Use the VAO Now: Data Discovery Tool

The Data Discovery Tool allows anyone to search the entire worldwide network of data archives of the VAO's participating institutions. Using the tool, the public has access to the beautiful astronomical images they have seen in the media.

This page provides a short introduction to using the Data Discovery Tool. We also offer a longer, illustrated, step-by-step tutorial to lead the user through a sample search with the tool.

The tutorial is based on the Virtual Astronomical Observatory (VAO) Data Discovery Tool, version 1.0, beta 1.

To use this tool, Javascript must be enabled. This beta version works best with Firefox (v3.x or greater), Chrome, and Safari. The tool may not be compatible with all versions of Internet Explorer.

QUICK LOOK: A sample search for the galaxy, M83

In this tutorial, a user searches the beautiful astronomical press release (PR) images from Hubble Space Telescope.

  1. Go to http://www.usvao.org/tools/discover/.
  2. Click on Launch Discovery Tool (beta). A separate browser window will open.
  3. Change the default "Quick Search (fast for selected collections)" to "Full Search (all known catalog and image collections)."
  4. In the search box to the right, type "M83" and then hit "Enter/Return" key.
  5. On the lefthand side, in the "categories" section, select "Images" to narrow down results.
  6. In the "waveband" section, select "optical" to further narrow down results.
  7. In the "publisher" section, scroll down and select "MAST" (Multi-mission Archive at Space Telescope Science Institute).
  8. In the search results window, scroll down and select "4 - HST PR Images 2008... Hubble Space Telescope Press Release Image Archive 2008-2010."
  9. At the bottom of the search results window click on "Load Records into New Table."
  10. A new tab will open and you will find the TIFF and JPG images of M83 from the archive.
  11. To view the metadata content, select either the JPG and/or TIFF image.
  12. Note: If you wanted to see the metadata, go back to step 9 and, instead of loading records, click on "Download Image Metadata."

Additional Information: