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 <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 has been 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
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