1. INTRODUCTION

Due to the nature of HST data, a brief revision of data formats is presented, followed by a description of the major sites that contain information and astronomical data.

The topics discussed are:

(a) Astronomical Data

• FITS format description
• HST data
• Group format extension
• Reading HST science data
• Other HST files
• Associations
• Additional programs that read FITS files
• Other file formats

(b) Optical and UV information

• Preprints and paper
• NED
• CDS (SIMBAD, VizieR, Aladin, Dictionary of Astronomical Nomenclature, Information & On-line Data in Astronomy Star's pages, Other services)
• NSSDC
• LEDA
• Data
• Miscellaneous images and catalogs
• Scanned Data (DSS, APS, Plate Database)
• Optical and UV surveys
• Multiwavelength maps
• Astrometry
• Artificial Data
• Meta-databases
• Planetary information
• Organizations
• Summary

(c) Optical and UV archives

• Optical (ESO, CFHT, ING, NOAO)
• UV archives (IUE, EUVE, Astro missions, FUSE)

(d) The Hubble Space Telescope

• Brief description
• On-board instruments (Faint Object Camera (FOC), Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS), Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph (NICMOS), Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2))
• Archival instruments (Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS), Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS), High Speed Photometer (HSP)))
• Future instruments (Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS))

(e) The Hubble Data Archive (HDA)

• Description
• Contents
• Browsing and extracting

(f) Surfing for multiwavelength data