MSX ivo://nasa.heasarc/msxpsc NASA/GSFC HEASARC Egan et al.; Price et al. 2026-10-09 NASA/GSFC HEASARC help desk heasarc-vo at athena.gsfc.nasa.gov Survey Source This table contains the main catalog from Version 2.3 of the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) Point Source Catalog (PSC), which supersedes the previous version (1.2) that was released in 1999, and contains 100,000 more sources than the latter. The MSX PSC main catalog used to create this Browse table contains all the sources found in the Galactic Plane survey, and the primary high-latitude regions (the IRAS gaps regions, and the Large Magellanic Cloud). Note that this HEASARC table does not contain the MSX PSC supplementary catalogs, viz. the singleton catalog, the low-reliability catalog, or the minicatalogs for 19 selected regions. The principal objective of the astronomy experiments onboard the MSX satellite was to complete the census of the mid-infrared (4.2-25 micron or um) sky: namely, the areas missed by the IRAS mission (about 4% of the sky was not surveyed by IRAS), and the Galactic Plane (where the sensitivity of IRAS was degraded by confusion noise in regions of high source densities or of structured extended emission). The photometry is based on co-added image plates, as opposed to single-scan data, which results in improved sensitivity and hence reliability in the fluxes. Comparison with Tycho-2 positions indicates that the astrometric accuracy of the new catalog is more than 1" better than that in Version 1.2. The infrared instrument on MSX was named SPIRIT III; it was a 35-cm clear aperture off-axis telescope with five line scanned infrared focal-plane arrays of 18.3 arcseconds square pixels, with a high sensitivity (0.1 Jy at 8.3 um). The filter characteristics of the 6 spectral bands B1, B2, A, C, D and E are summarized below, where all wavelengths are in micron (µm): <pre> Band Center FWHM Points ---------------------------- B1 4.29 um 4.22 - 4.36 um B2 4.35 4.24 - 4.45 A 8.28 6.8 - 10.8 C 12.13 11.1 - 13.2 D 14.65 13.5 - 15.9 E 21.34 18.2 - 25.1 </pre> The MSX catalog names of the sources have been defined according to International Astronomical Union (IAU) conventions with a unique identifier combined with the position of the source. In this case, the MSX PSC V2.3 sources are named using the convention MSX6C GLLL.llll+/-BB.bbbb, where MSX6C denotes that this is MSX data run using Version 6.0 of the CONVERT software, and GLLL.llll+/-BB.bbbb gives the Galactic coordinates of the source. This database table was first created by the HEASARC in November 2002 and then updated in April 2005, based on the 11-Dec-2003 version of the <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/V/114">CDS Catalog V/114</a> (specifically, the files gb_gt6.dat, gp_m05m2.dat, gp_m2m6.dat, gp_p05p2.dat, gp_p2p6.dat, and gp_pm05.dat which comprise the main catalog). This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC . https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/msxpsc.html Catalog Research served-by HEASARC TAP https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/xamin/vo/cone?showoffsets&table=msxpsc& GET text/xml 180 99999 true 80.6361 -73.8016 0.05 https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/xamin/vo/tap https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/W3Browse/getvotable.pl?name=msxpsc GET text/xml https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/W3Browse/w3query.pl?tablehead=name=heasarc_msxpsc&Action=More+Options&Action=Parameter+Search&ConeAdd=1 MSX 0.05 Infrared public msxpsc Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) Point Source Catalog, V2.3 name Catalog Designation (Based on Galactic Position) meta.id;meta.main char nullable ra Right Ascension degree pos.eq.ra;meta.main double nullable dec Declination degree pos.eq.dec;meta.main double nullable flux_8um Flux Density in A (8.28um) Band (Jy) Jy phot.flux.density;em.IR.4-8um double nullable flux_8um_pcerr 1-Sigma Band A Flux Density Uncertainty (%,-99.0=?) percent stat.error;phot.flux.density;em.IR.4-8um float nullable quality_flag_8um Band A Quality Flag [0-4] meta.code.qual;em.IR.8-15um short nullable "__x_ra_dec" System unit vector column double nullable "__y_ra_dec" System unit vector column double nullable "__z_ra_dec" System unit vector column double nullable "__row" System index column char nullable scan_pos_angle In-Scan Position Angle East of North (degrees) degree instr.param;pos.posAng float nullable flux_21um_pcerr 1-Sigma Band E Flux Density Uncertainty (%,-99.0=?) percent stat.error;phot.flux.density;em.IR.15-30um float nullable imgext_snr_21um Band E Image Extraction SNR stat.snr;em.IR.15-30um float nullable conf_flag_21um Band E Confused Source Flag [0,1] meta.code.qual short nullable conf_flag_4p29um Band B1 Confused Source Flag [0,1] meta.code.qual short nullable quality_flag_4p29um Band B1 Quality Flag [0-4] meta.code.qual;em.IR.4-8um short nullable ptsrcext_snr_12um Band C Point Source Extractor SNR stat.snr;em.IR.8-15um float nullable rel_flag_12um Band C Reliability Flag [0-9] meta.code.qual;phot;em.IR.8-15um short nullable flux_15um_pcerr 1-Sigma Band D Flux Density Uncertainty (%,-99.0=?) percent stat.error;phot.flux.density;em.IR.8-15um float nullable flux_15um Flux Density in D (14.65um) Band (Jy) Jy phot.flux.density;em.IR.8-15um double nullable flux_12um_pcerr 1-Sigma Band C Flux Density Uncertainty (%,-99.0=?) percent stat.error;phot.flux.density;em.IR.8-15um float nullable rel_flag_4p29um Band B1 Reliability Flag [0-9] meta.code.qual;phot;em.IR.4-8um short nullable num_sights_4p29um Number of Sightings in Band B1 meta.number;obs;em.IR.4-8um short nullable variation_4p29um Variation in Band B1 Measurements src.var.index;em.IR.4-8um float nullable rel_flag_21um Band E Reliability Flag [0-9] meta.code.qual;phot;em.IR.15-30um short nullable quality_flag_15um Band D Quality Flag [0-4] meta.code.qual;em.IR.8-15um short nullable var_flag_4p35um Band B2 Variability Flag [0,1] meta.code;src.var;em.IR.4-8um short nullable variation_15um Variation in Band D Measurements src.var.index;em.IR.8-15um float nullable flux_4p29um Flux Density in B1 (4.29um) Band (Jy) Jy phot.flux.density;em.IR.4-8um double nullable num_sights_15um Number of Sightings in Band D meta.number;obs;em.IR.8-15um short nullable imgext_snr_15um Band D Image Extraction SNR stat.snr;em.IR.8-15um float nullable conf_flag_4p35um Band B2 Confused Source Flag [0,1] meta.code.qual short nullable ptsrcext_snr_15um Band D Point Source Extractor SNR stat.snr;em.IR.8-15um float nullable rel_flag_15um Band D Reliability Flag [0-9] meta.code.qual;phot;em.IR.8-15um short nullable rel_flag_8um Band A Reliability Flag [0-9] meta.code;em.IR.8-15um short nullable flux_4p29um_pcerr 1-Sigma Band B1 Flux Density Uncertainty (%,-99.0=?) percent stat.error;phot.flux.density;em.IR.4-8um float nullable variation_21um Variation in Band E Measurements src.var.index;em.IR.15-30um float nullable bii Galactic Latitude degree pos.galactic.lat double nullable flux_4p35um_pcerr 1-Sigma Band B2 Flux Density Uncertainty (%,-99.0=?) percent stat.error;phot.flux.density;em.IR.4-8um float nullable ptsrcext_snr_8um Band A Point Source Extractor SNR stat.snr;em.IR.8-15um float nullable imgext_snr_4p29um Band B1 Image Extraction SNR stat.snr;em.IR.4-8um float nullable imgext_snr_8um Band A Image Extraction SNR stat.snr;em.IR.8-15um float nullable imgext_snr_12um Band C Image Extraction SNR stat.snr;em.IR.8-15um float nullable conf_flag_12um Band C Confused Source Flag [0,1] meta.code.qual short nullable num_scan_sights Number of Total Scan Sightings meta.number;obs short nullable pos_error_cross 1-Sigma Cross-Scan Position Uncertainty (arcsec) arcsec stat.error;pos;instr.det float nullable flux_4p35um Flux Density in B2 (4.35um) Band (Jy) Jy phot.flux.density;em.IR.4-8um double nullable num_sights_12um Number of Sightings in Band C meta.number;obs;em.IR.8-15um short nullable var_flag_4p29um Band B1 Variability Flag [0,1] meta.code;src.var;em.IR.4-8um short nullable num_sights_4p35um Number of Sightings in Band B2 meta.number;obs;em.IR.4-8um short nullable var_flag_12um Band C Variability Flag [0,1] meta.code;src.var;em.IR.8-15um short nullable num_sights_21um Number of Sightings in Band E meta.number;obs;em.IR.15-30um short nullable flux_21um Flux Density in E (21.34um) Band (Jy) Jy phot.flux.density;em.IR.15-30um double nullable flux_12um Flux Density in C (12.13um) Band (Jy) Jy phot.flux.density;em.IR.8-15um double nullable rel_flag_4p35um Band B2 Reliability Flag [0-9] meta.code.qual;phot;em.IR.4-8um short nullable conf_flag_15um Band D Confused Source Flag [0,1] meta.code.qual short nullable ptsrcext_snr_4p29um Band B1 Point Source Extractor SNR stat.snr;em.IR.4-8um float nullable conf_flag_8um Band A Confused Source Flag [0,1] meta.code.qual short nullable var_flag_15um Band D Variability Flag [0,1] meta.code;src.var;em.IR.8-15um short nullable variation_4p35um Variation in Band B2 Measurements src.var.index;em.IR.4-8um float nullable imgext_snr_4p35um Band B2 Image Extraction SNR stat.snr;em.IR.4-8um float nullable num_sights_8um Number of Sightings in Band A meta.number;obs;em.IR.8-15um short nullable pos_error_scan 1-Sigma In-Scan Position Uncertainty (arcsec) arcsec stat.error;pos;instr.det float nullable lii Galactic Longitude degree pos.galactic.lon double nullable var_flag_8um Band A Variability Flag [0,1] meta.code;src.var;em.IR.8-15um short nullable quality_flag_21um Band E Quality Flag [0-4] meta.code.qual;em.IR.15-30um short nullable ptsrcext_snr_21um Band E Point Source Extractor SNR stat.snr;em.IR.15-30um float nullable variation_12um Variation in Band C Measurements src.var.index;em.IR.8-15um float nullable variation_8um Variation in Band A Measurements src.var.index;em.IR.8-15um float nullable quality_flag_4p35um Band B2 Quality Flag [0-4] meta.code.qual;em.IR.4-8um short nullable ptsrcext_snr_4p35um Band B2 Point Source Extractor SNR stat.snr;em.IR.4-8um float nullable var_flag_21um Band E Variability Flag [0,1] meta.code;src.var;em.IR.15-30um short nullable quality_flag_12um Band C Quality Flag [0-4] meta.code.qual;em.IR.8-15um short nullable