WISH: 90,357 Low-Frequency Radio Source Measurements for the Southern Sky

Westerbork in the Southern Hemisphere (WISH) is a 352 MHz radio survey covering 1.60 steradians of the southern sky, excluding the Galactic Plane. The catalog contains 90,357 flux density measurements from a collaboration between the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy and Leiden Observatory. This table was created by NASA HEASARC in November 2010 based on CDS catalog VIII/69A.

Use Cases

• Identify and catalog faint radio sources based on 352 MHz flux density measurements.
• Study ultra-steep spectrum sources to find high-redshift radio galaxies.
• Cross-match and correlate radio source positions with other surveys like the 1.4 GHz NVSS.
• Analyze the positional accuracy and systematic errors in low-elevation radio observations.

Strengths

• Contains 90,357 individual 352-MHz flux density measurements.
• Covers a large sky area of 1.60 steradians between declinations -26 and -9 degrees.
• Provides a limiting flux density of approximately 18 mJy (5 sigma).
• Correlated with the 1.4 GHz NVSS survey to assess positional accuracy.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count for unique sources is ambiguous, with the abstract stating 73,570 and HEASARC counting 77,414.
• The survey has lower resolution in declination than in right ascension due to low elevation.

Provenance

Source

NASA HEASARC, based on CDS catalog VIII/69A from the WISH collaboration.

Collection Method

Observations from the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope.

Time Range

Observational timeframe not specified in input.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 17:36:20.429017; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Hemisphere sky between declinations -26 and -9 degrees, excluding Galactic Plane region |b| < 10 degrees.