Astro::Catalog module
---------------------

What is it?
-----------

The module is a generic object orientated astronomical catalogue object.

Version 4.x.x
-------------

This release is the first V4 releae and breaks the existing V3.* API in 
a similiar manner than the V3 release broke the exisint V2.* and V1.* API.
The new V4 code also now depends on the Astro::Flux, Number::Uncertainty 
and Misc::Quality packages which can be downloaded from CPAN.

However to make up for these inconveniences V4 has a host of new features,
including better support for error handling using Number::Uncertainty,
auto-generation of colours from existing magnitude data, better quality
flags and time series support. 

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
  Astro::Flux
  Number::Uncertainty
  Misc::Quality

See http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/classx/votable/index.html to obtain the GSFC
Astro::VO::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::Item
    A generic catalogue item.
    
NB: Astro::Catalog::Star is maintained for backwards compatibility.    

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
  Astro::Catalog::Item::Morphology

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 <http://www.cpan.org/> 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 <aa@astro.ex.ac.uk>,
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 was extensively rewritten for v3.0 
by Tim Jenness <t.jenness@jach.hawaii.edu> of the Joint Astronomy Centre 
in Hawaii and Alasdair Allan <aa@astro.ex.ac.uk>, of the University of 
Exeter Astrophysics Group. Then rewritten again by Alasdair Allan <aa@astro.ex.ac.uk> for the v4.0 release.

This version also includes patches supplied by Stephen Quinney
<S.J.Quinney@durham.ac.uk> of Durham University, and Brad Cavanagh
<b.cavanagh@jach.hawaii.edu> 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