Getting information on HCO plates

The Starglass API is designed to provide a large amount of information about plates within the HCO Plate Stacks collection. The plate endpoint of the API is the key endpoint within the API where the majority of the information about plates is available. This page will provide an overview of the information available about plates and how to access it.

To access information for a single plate, make a GET request to api.starglass.cfa.harvard.edu/public/plates/p/[plate_id] where [plate_id] is the ID of the plate you want to access. To request information on multiple plates at once, make a GET request to api.starglass.cfa.harvard.edu/public/plates?ids=<id list> where the id list is a comma separated list of plate ids. The response will be a JSON object containing the information about the plate(s) requested.

Plate Response Object

• plate_id: The unique identifier for the plate

• jacket_images: An array of objects containing informatoin about photos taken of the plate image.

  • plate_id: The ID of the plate the jacket image is for

  • portion: The portion of the jacket shown in the image.

  • url: A presigned URL to the image. Note that this will expire after a short period of time after the initial API request. Refresh the link by requerying the plate endpoint.

  • thumbnail: a boolean indicating if the image is a thumbnail

  • thumbnail_ratio: The ratio of the thumbnail image to the full image

  • image_type: The type of image, either jacket or plate

• plate_images: An array of objects containing information about photos taken of the plate image.

  • plate_id: The ID of the plate the plate image is for

  • portion: The portion of the plate shown in the image.

  • url: A presigned URL to the image. Note that this will expire after a short period of time after the initial API request. Refresh the link by requerying the plate endpoint.

  • thumbnail: a boolean indicating if the image is a thumbnail

  • thumbnail_ratio: The ratio of the thumbnail image to the full image

  • image_type: The type of image, either jacket or plate

• jacket_thumbnail: An array of objects representing thumbnails of the photos of the plate jacket

  • plate_id: The ID of the plate the jacket image is for

  • portion: The portion of the jacket shown in the image.

  • url: A presigned URL to the image. Note that this will expire after a short period of time after the initial API request. Refresh the link by requerying the plate endpoint.

  • thumbnail: a boolean indicating if the image is a thumbnail

  • thumbnail_ratio: The ratio of the thumbnail image to the full image

  • image_type: The type of image, either jacket or plate

• plate_thumbnail: An array of objects representing thumbnails of the photos of the plate

  • plate_id: The ID of the plate the image is for

  • portion: The portion of the plate shown in the image.

  • url: A presigned URL to the image. Note that this will expire after a short period of time after the initial API request. Refresh the link by requerying the plate endpoint.

  • thumbnail: a boolean indicating if the image is a thumbnail

  • thumbnail_ratio: The ratio of the thumbnail image to the full image

  • image_type: The type of image, either jacket or plate

• mosaics: An array of objects representing FITS mosaics available of the image. See the Mosaics page for more information on how to access and download mosaics.

• exposures: An array of objects representing computationally identified exposures made on the plate. Only available for formally scanned plates.

• catalog_exposures: An array of objects representing recorded exposures made on the plate. Based on HCO logbooks, not computationally identified.

• mentions: An array of objects representing mentions of the plate in the Phaedra notebooks.

• telescope: A string describing the telescope used to take the plate. Based on recorded information on the plate series.

• plate_comment: Where available, a string containing a comment about the plate from the plate stacks curatorial team regarding its content or use

• comment_astronomers: An array of astronomers names identified in the plate comment, through a combination of named entity recognition and manual annotation.

• location: The location of the observatory where the plate was photographed

• class: The class of the plate, see the Plate Classes page for more information on the classes available.