TeVCat FAQ

1. What is TeVCat?
2. Why isn't source X listed on TeVCat?
3. Why doesn't TeVCat do X?
4. Why doesn't TeVCat work on my browser?
5. Can I put custom RA/Dec or Lat/Lon into the visplotter?
6. What is up with the different catalogs?
7. Is it true that one of you used to be in Pink Floyd?
8. What are those little globes on the source pages?
9. What kind of technology does TeVCat use?
10. What are the red/green lines on the nightly visplot pics?
11. Who supports TeVCat?
12. How do I cite TeVCat?

1. What is TeVCat?
   TeVCat is an online catalog for TeV Astronomy. We (Scott Wakely & Deirdre Horan) found it useful for ourselves, so we thought we'd open it up so other people could use it as well. For more information on TeV astronomy, look at our Reviews Page
   
   
2. Why isn't source X listed on TeVCat?
   Maybe we don't know about it, or haven't gotten to it yet. We try to keep track of all announced TeV Sources. Feel free to drop us a line if you have a hot new source you want added.
   
   
3. Why doesn't TeVCat do X?
   TeVCat is currently still being deployed and hence doesn't have all its features enabled. If you are dying for a feature to be included, feel free to drop a line to the TeVCat team.
   
   
4. Why doesn't TeVCat work on my browser?
   The main page makes heavy use of javascript, so if your browser can't handle this, things may get screwy. We have tested on Firefox 2.0 and IE7 and with Safari 3.0 (windows). IE7 still doesn't honor z-index correctly, so the maps look bad with overlays. The best browser to use is Firefox 2+.
   
   
5. Can I put custom RA/Dec or Lat/Lon into the visplotter?
   Yes! Visit this URL and you will be able to set any of these: Custom Vis
   
   
6. What is up with the different catalogs?
   We currently sort sources into a series of categories. Sources which are published in refereed journals since the definitive detection of the Crab in 1989 are in the default catalog. Sources which have been shown at conferences or claimed in ATELs, etc, we place in the "Newly Announced" category, with the understanding that once the refereed publication comes out, it moves into the Default Catalog. The "Other Sources" category is for sources where there is disagreement between different instruments about the existence of the source, or for sources where the discovering team has withdrawn their claim of discovery. We also categorize as "Other" sources which were discovered with 1st or 2nd generation instruments and never subsequently confirmed (by any instrument). Finally, there may be some sources which do not yet hit the traditional 5-sigma threshold on this list. Finally, the "Source Candidate" class is for objects/locations for which no claim of emission has been made, but for which there is some evidence of emission.
   
   
7. Is it true that one of you used to be in Pink Floyd?
   We can neither confirm nor deny this rumor.
   
   
8. What are those little globes on the source pages?
   Those are for Google Earth's new Skymap mode. If you click on the link you will be served a kml file which can be opened in Google Earth 4.2+. Note that our positions will not always overlap 100% with existing placemarks. This is because 1) our positions tend to be at the peak of the gamma-ray emission 2) some people use B1950 coords without realizing it (we use all J2000) 3) some mosaics on Google Earth seem to be either offset or scaled incorrectly... we are still looking into this.
   As of May,2008, there is also a little globe for export to World-wide telescope. Their whml documentation is non-existent, however, so there may be goofiness with the files!
   
   
9. What kind of technology does TeVCat use?
   Yeah, yeah - it is pretty old and crusty by now. We are going for a retro vibe at this point. The code is a horrorshow of of css, javascript, perl and mysql. The data are stored in a mysql backend parsed using perl. The data points are plotted using div elements, the data table is modified code from CodeThat and the control panel uses an ancient version of the Ext-JS library. Most of the astronomical libraries are custom bits written in c++.
   
   
10. What are the red/green lines on the nightly visplot pics?
    Those are meant to show the approximate start and stop times for the nightly observations for your location. These are based on moon/sun rise/set and may be off sometimes, due to some bugs that I still haven't had time to track down.
    
    
11. Who supports TeVCat?
    TeVCat has been supported in the past by NASA and the NSF.
    
    
12. How do I cite TeVCat?
    You can use this paper!:

    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008ICRC....3.1341W

    Here is the bibTeX entry:
    

    @ARTICLE{2008ICRC....3.1341W,
    author = {{Wakely}, S.~P. and {Horan}, D.},
    title = "{TeVCat: An online catalog for Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy}",
    journal = {International Cosmic Ray Conference},
    year = 2008,
    volume = 3,
    pages = {1341-1344},
    adsurl = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008ICRC....3.1341W},
    adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
    }
    

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    looking for something?