H.E.S.S. first public test data release

Introduction

In September 2018, the H.E.S.S. Collaboration has, for the first time, released a small subset of its archival data in Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) format, an open file format widely used in astronomy. The release consists of event lists and instrument response functions for observations of various well-known gamma-ray sources (the Crab nebula, PKS 2155-304, MSH 15-52, RX J1713.7-3946) as well as observations of empty fields for background modeling. It is compliant to the open format specifications developed in view of the upcoming CTA Observatory. The release is meant to support the development of open-source science tools for high-level analysis of gamma-ray data by providing access to “real” gamma-ray data in the appropriate format for the first time.

Data release

Publications making use of the public data release

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Credits

This data release was prepared by the H.E.S.S. FITS data task group. Members (current and former) include Christoph Deil, Lars Mohrmann, Johannes King, Catherine Boisson, Axel Donath, Julien Lefaucheur, Bruno Khélifi, Léa Jouvin, Régis Terrier, Alexander Ziegler, Domenico Tiziani, Christopher Sobel, Karl Kosack, Michael Mayer and Anneli Schulz.

We would like to thank everyone that has contributed to the open data for gamma-ray astronomy effort at https://gamma-astro-data-formats.readthedocs.io