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JWST Observation Catalog
Credit: NASA/Desiree Stover
Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.
Dataset description
The JWST Observation Catalog is a complete index of every observation obtained by NASA/ESA/CSA's James Webb Space Telescope, drawn from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). Launched on December 25, 2021 and commissioned in mid-2022, JWST is the most powerful infrared space observatory ever built, operating at the Sun–Earth L2 Lagrange point with a 6.5-meter segmented primary mirror and four science instruments: NIRCam, NIRSpec, NIRISS, MIRI, and the FGS fine guidance sensor.
Each row in this catalog is one JWST observation — a unit of telescope time executing a single exposure sequence with a specific instrument, filter, target, and pointing. Rows include the proposal under which the observation was taken (proposal ID, PI, title, category: GO, GTO, ERS, or DDT), the target (name, coordinates, type, moving/fixed flag, redshift for extragalactic targets), the instrument and observing mode (imaging, slit/slitless spectroscopy, integral field, coronagraphy), timing (start/end MJD and ISO date, total on-source exposure), wavelength coverage (micrometers), filters used, the CAOM data product types produced, and the maximum calibration level available.
This dataset is the canonical source for answering questions like: what has JWST observed near a given RA/Dec? What proposals used the MIRI coronagraph? How much exposure time has been spent on a particular target? When does an exclusive-access dataset become public? It is designed for cross-matching with target catalogs (quasars, exoplanets, galaxies, solar system bodies), for program-level summaries, and for planning cross-facility follow-up observations. It complements the Chandra, eROSITA, Fermi, and other space telescope catalogs in this collection, giving a uniform tabular view of the modern high-energy-to-infrared space observatory fleet.
The catalog is derived from MAST's CAOM (Common Archive Observation Model) tables — specifically dbo.caomobservation joined with dbo.caomplane — and is refreshed weekly as JWST pipeline products flow through the archive. Calibration and engineering observations are included but are distinguishable via the intent column.
This dataset is suitable for tabular classification tasks.
Schema
| Column | Type | Description | Sample | Null % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
obs_id |
string | MAST observation identifier (e.g., 'jw01011002001_02101_00001_mirifulong'); encodes proposal, visit, exposure, and detector. Primary key. | jw09016001002_07101_00003_nrs1 | 0.0% |
obstype |
string | CAOM observation type code: 'S' (simple), 'C' (composite). Most JWST observations are simple. | S | 0.0% |
intent |
string | Observation intent: 'science' or 'calibration' | science | 0.0% |
proposal_id |
string | JWST proposal identifier (string, e.g., '1011'); groups related observations by Principal Investigator's program | 9016 | 0.0% |
proposal_pi |
string | Last name, first initial of the proposal Principal Investigator | Stark, Daniel P. | 0.0% |
proposal_title |
string | Full title of the JWST observing proposal | Galaxy Formation at The Redshift Fron... | 0.0% |
proposal_project |
string | Proposal project code (e.g., 'GO', 'GTO', 'ERS', 'DDT'); GO = General Observer, GTO = Guaranteed Time, ERS = Early Release Science, DDT = Director's Discretionary Time | GO | 0.0% |
proposal_keywords |
string | Science keywords tagged on the proposal (semicolon-separated) | VISITSTATUS=IMPLEMENTATION | 96.4% |
target_name |
string | Target name as provided by the proposer (may include survey designations, coordinates, or informal names) | GO9016_apt_v2 | 0.0% |
target_ra |
float64 | Target right ascension in decimal degrees (ICRS). May be 0 for moving or calibration targets. | 53.08809291666666 | 0.0% |
target_dec |
float64 | Target declination in decimal degrees (ICRS). May be 0 for moving or calibration targets. | -27.87126388888891 | 0.0% |
target_moving |
bool | True if the target is a moving solar system body (asteroid, comet, planet, moon); False for fixed celestial targets | False | 0.0% |
observation_start_mjd |
