The Wide Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU)

The Wide Field Astronomy Unit at the IfA provides astronomical surveys and infrastructure through a range of activities:

• Currently working on the Science Archives for the UKIRT Wide-Field Camera, WFCAM (WSA data release, DR8 September 2010) and the VISTA Survey Telescope, (VISTA Science Archive).
• It has developed, and now operates, TByte-scale on-line sky surveys derived from scanning photographic plates observed with the UK Schmidt telescope in Australia. These include flat-file databases from the broad-band and H-alpha surveys, and a relational database Catalogue, the SuperCosmos Science Archive (SSA), built as the prototype of the WFCAM/VISTA science archive.
• It is part of the AstroGrid consortium, an e-science project working towards integrated astronomical database access and advanced data-mining tools, as part of an international initiative towards the "Virtual Observatory".
• It has developed, and now operates, on-line Science Archives for the 6dF galaxy redshift survey being observed by the AAO with the UK Schmidt Telescope.
• It maintains an archive of original photographic plates observed with the UK Schmidt Telescope and copies of photographic sky atlases produced from the UK, Palomar and ESO Schmidt telescopes.

Tel +44 131 668 8356 (office)
or +44 131 668 8100 (switchboard)

The Royal Observatory Edinburgh comprises the UK Astronomy Technology Centre of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Edinburgh and the ROE Visitor Centre.