta-test at a number of
astronomical institutions.  A new version with a graphical user interface
will be released in late November.  For more information contact the ADS
project manager, Guenther Eichhorn, at SAO ([e-mail]).


Other Information Services
--------------------------

There are a large number of commercial or fee-for-use bibliographic
databases available via the network (e.g., INSPEC, SPIN, PHYS, STN,
Dialog); your local librarian is probably the expert in access to and use
of these facilities.  A number of bibliographic and other information
services are available on the net at no charge, however.  Some of these
are described below.

ApJ, AJ, PASP On-line Index.  The Center for Astrophysics provides on-line
access to the contents of the Astrophysical Journal, Astrophysical Journal
Supplements, Astronomical Journal, and Proceedings of the Astronomical
Society of the Pacific.  Access is also provided to the abstracts of
articles that have been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Both services are available via telnet to cfaN.harvard.edu (where N =
3, 4, 5, 7, or 8) or SET HOST to DECNet node CFAn (n as above).  To
review titles of papers login as user "apjaj".  To see the ApJ Letters
abstracts, login as user "aplett".  Both logins provide simple
instructions on how to use the facilities.

Astrophysics Abstracts.  Fully automated bulletin boards for preprints in
astronomy and astrophysics are available at SISSA (International School
for Advanced Studies), Trieste, Italy.  Preprints can be submitted and
retrieved.  It is also possible to subscribe to a daily distribution list
containing authors and abstracts of the papers just submitted to the
bulletin board.  The service is operated by listserver software at the
address [e-mail] (147.122.1.21).  Preprints are in
TeX/LaTeX format.  Facilities to use special macros are available, and
figures in PostScript format may also be submitted.  Anonymous FTP access
is also possible.  For further details, instructions, disclaimers, etc.,
send mail with a subject line saying "help" to the address given above.
The same host also supports abstract services for other fields of
physics.

Project STELAR.  NASA has undertaken a project called STELAR (STudy of
Electronic Literature for Astronomical Research) to develop on-line access
to both abstracts and full text for much of the astronomical literature.
Abstracts are being provided from NASA's RECON system, and are complete
from the mid-1960's forward.  The pages of the Astrophysical Journal,
Astrophysical Journal Supplement, Astronomical Journal, Publications of
the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and Astronomy and Astrophysics
are being scanned and will be made available as bit-maps.  The first
service to be offered by STELAR is access to journal abstracts, AAS
meeting abstracts, and the AAS Job Register.  Access is provided by a WAIS
(Wide Area Information Service) server.  Users must install a WAIS client
program locally in order to utilize the service.  Details are provided in
the October 1992 issue of the AAS Newsletter.  For more information, send
e-mail to [e-mail].

National Radio Astronomy Observatory.  The NRAO supports a service called
the VLA Information System.  This system contains information about the
VLA and VLBA, as well as other general information (master address list
for astronomers, NRAO employees e-mail addresses, etc.).  To access,
telnet to zia.aoc.nrao.edu (146.88.1.4) and login as user "vlais".
Instructions are provided on-line.

Space Telescope.  Both the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Space
Telescope-European Coordinating Facility provide on-line information
services.  ST ScI runs a system called STEIS -- Space Telescope Electronic
Information Service.  STEIS is an anonymous FTP archive containing
information concerning HST proposals, instruments, and observation logs
(of particular interest is the Archive Exposure Catalog, which gives a
synopsis of all completed observations).  Software is also available, such
as STSDAS and TinyTIM (a modelling program for the HST point-spread
function) and tools to assist users in preparing HST observing proposals.
Access to STEIS is via FTP to node stsci.edu.  Work is now planned to add
listserver capabilities to STEIS.  For questions or further information,
please contact Pete Reppert ([e-mail]).

A similar service is provided by the ST-ECF for European users of HST.
STINFO is a bulletin board service, and STDESK is an e-mail hotline.
STINFO is accessed by telnet to stesis.hq.eso.org (134.171.8.100) or SET
HOST to node ESO (28760).  The login username is "stinfo"; there is no
password.  Questions about HST can be sent via e-mail to [e-mail] or
ESO::STDESK.  (ESO is DECNet node 28760.)

StarWays.  The European Space Information System (ESIS) provides several
on-line directory services, including a system called StarWays.  StarWays
is a database of astronomical organizations worldwide, with some 6000
entries representing 120 countries.  The database also contains
information about scientific associations, societies, committees, data
centers, funding organizations, journals, and publishers involved in
astronomy and space science.  Access to StarWays is via telnet to node
182.106.252.127 or SET HOST to node ESIS (29617); login as user "esis" (no
password).  A menu system allows you to navigate through the databases and
make queries.  For additional information contact Prof. Andre Heck
([e-mail]).

Lunar and Planetary Institute.  The databases of the Lunar and Planetary
Institute are available by telnet to lpi.jsc.nasa.gov (192.101.147.11)
or SET HOST to node LPI (9258); the login is "lpi", and no password is
required.   The LPI Center for Information and Research Services provides
resources on geology, geophysics, astronomy, and astrophysics.  The
available files include catalogs of journal holdings, books, and maps, a
bibliography of the lunar and planetary literature from 1980 on, and an
index to the Benchmarks in Geology Series.  The system is menu driven.
For comments and questions contact David Bigwood
([e-mail]).


The Usenet
----------

The Usenet is a network service something like a cross between a bulletin
board and electronic mail.  In an article entitled "What is Usenet," Gene
Spafford describes Usenet as "...the set of people who exchange articles
tagged with one or more universally-recognized labels, called
`newsgroups'."  While this sounds vague, anything more specific is sure to
leave someone out.  Articles on a wide variety of subjects are transmitted
around the world over a wide variety of connections amongst many different
computer/operating systems at all kinds of sites.  A number of newsgroups
are devoted to astronomical discussions, and many more are devoted to
subjects in physics, chemistry, and computer science that would also be of
interest to astonomers.  Usenet sites include many of the universities,
government research institutions, and observatories where most astronomers
work.  If you are at one of these sites, Usenet news is probably available
to you.  If not, you might want to look for someone who would allow you to
access news on their system, or you might want to consider becoming a
Usenet site yourself.  For information about the latter, send e-mail to
"[e-mail]" containing the message

  send usenet/news.announce.newusers/How_to_become_a_USENET_site

One key to effective use of Usenet is finding the right newsgroups.
Newsgroups are arranged hierarchically by subject of interest.  The top
level "big seven" hierarchies are:

  comp    Topics of interest to both computer professionals and
    hobbyists, including topics in computer science,
    software sources, and information on hardware and
    software systems.

  sci    Discussions marked by special knowledge relating to
    research or application of the established sciences.

  news    Groups concerned with the news network, group
    maintenance, and software.

  misc    Groups addressing themes not easily classified into
    any of the other headings or which incorporate themes
    from multiple categories.  Subjects include fitness,
    job-hunting, law, and investments.

  rec    Groups oriented towards hobbies and recreational
    activities.

  soc    Groups primarily addressing social issues and
    socializing.  Included are discussions related to
    many different world cultures.

  talk    Groups largely debate-oriented and tending to feature
    long discussions without resolution and without
    appreciable amounts of generally useful information.

Your system may not have all of these groups, since it is up to individual
sites to decide which groups to carry.  You may also find additional
hierarchies for local or regional groups as well as hierarchies that are
not really part of Usenet or subject to Usenet "rules", including alt
(totally eclectic, from astronomy to sex to xylophones), bionet
(biological sciences), biz (business), gnu (Free Software Foundation GNU
project), and vmsnet (VAX/VMS topics).  There are more than 1100
newsgroups in the hierarchies mentioned here.  For the big seven
hierarchies, there is a formal mechanism for creating new newsgroups, and
new groups appear daily.

Of obvious interest to astronomers are the sci.astro hierarchy, and its
alt counterpart, which currently consists of:

  sci.astro        Astronomy discussions and information.

  sci.astro.fits    Issues related to the Flexible Image
            Transport system.

  sci.astro.hubble    Issues of processing Hubble Space
            Telescope data (moderated).

  alt.sci.astro.aips    Discussions on the NRAO's Astronomical
            Image Processing System.

  alt.sci.astro.figaro    Discussions on the FIGARO software.

Sci.astro provides considerable discussion of amateur and popular
astronomy questions, but it is read by many professional astronomers and
is one possible forum for technical questions.

There are a number of other potentially useful newsgroups in the "sci"
hierarchy:  sci.chem, sci.image.processing, sci.optics, sci.physics,
sci.space, and sci.space.news.  There are many groups in the "comp"
hierarchy that may be of interest, such as the comp.sys groups for various
vendors of computer hardware, the comp.os group for your operating system,
the comp.windows group for your windowing system (X11, Open Look, Motif,
etc.), and if you are a programmer, the comp.lang group for the language
of your choice.  There are newsgroups for software that you might use in
your research or for writing papers, such as:

  comp.graphics            Computer graphics, art, animation, image
                processing.
  comp.graphics.visualization    Info on scientific visualization.
  comp.emacs            EMACS editors of different flavors.
  comp.text.frame        Desktop publishing with FrameMaker.
  comp.text.tex            Discussion about the TeX and LaTeX
                systems & macros.
  sci.math.symbolic        Symbolic algebra discussion, including
                software like Mathematica, Maple, and
                Macsyma.


Software
--------

Data Analysis Packages.  Many of the data analysis packages used in the
astronomy community are available in FTP archives.  A table of such
systems is given below.  Note that some groups require that you make
previous arrangements with them in order to retrieve their software,
although patches are usually freely available.

