Astroquery¶
This is the documentation for the Astroquery affiliated package of astropy.
Code and issue tracker are on GitHub.
Introduction¶
Astroquery is a set of tools for querying astronomical web forms and databases.
There are two other packages with complimentary functionality as Astroquery: astropy.vo is in the Astropy core and pyvo is an Astropy affiliated package. They are more oriented to general virtual observatory discovery and queries, whereas Astroquery has web service specific interfaces.
Check out the A Gallery of Queries for some nice examples.
Installation¶
The latest version of astroquery can be conda installed while the latest and development versions can be pip installed or be downloaded directly from GitHub.
Using pip¶
$ pip install astroquery
and the ‘bleeding edge’ master version:
$ pip install https://github.com/astropy/astroquery/archive/master.zip
Using conda¶
It is also possible to install the latest astroquery with anaconda from the astropy channel:
$ conda install -c astropy astroquery
Building from source¶
The development version can be obtained and installed from github:
$ # If you have a github account:
$ git clone git@github.com:astropy/astroquery.git
$ # If you do not:
$ git clone https://github.com/astropy/astroquery.git
$ cd astroquery
$ python setup.py install
Requirements¶
Astroquery works with Python 2.7 and 3.4 or later.
The following packages are required for astroquery installation & use:
and for running the tests:
The following packages are optional dependencies and are required for the
full functionality of the alma
module:
Using astroquery¶
All astroquery modules are supposed to follow the same API. In its simplest form, the API involves queries based on coordinates or object names. Some simple examples, using SIMBAD:
>>> from astroquery.simbad import Simbad
>>> result_table = Simbad.query_object("m1")
>>> result_table.pprint(show_unit=True)
MAIN_ID RA DEC RA_PREC ... COO_QUAL COO_WAVELENGTH COO_BIBCODE
"h:m:s" "d:m:s" ...
------- ----------- ----------- ------- ... -------- -------------- -------------------
M 1 05 34 31.94 +22 00 52.2 6 ... C R 2011A&A...533A..10L
All query tools allow coordinate-based queries:
>>> from astropy import coordinates
>>> import astropy.units as u
>>> # works only for ICRS coordinates:
>>> c = coordinates.SkyCoord("05h35m17.3s -05d23m28s", frame='icrs')
>>> r = 5 * u.arcminute
>>> result_table = Simbad.query_region(c, radius=r)
>>> result_table.pprint(show_unit=True, max_width=80, max_lines=5)
MAIN_ID RA DEC ... COO_WAVELENGTH COO_BIBCODE
"h:m:s" "d:m:s" ...
------------ ------------ ------------ ... -------------- -------------------
M 42 05 35 17.3 -05 23 28 ... 1981MNRAS.194..693L
... ... ... ... ... ...
V* V2114 Ori 05 35 01.671 -05 26 36.30 ... I 2003yCat.2246....0C
For additional guidance and examples, read the documentation for the individual services below.
