Table Access Protocol (TAP) is a service protocol for accessing general table data, especially astronomical catalogs. For a detailed introduction to TAP, please refer to the IVOA TAP document.
Topcat is a popular tool to access and manipulate astronomical catalogs. Many TAP services can be found by specifying a keyword under the “Select Service” tab (see the Topcat documentation). However, it is not always easy to find the TAP URL for a specific catalog. Here I list some useful TAP URLs for astronomers (including myself).
1. NOIRLab datalab
- TAP URL: https://datalab.noirlab.edu/tap
- Documentation: https://datalab.noirlab.edu/docs/manual/index.html
2. UKIRT at WFCAM Science Archive (WSA), and VISTA at VISTA Science Archive (VSA)
These two services can be found at the same URL, but with different TAP endpoints. They can also be found in the Topcat “Select Service” tab.
3. ESO Archive
- TAP service for catalogs: http://archive.eso.org/tap_cat
- TAP service for raw and reduced data: http://archive.eso.org/tap_obs
- Documentation: https://archive.eso.org/cms/eso-data/programmatic-access.html
- Examples: