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. 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 VOTable See http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/classx/pub/votable/ to obtain the GSFC VOTable package. 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. Astro::Catalog::Query::USNOA2 A class to automatically retrieves a objects in the USNO-A2.0 catalogue matching query parameters and returns an Astro::Catalog object. Astro::Catalog::Query::GSC A class to automatically retrieves a objects in the GSC catalogue matching query parameters and returns an Astro::Catalog object. Astro::Catalog::Query::2MASS A class to automatically retrieves a objects in the 2MASS catalogue matching query parameters and returns an Astro::Catalog object. Astro::Catalog::Query::SuperCOSMOS A class to automatically retrieves a objects in the SuperCOSMOS catalogue matching query parameters and returns an Astro::Catalog object. Astro::Catalog::Query::CMC A class to automatically retrieves a objects in the Carlsberg Merdian Catralogue (CMC/12) matching query parameters and returns an Astro::Catalog object. Astro::Catalog::Query::Sesame A class that does a name lookup using the CDS Sesame Web Service and returns an Astro::Catalog object containing a single Astro::Catalog::Star object. Astro::Catalog::Query::SIMBAD A class that does an object lookup on CDS SIMBAD, implements most of the functionaliy of the Astro::SIMBAD module. Astro::Catalog::Query::SkyCat A class that generates SkyCat catalogue queries Astro::Catalog::Query::Vizier A class that generates Vizier catalogue queries 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::Cluster Astro::Catalog::IO::JCMT Astro::Catalog::IO::Simple Astro::Catalog::IO::TST (read only) Astro::Catalog::IO::VOTable (write only) 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 does not currently provide a _write_catalog() function, and that Astro::Catalog::IO::VOTable does not provide a _read_catalog() function. While Astro::Catalog::IO::Cluster writes old style numeric quality flag Cluster files there is (limited) support for reading new style character quality flags. 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