float64 | Observation start time as Modified Julian Date (earliest plane). Null if no plane has timing. | 61335.35575572916 | 3.6% |
observation_end_mjd |
float64 | Observation end time as Modified Julian Date (latest plane) | 61335.45808057871 | 3.6% |
total_exposure_sec |
float64 | Sum of on-source exposure times across all planes for this observation, in seconds | 17506.668 | 0.0% |
wavelength_min_meters |
float64 | Minimum wavelength covered across all planes, in meters (e.g., 6.0e-7 = 0.6 microns) | 1.66e-06 | 0.9% |
wavelength_max_meters |
float64 | Maximum wavelength covered across all planes, in meters | 5e-06 | 0.9% |
filters |
string | Semicolon-joined list of distinct bandpass/filter names used across planes (e.g., 'F200W;F356W') | F170LP;G235M | 0.1% |
dataproduct_types |
string | Semicolon-joined list of distinct CAOM data product types: 'image', 'spectrum', 'cube', 'measurements' | image;spectrum | 0.0% |
max_calibration_level |
Int64 | Highest CAOM calibration level available for this observation (0 = raw, 1 = telemetry, 2 = calibrated, 3 = science-ready, 4 = higher-order products) | 2 | 0.0% |
plane_count |
Int64 | Number of distinct planes (data products at different calibration levels) for this observation | 2 | 0.0% |
earliest_release_date |
string | Earliest public release date across planes (ISO-8601); exclusive-access observations become public at this date | 2027-10-23T07:47:36Z | 3.6% |
instrument |
string | Instrument name: NIRCAM, NIRSPEC, NIRISS, MIRI, or FGS (from 'INSTRUMENT/MODE' split) | NIRSPEC | 0.0% |
observation_mode |
string | Observation mode: IMAGE, SPECTRUM, IFU, SLIT, WFSS, TACQ, etc. (from 'INSTRUMENT/MODE' split) | MSA | 0.8% |
observation_start_date |
string | Observation start time as ISO-8601 UTC datetime (derived from MJD) | 2026-10-22T08:32:17Z | 3.6% |
observation_end_date |
string | Observation end time as ISO-8601 UTC datetime (derived from MJD) | 2026-10-22T10:59:38Z | 3.6% |
Quick stats
- 999,567 JWST observations
- 909,871 science, 89,696 calibration
- 2,078 distinct proposals
- 677,352 total on-source exposure hours
- Date range: 2022-01-28 to 2026-10-22
Usage
from datasets import load_dataset
ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/jwst-observations", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()
from datasets import load_dataset
ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/jwst-observations", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()
# Science observations only
sci = df[df["intent"] == "science"]
# All NIRCam imaging on a specific target (cone search ~5 arcmin)
import numpy as np
target_ra, target_dec = 189.998, 62.183 # Hubble Deep Field North
sep = np.hypot(sci["target_ra"] - target_ra, sci["target_dec"] - target_dec)
nearby_nircam = sci[(sep < 0.08) & (sci["instrument"] == "NIRCAM") & (sci["observation_mode"] == "IMAGE")]
print(f"Found {len(nearby_nircam)} NIRCam images near HDF-N")
# Instrument usage over time
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
sci["start_date"] = __import__("pandas").to_datetime(sci["observation_start_date"])
sci.groupby([sci["start_date"].dt.to_period("M"), "instrument"]).size().unstack().plot.area(figsize=(12, 5))
plt.ylabel("Observations per month")
plt.title("JWST instrument usage over time")
plt.show()
# Sky coverage (equatorial)
sky = sci[(sci["target_ra"] > 0) | (sci["target_dec"] != 0)]
plt.figure(figsize=(12, 6))
plt.scatter(sky["target_ra"], sky["target_dec"], s=0.5, alpha=0.3)
plt.xlabel("RA (deg)"); plt.ylabel("Dec (deg)")
plt.gca().invert_xaxis()
plt.title("JWST target sky distribution")
plt.show()
Data source
Update schedule
Weekly (Monday at 13:00 UTC) via GitHub Actions.
Related datasets
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About the author
Created by Julien Simon — AI Operating Partner at Fortino Capital. Part of the Space Datasets collection.
Citation
@dataset{jwst_observations,
title = {JWST Observation Catalog},
author = {Simon, Julien},
year = {2026},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/jwst-observations},
note = {Derived from MAST, Space Telescope Science Institute, https://archive.stsci.edu/},
publisher = {Hugging Face}
}
License
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