Astro::Catalog module --------------------- What is it? ----------- The module is a generic object orientated astronomical catalogue object. Version 3.x.x ------------- Verison 3.x.x of the Astro::Catalog breaks the existing v1.x and v2.x API. There are many good reasons for this, chiefly the introduction of new features that would have been hard to implement and maintain backwards compatibility. New features for v3.x.x include pluggable I/O support, filtering and inline sorting of retrieved catalogues. However alot of the improvements are not readily noticable by the user as alot of work has gone into the infrastructure of the package. This means that adding additional I/O and Query support has been made alot easier. Version 4.x.x ------------- This release is the last of the V3 releases. The next release V4.0.0 will include new functionality, including time series support, and add "proper" support for fluxes, errors and quality flags. However it may not be backwards compatible with the existing code in all cases. This therefore is the last version of Astro::Catalog which promises backwards compatibility with exisiting V3 code. Requirements ------------ The madatory requirement of the Astro::Catalog package are, Astro::Coords Astro::Telescope Astro::SLA Time::Piece File::Spec Math::Libm Net::Domain LWP::UserAgent SOAP::Lite Test Test::More Data::Dumper Carp Astro::VO::VOTable See http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/classx/votable/index.html to obtain the GSFC VOTable package. You need V0.9 or later of this module. Provides -------- The package provides the following user level classes Astro::Catalog A generic catalogue object, includes pluggable I/O support. Astro::Catalog::Star A generic catalogue item. The following classes can be used to query various online databases for astronomical objects. They all return an Astro::Catalog object populated with matching Astro::Catalog::Star objects. Astro::Catalog::Query::2MASS Queries the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) catalogue. Astro::Catalog::Query::CMC Queries the Carlsberg Meridian Catalogue (CMC/12). Astro::Catalog::Query::GSC Queries the Guide Star Catalog (GSC). Astro::Catalog::Query::MPC Queries the Minor Planet Center database for solar system objects. Astro::Catalog::Query::Sesame Queries the CDS Sesame web service. Astro::Catalog::Query::SIMBAD Queries the CDS SIMBAD database. Implements most of the functionality of the Astro::SIMBAD module. Astro::Catalog::Query::SkyCat Queries SkyCat catalogues. For some catalogue queries, parsing of the returned catalogue will not work. In some cases the URLs of the resources may break this module's parsing code. Astro::Catalog::Query::SuperCOSMOS Queries the SuperCOSMOS catalogue. Astro::Catalog::Query::USNOA2 Queries the USNO-A2.0 catalogue. Astro::Catalog::Query::Vizier Queries Vizier catalogues. For some catalogue queries, parsing of the returned catalogue will not work. Additional classes provided by the package handle things that you don't need to concern yourself with, unless you want to write your own I/O or query plugins, these are Astro::Catalog::IO::Astrom (write only) Astro::Catalog::IO::Cluster Astro::Catalog::IO::FINDOFF Astro::Catalog::IO::GaiaPick (read only) Astro::Catalog::IO::JCMT Astro::Catalog::IO::SExtractor (read only) Astro::Catalog::IO::STL (read only) Astro::Catalog::IO::Simple Astro::Catalog::IO::TST (read only) Astro::Catalog::IO::UKIRTBS (read only) Astro::Catalog::IO::VOTable Astro::Catalog::Transport::REST Astro::Catalog::Transport::WebService Astro::Catalog::Query The user level query classes inherit from the Astro::Catalog::Transport::XXX classes, which in turn all inherit basic functionality from the Query base class Astro::Catalog::Query. The Astro::Catalog::IO modules provide pluggable polymorphic input/output. It should be noted that Astro::Catalog::IO::TST, STL, GaiaPick, SExtractor, and UKIRTBS do not currently provide a _write_catalog() function, and Astrom does not currently provide a _read_catalog() function. Where can I get it? ------------------- The package is availabe from CPAN and from the eSTAR Project at http://www.estar.org.uk/ Installation ------------ Installation is automated using the ExtUtils::MakeMaker library % perl Makefile.PL % make % make test % make install Authors ------- The module was originally written by Alasdair Allan , of the University of Exeter Astrophysics Group (http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/) as part of his work for the eSTAR project. The internal architecture of the module has been extensively rewritten for v3.0 by Tim Jenness of the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hawaii and Alasdair Allan , of the University of Exeter Astrophysics Group This version also includes patches supplied by Stephen Quinney of Durham University, and Brad Cavanagh of the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hawaii. License ------- This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place,Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA