9.4.2 2MASS

Similarly, using the ``Images'' menu, we can retrieve an image from 2MASS. Select ``2MASS'' from the menu and you will get the dialog box shown in Figure 9.5. Note that, as with any of the 2MASS images retrieved through Spot, these are gifs only, and for actual science on 2MASS images, you should go to the original 2MASS archive:

http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/ or http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/

Figure 9.5: Retrieving an image from 2MASS.

The map that we will eventually construct below will cover a larger region than Spot will allow us to retrieve from 2MASS; it limits image selection to between 50 and 500 arcsec. We still want to check stellar density, so we still want to download images. We select all three bands ($J$, $H$, and $K$), put them in a new frame, and select the largest possible region (500 arcsec), no zoom. Note that any color table changes selected above carry over to these new images. If you would like to alter the color table for these images, click on the color table icon and pull up the corresponding color table window for these images (like Fig. 9.4).