asca archive opens

[Nick White <white@adhoc.gsfc.nasa.gov>]

                      The ASCA Archive is Open!
                      -------------------------

The ASCA archive is now open. The first 6 weeks of data taken during the
PV phase are available from the HEASARC. Instructions as to how to access
the archive and the current public contents list can be found under the 
ASCA GOF WWW page at

http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/asca/ascagof.html

OR in the anonymous ftp account on legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov in the 
file asca/doc/archive.txt. It is planned to make monthly releases
of data to the archive, around the 15th of each month. A list
of the currently available data, and release dates for future data is 
contained in the ASCAPUBLIC database under browse (accessed under the
captive account on legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov, username: xray). An text dump
of the archive contents is also available under the anonymous ftp area
under asca/docs/ascapublic.txt. 

Please note that much of these first data to enter the archive were
taken early in the mission, when calibration activities were still
underway. There are many observations with non-standard operating modes 
and offset pointing positions. Please take extra care when analysing these
early data. If you have any questions, comments or problems concerning 
the ASCA archive, please contact: 

             ascahelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov.

N.E. White
ASCA Project Scientist 
1994, November 15.