Infrared Astronomical Satellite, IRAS

For convenience in studying Galactic phenomena, the ISSA and Reject Fields plates were mosaicked and transformed at IPAC to Galactic coordinates in a gnomonic (tangent plane) projection. The transformed maps, stored in FITS format, are on 45° centers in Galactic longitude and have approximate dimensions of 60° x 60° with 3' pixels. Separate maps were made for each of the four IRAS bands.

The same processing-related caveats to the interpretation of the ISSA and Reject Fields apply to the ISSA Galactic Plane Mosaics. Holes in the IRAS sky coverages have resulted in missing data from these images in wedges extending from l, b = 86°, 1° to 78± 2°, -28° and from 266°, 6° to 257 ± 2°, 29°.

The Galactic Plane Mosaics were produced by Drs. Gaylin Laughlin and Rick Ebert as part of a NASA Astrophysics Data Program research effort led by Dr. William Waller.

Note: A special high-resolution set of maps for the 60 and 100 micron bands only has recently been released. The maps, which have angular resolution ~1', cover the Galactic latitude range |b| < 4.7° and selected regions at higher latitudes. IPAC offers an on-line interface for extracting images from this High Resolution IRAS Galaxy Atlas (IGA). The complete IGA, not yet available on-line here, may be ordered on tape or CD-R. Contact the Coordinated Request User Support Office (CRUSO) for more information. Depending on the affiliation of the requestor, a fee may be charged.

Version and release date: 1.0, 1995 May 30

Galactic Plane Mosaic

Sample FITS header

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