Available Services¶
If you’re new to Astroquery, a good place to start is the A Gallery of Queries:
The following modules have been completed using a common API:
- SIMBAD Queries (
astroquery.simbad
) - VizieR Queries (
astroquery.vizier
) - ESASky Queries (
astroquery.esasky
) - IRSA Dust Extinction Service Queries (
astroquery.irsa_dust
) - NED Queries (
astroquery.ned
) - Splatalogue Queries (
astroquery.splatalogue
) - Vamdc Queries (
astroquery.vamdc
) - IRSA Image Server program interface (IBE) Queries (
astroquery.ibe
) - IRSA Queries (
astroquery.irsa
) - UKIDSS Queries (
astroquery.ukidss
) - MAGPIS Queries (
astroquery.magpis
) - NRAO Queries (
astroquery.nrao
) - Besancon Queries (
astroquery.besancon
) - NIST Queries (
astroquery.nist
) - NVAS Queries (
astroquery.nvas
) - GAMA Queries (
astroquery.gama
) - ESO Queries (
astroquery.eso
) - xMatch Queries (
astroquery.xmatch
) - Atomic Line List (
astroquery.atomic
) - ALMA Queries (
astroquery.alma
) - Skyview Queries (
astroquery.skyview
) - NASA ADS Queries (
astroquery.nasa_ads
) - HEASARC Queries (
astroquery.heasarc
) - Gaia TAP+ (
astroquery.gaia
) - VO Simple Cone Search (
astroquery.vo_conesearch
) - MAST Queries (
astroquery.mast
)
These others are functional, but do not follow a common & consistent API:
- Fermi Queries (
astroquery.fermi
) - SDSS Queries (
astroquery.sdss
) - ALFALFA Queries (
astroquery.alfalfa
) - Spitzer Heritage Archive (
astroquery.sha
) - LAMDA Queries (
astroquery.lamda
) - OGLE Queries (
astroquery.ogle
) - Open Exoplanet Catalogue(
astroquery.open_exoplanet_catalogue
) - CosmoSim Queries (
astroquery.cosmosim
) - HITRAN Queries (
astroquery.hitran
) - NASA Exoplanet Archive (
astroquery.nasa_exoplanet_archive
) - Exoplanet Orbit Database (
astroquery.exoplanet_orbit_database
)
Catalog, Archive, and Other¶
A second index of the services by the type of data they serve. Some services perform many tasks and are listed more than once.
Catalogs¶
The first serve catalogs, which generally return one row of information for each source (though they may return many catalogs that each have one row for each source)
- ALFALFA Queries (
astroquery.alfalfa
) - GAMA Queries (
astroquery.gama
) - IRSA Image Server program interface (IBE) Queries (
astroquery.ibe
) - IRSA Queries (
astroquery.irsa
) - IRSA Dust Extinction Service Queries (
astroquery.irsa_dust
) - NED Queries (
astroquery.ned
) - OGLE Queries (
astroquery.ogle
) - Open Exoplanet Catalogue(
astroquery.open_exoplanet_catalogue
) - SDSS Queries (
astroquery.sdss
) - Spitzer Heritage Archive (
astroquery.sha
) - SIMBAD Queries (
astroquery.simbad
) - UKIDSS Queries (
astroquery.ukidss
) - VizieR Queries (
astroquery.vizier
) - xMatch Queries (
astroquery.xmatch
) - VO Simple Cone Search (
astroquery.vo_conesearch
) - NASA Exoplanet Archive (
astroquery.nasa_exoplanet_archive
) - Exoplanet Orbit Database (
astroquery.exoplanet_orbit_database
)
Archives¶
Archive services provide data, usually in FITS images or spectra. They will generally return a table listing the available data first.
- ALFALFA Queries (
astroquery.alfalfa
) - ALMA Queries (
astroquery.alma
) - ESO Queries (
astroquery.eso
) - Fermi Queries (
astroquery.fermi
) - Gaia TAP+ (
astroquery.gaia
) - HEASARC Queries (
astroquery.heasarc
) - IRSA Image Server program interface (IBE) Queries (
astroquery.ibe
) - IRSA Queries (
astroquery.irsa
) - MAGPIS Queries (
astroquery.magpis
) - MAST Queries (
astroquery.mast
) - NED Queries (
astroquery.ned
) - NRAO Queries (
astroquery.nrao
) - NVAS Queries (
astroquery.nvas
) - SDSS Queries (
astroquery.sdss
) - Spitzer Heritage Archive (
astroquery.sha
) - UKIDSS Queries (
astroquery.ukidss
) - Skyview Queries (
astroquery.skyview
)
Simulations¶
Simulation services query databases of simulated or synthetic data
Other¶
There are other astronomically significant services, e.g. line list and atomic/molecular cross section and collision rate services, that don’t fit the above categories.
Developer documentation¶
The modules and their maintainers are listed on the Maintainers wiki page.
The Astroquery API Specification is intended to be kept as consistent as possible, such that any web service can be used with a minimal learning curve imposed on the user.
The following Astroquery modules are mostly meant for internal use of services in Astroquery, you can use them for your scripts, but we don’t guarantee API stability.