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Theme: Science with data archives: challenges in multi-wavelength and time domain data analysis
For the past seven years I have been meticulously assembling a catalog of stellar properties beyond what available from any single resource. This database includes stellar properties, photometry, high-contrast imaging, spectra, and time series. I also include planetary properties from the NASA Exoplanet Archive and disk properties from circumstellardisks.org. The goal of assembling all this data into a single database is to reduce the need to query multiple catalogs when creating a stellar sample whether it be for writing a proposal or preparing to use a telescope. The Starchive currently contains over 35,000 stars, white dwarfs, and brown dwarfs. This is accompanied by 122k references, 192k photometry and flux values and 1.2 million physical properties including mass, radius, Teff, Prot, vsini and dust/planet/multiplicity properties. To facilitate accessing this database, I have written a web application with multiple functions. Users can do a filtered search, an object or list search, a radius search, and a reference search. If searching on one star, the user is sent to a page with the stellar parameters, finder charts, an Aladdin image, an airmass chart, an SED, and a multiplicity tree if applicable. If the search results in multiple stars, users are given a dynamic, downloadable table and a suite of plotting tools. While at an R1 public research university I have had to assemble the data and write the web app primarily on my own and hence it has taken quite a while to put data together for just these stars. During my talk, I’ll review the content and functionality of the Starchive and address the need for better funding support for these types of projects which may not have a single science case in mind. I will also address the need to make astronomical data truly more accessible when claiming that it is “open access”.