Automated Data Retrieval in Astronomy

The idea of this Colloquium came during the XVIIth General Assembly of the I. A. U. at Montreal. The meeting was organized under the auspices of I. A. U. Commission 5 (Documentation and Astronomical Data). The Scientific Organizing Committee consisted of C. Jaschek (chairperson), O. Dluzhnevskaya, B. Hauck (vice chairperson), W. Heintz, P. Lantos, Th. Lederle, J. Mead~ G. Ruben, Y. Terashita, G. Wilkins. The members of this Committee are to be thanked for their devotion to the organization of what turned out to be a very successful meeting. The program was organized so as to cover most of the aspects concerning work with machine readable data. In a certain sense it is the develop­ ment of the subjects of I. A. U. Colloquium 35 "Compilation, critical evaluation and distribution of stellar data" held at Strasbourg in 1976. The meeting was opened by welcoming addresses delivered by Dr A. Florsch, Director of the Strasbourg Observatory, Prof. H. Curien, President of the European Science Foundation and Prof. W. Heintz, President of I. A. U. Commission 5. The sessions were devoted to the fol­ lowing subjects : Existing data centers, Data networks, New hardware, Recent software developments, Bibliographical services, Copyright, Editorial policies and nomenclature, Data in astronomy and Data in space astronomy. The different sessions were chaired by G. A. Pilkins, J. Mead, S. Lavrov, W. Heintz, P. Lantos, M. McCarthy, J. Delhaye and G. Westerhout. On July 9. Dr A.

A. Existing Data Centers.- 1. The Stellar Data Center.- 2. The Astronomical Data Base and Retrieval System at NASA.- 3. The Soviet Center of Astronomical Data.- 4. Management of Astronomical Data at Kanazawa Data Center.- 5. Activities of the Potsdam Data Center.- 6. IUE Data Distribution.- 7. Infrared Astronomical Data Base and Catalog of Infrared Observations.- 8. Data on Time and Polar Motion: Immediate Accessibility.- 9. The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and the World Data Center A for Rockets and Satellites (WDC-A-R&S) : Their Role in X-Ray Astronomy Data.- 10. The Stellar Data File at Dearborn Observatory.- Discussion.- B. Data Networks.- 11. Euronet-Diane, premier réseau européen de transfert de l’information.- 12. The U.K. STARLINK computer network.- 13. ASTRONET . The network of analysis and retrieval of astronomical data in Italy.- 14. The International URSIGRAM and World Days Service.- Discussion.- C. New Hardware.- 15. New developments in data storage (Review paper).- Discussion.- D. Recent Software Developments.- 16. System software approaches to the Analysis of Multidimensional Data Structures.- 17. A fast method to retrieve data from a large star catalogue file.- 18. On Systems of Standards.- 19. Digital Image Processing and Data Retrieval: The Needs.- 20. International standards for software structures in astronomy.- 21. Archiving and retrieval of data from the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) mission.- 22. Towards effective data processing: portable software models.- 23. A process for retrieval of data from a compiled star catalogue.- 24. A data analysis facility for the Faint Object Camera.- 25. Responsibilities and pratical limitations in the operation of an astronomical data center.- 26. The system SPORA (Software package oriented to research in astronomy).- Discussion.- E. Bibliographical Services.- 27. Prospects for automated solution of the subject characterization problem in the bibliographic services (Review paper).- 28. The bibliographical card-catalogue of the I.A.P. Library.- 29. Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts : a status report.- 30. INSPEC activities in astronomy and astrophysics.- 31. Stellar bibliography retrieving system in Japan.- 32. The Bibliographical Star Index.- Discussion.- F. Copyright.- 33. Copyright and use of computers for access to protected works (Review Paper).- Discussion.- G. Editorial Policies and Nomenclature.- 34. Editorial policies (Review Paper).- 35. Aids to the retrieval and evaluation of astronomical data.- 36. A list of standard star designation.- 37. Dictionnaire de la nomenclature des objets cëlestes.- 38. On the nomenclature of diffuse fragmentary objects.- 39. The catalogue of stellar identifications.- Discussion.- H. Data in Astronomy.- 40. Data in Astronomy (Review Paper).- 41. Proposal for centralization of information concerning plate vaults.- 42. The UK Schmidt telescope plate catalogue and problems associated with increasing numbers of plates and users.- 43. Retrieval of astronomical information from Padova-Asiago Observatory plates archives.- 44. Large scale photometric surveys using archival plates.- Discussion.- I. Data in Space Astronomy.- 45. Data and Data Retrieval in Space Astronomy.- 46. The “Catalogue of Stellar Groups”: A Progress Report.- 47. Current progress with the Double Star Catalogues.- 48. Metacatalogue of galaxies and large scale structures in the Universe.- 49. Data retrieval in the metacatalogue of galaxies.- 50. Le Centre de Donnëes des Amas de Galaxies.- 51. Centralization of extragalactic data.- 52. The compiled catalogue of galaxies in machine-readable form and its statistical investigation.- 53. Geneva photometric boxes IV. A refined method for direct access.- 54. Data for the compilation of the “Third catalogue of nearby stars”.- 55. Fundamental Data for FK4/FK4Sup Stars.- 56. Remarks about the cataloguing of open cluster data.- 57. Catalogue bibliographique de vitesses radiales stellaires.- 58. The new catalogue of optical HII-Regions.- 59. Catalogue of planetary nebulae and their nuclei.- 60. Numerical data documentation in physics in the Federal Republic of Germany.- Discussion.- Final comment.- Final comment.- Report of discussions.- Report of discussions.- Author’s Index.