System        Org      Archive Address           E-mail contact
------        -------  ------------------------  --------------------
IRAF          NOAO     iraf.noao.edu             [e-mail]
                       (140.252.1.1)
STSDAS        ST ScI   stsci.edu                 [e-mail]
                       (130.167.1.2)
PROS          CfA      sao-ftp.harvard.edu       [e-mail]
                       (128.103.42.3)
AIPS          NRAO     baboon.cv.nrao.edu        [e-mail]
                       (192.33.115.103)
MIDAS         ESO      ftphost.hq.eso.org        [e-mail]
                       (134.171.8.4)
VISTA         Lowell   lowell.edu                [e-mail]
                       (192.103.11.2)
FIGARO        AAO      aaoepp.aao.gov.au         [e-mail]
                       (130.155.203.64)
PGPLOT        Caltech  deimos.caltech.edu        [e-mail]
                       (131.215.139.14)
IDL Astr Lib  GSFC     idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov    [e-mail]
                       (128.183.57.82)

FITS.  Information about the FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) data
format standard is also available on-line.  The NSSDC provides the NASA
description of the FITS standard on nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.36.23).
More FITS-related documents, sample data, test files, and a log of the
transactions in the Usenet newsgroup sci.astro.fits are available on
fits.cv.nrao.edu (192.33.115.8).  Most of the files can also be found
on ftphost.hq.eso.org (134.171.8.4).  A library of I/O routines for
reading and writing FITS files has been developed by Bill Pence at
HEASARC; look in the directory pub/fitsio3 on tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov
(128.183.8.77).

Archie.  Archie is a program/database which contains current listings of
where to find programs and documentation on the Internet.  Archie
automatically and regularly checks a large number of sites that are known
to provide anonymous FTP services (and are willing to have their files
indexed), and  catalogs the items you can get from that site.  You can
then search for files on those sites using various kinds of filename
searches.  Archie also contains a "whatis" command which searches a
limited (but growing) software description database comprised of some
3,500 entries.  "whatis" allows you to search for a desired file or
program when you know what it does but don't know its name.  Archie does
not physically store or distribute the software it indexes.

You can either connect to archie via telnet or compile a client program
that runs on your own computer and interact with archie through that.
There are a number of archie servers (list as of Aug.  1 1992):

     archie.mcgill.ca        McGill University, Montreal, Canada
     archie.sura.net         SURAnet, College Park, Maryland, USA
     archie.ans.net          ANS, New York, USA
     archie.unl.edu          Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
     archie.rutgers.edu      Piscataway, New Jersey, USA
     archie.funet.fi         FUnet, Helsinki, Finland
     archie.au               Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
     archie.doc.ic.ac.uk     Imperial College, London, UK
     cs.huji.ac.il           Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

After connecting to the archie server, login with userid of "archie" and
no password. At the prompt, you can type "help" to get more information.

Archie also has an e-mail interface which is accessed by sending mail to
archie@hostname, where "hostname" is one of the servers listed above.
Send a message including the single line "help" to get documentation sent
to you on how to use the e-mail interface.

Xarchie is an X11 interface to the archie network information service
which displays information using a simple point-and-click interface.
Xarchie is designed (like most X applications) to be highly customizable.
Almost all details of the interface, including the display appearance and
command interface, can be customized using X resources.  Archie itself can
tell you where to find and how to install the Xarchie program.


Other References
----------------

There are a number of extremely useful documents and reference books
available if you want to learn more about using the network and the
resources available on it.  A good place to start is "Zen and the Art of
the Internet" by Brendan P. Kehoe of Widener University, Chester, PA.  The
document is available via FTP to ashley.cs.widener.edu (147.31.254.132) in
the directory /pub/zen.  Another excellent reference is the Internet
Resource Guide produced by the NSF Network Service Center.  This guide
contains chapters on computational resources, library catalogs, on-line
archives, white pages services, and the networks themselves.  This is a
dynamic document, and readers are encouraged to get updates.  You can
retrieve the entire document using anonymous FTP to node nnsc.nsf.net
(128.89.1.178); look in the directory /resource-guide.  The book "The
Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog" by Ed Krol (published by O'Reilly
and Associates, Inc.) explains what the Internet is, how it works, and how
to use facilities like FTP, e-mail, and the Usenet news.  Finally, a
recent article in PASP by Eric Feigelson and Fionn Murtagh indexes much of
the publicly available astronomical software and numerical libraries and
has additional hints about using the network.  See PASP Volume 104, pp.
574-581 (July 1992).




Acknowledgements.  Contributors to this article include Peter Boyce (AAS),
Lee Brotzman (NSSDC), Guenther Eichhorn (SAO), Dan Harris (SAO), Jeff
Hayes (ST ScI), George Helou (IPAC), Knox Long (ST ScI), Harry Payne (ST
ScI), Benoit Pirenne (ST-ECF), Michael van Steenberg (NSSDC), and Sarah
Stevens-Rayburn (ST ScI).  Special thanks are due to Harry Payne and Jeff
Hayes for providing substantial portions of this document, and to Sarah
Stevens-Rayburn for providing pointers to excellent references and
editorial assistance.  Many of the descriptions of the various systems
have been paraphrased from introductory information provided by the system
sponsors.


This article is available via anonymous FTP from blackhole.aas.org
(192.102.234.112) in the directory info/net.  Get the file called
net_resources.mem.