WIRE vs SWAS Guide Stars





I converted the WIRE and SWAS guide star catalogs into galactic coordinates, since we are mostly concerned with the density of guide stars out of the galactic plane.

The following 2 figures show the distribution in galactic coordinates of SWAS and WIRE guide stars.

SWAS Guide Stars


WIRE Guide Stars



More interesting is the following histogram, which shows the number of guide stars as a function of galactic latitude. The biggest improvement occurs in the galactic plane, where the SWAS catalog has twice as many guide stars. Even out of the plane, the SWAS catalog consistently has more stars.

Number of WIRE (blue) and SWAS (red) guide stars as a function of galactic latitutde.