EUVE Search Help

The search pages basically contain 3 parts. The top of the page lists the input search fields. Entering values (as described below) for one or more of these fields will define the selection criteria for the database search. The middle of the form contains buttons to initiate various actions including:

1. perform the search using the specified search criteria and output format,
2. clear the search form and reset values to the original defaults,
3. reset entries to the set of (default) values used the previous time the search page was drawn, and
4. display this help page.

The bottom portion of the page deals with formatting the table of found entries that appears after the search is completed. The format options include specifying which columns appear in the output list, the order of the entries, the maximum number of returned entries, the epoch of the output coordinates, and the option to display the actual SQL command used to retrieve the database entries. First time users may want to run the search using the default output options.

After selecting search criteria, output options, and clicking the search button, a second page will appear listing the returned database entries. From this table, one may click on the data file entries to download the selected FITS file.

Note Currently all the data requested through this interface will be retrieved from HEASARC at Goddard Space Flight Center.

Local File Name

The name of a local file containing a table or list of either coordinates or targets names to be uploaded to the server and used to query the database. The file must be an ASCII text file with either one entry per line (i.e., a target name or set of coordinates), or in a table separated with one of the allowed delimiters, with targets or RA and Dec values in the designated columns. Coordinates may be given in several formats including sexigesimal and decimal degrees.

The search script will perform a database search for each target, or set of coordinates, contained in the uploaded list. If a resolver error occurs, the search will abort and the compiled results displayed. If the output is requested in CSV or Excel spreadsheet format, a blank line will be used to distinguish the results of one target search from another. VOTable format incorporates separate RESOURCE tags for each database query.

Use the other form entries to specify field delimiters, RA, DEC, or Target column numbers (when the file contains a table of values), and file contents (target names or coordinates). The browse button allows users to seach local directories to locate files.

Warning: Uploading long lists can take a while to produce results.

File Contents

Specifies whether the local file to be uploaded contains coordinates, target names or Data ID's. By default, coordinates are assumed.

RA/Target/Data ID Column Number

The column number containing either the Right Ascension, target name or Data ID (depending on how file_contents is set). The default is to assume the first column is to be used.

Dec Column Number

The column number containing the Declnation. The default is to assume the second column contains the DEC value. If the file contents is set to Target Name or Data ID, this parameter is ignored.

Column Delimiter

The character used to delimit table entries in the uploaded file. Allowed values include tabs( ), commas(,), vertical bar (|), or semi-colons(;). The default is to assume tabs are the delimiters. If the file contains only a single column, use tabs as the delimiter.

Target Name

The name of the astronomical object you want to search for. Examples of valid names include gam Gem, NGC 1068, JUPITER, and hd 45677.

The Target Name is used in combination with the Resolver Field. If the SIMBAD or NED Resolver options are chosen, then coordinates returned from these services are used to perform the search.

You do NOT have to use the resolver. Choose the "Don't resolve" option to perform string searches on the object name in the database.

When you search on the object name in the database (i.e. without using the name resolver), case will be ignored. The object name will not be wildcarded at the front and back automatically (that's so if you innocently enter IO, you don't match things like ORION). You can however wildcard the object name using * (for example, *IO*). You can also enter a comma-separated list; for example, *JUP*,*SAT* would match object names containing either JUP or SAT. Note that most, if not all, missions store target names in a format that is not always compatible with the NED or SIMBAD name resolvers.

Resolver

The name resolver you want to use, if you want to resolve an object into its coordinates. You can resolve an object name either before a search, or you can redraw the form with the resolved coordinates in place. You can also elect not to resolve the object name when doing the search, and search the database on the object name instead.

The resolver services that may be chosen are NED and SIMBAD. NED is the NASA Extragalactic Database at Caltech in Pasadena, California, and SIMBAD is the Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data at the Centre de Données astronomiques in Strasbourg, France. The object name will be sent to the chosen resolver, which will send back the coordinates. (If the object name is not recognized by the resolver, or there is some other problem with the SIMBAD or NED services, then the search form will be redrawn with an error message at the top.) These coordinates will then be used to search the database, along with whatever other query qualifications you have given.

You may also choose the "Don't resolve" option. This will allow string searches to be performed on the object.

We recommend that you use object name resolution to find observations of specific objects in the database. This is the most reliable way to look up observations, because the observer could have given any object name at all (for example, NGC1976 instead of M42, or PARALLEL-FIELD). However, if you do know the object name that the observer used, you can select Don't resolve, in which case the object name will not be resolved into coordinates, but will be used as a search qualification in the database. (This will happen only when you press the Search button.)

The SIMBAD and NED object name resolvers can resolve only fixed objects; they cannot compute the positions of moving objects (planets, comets, etc.). To find moving objects, try selecting the appropriate object class, entering an object name that could match what you're looking for, and selecting Don't resolve for the name resolver. NED is an extragalactic database, and generally won't resolve object names within the Milky Way galaxy.

To perform a search for a moving target or find entries listed under a specific target name, choose the "Do Not Resolve" option from the resolver menu and enter a target name for the search (e.g. for Jupiter you might enter "*JUP*"). Note wild cards are allowed. Moving targets could also be found using the "category" option available on most MAST search pages.

Right Ascension, Declination

The Right Ascension and Declination values. If single values are entered, a cone search is performed using the specified search radius (default = 3 arcminutes).

You may also enter ranges of right ascension or declination, using the ".." operator. For example, you can enter 21h 51m .. 21h 52m for the right ascension, and 28 51 .. 29 51 for the declination. Comparators can also be used, i.e. ">", ">=", "<", "<=". For example, "> 85" as a declination value will return all observations with declination larger than 85 degrees. (Note when ranges of coordinates are specified the search radius will be ignored. Also, searches on ranges can be quite time consuming.)

Coordinate values may be specified using a number of formats. Examples of accepted values include:

    Decimal Degrees
       	185.63325 29.8959861111111
 
    Hours, minutes and Seconds
        12 22 31.98      29 53 45.55
        12h22m31.98s     29d53m45.55s
        12:22:31.98     +29:53:45.55
        12h22'31.98"     29d53'45.55"
        12h 22m 31.98s   29d 53m 45.55s
        12h 22' 31.98"   29d 53' 45.55"
        12h 22' 31.98"  -29d 53' 45.55"
        12h22'31".98    -29d53'45".55
        12h22m31s.98    -29o53m45s.55
        12h 22' 31".98  -29d 53' 45".55
     
    Hours/Degrees and Minutes (no seconds)
        12 22     29 53
        12h22m   +29d53m
        12h22m    29d53m
        12:22m    29:53m
        12h22'    29d53'
        12h 22m   29d 53m
        12h 22'   29d 53'
        12h 22'  -29d 53'

    The RA may be given in decimal degrees by indicating
    a D or d after the degrees:
        12d 22m   29d 53m

Spacing is not important, as long as the value is unambiguous. You can delimit the hours/degrees, minutes, and (optional) seconds with letters, colons, spaces, or any character that's not a digit or a decimal point.

Radius

The radius of the search box around the RA and Dec, in floating-point arcminutes (e.g., 5.0). You should be careful about giving too restrictive a search radius since (for some missions) the coordinates of the object were given by the Guest Observer, and may not reflect the precise pointing of the instrument at the time of the observation.

The search routine computes the angular separation between each result dataset and the search center so this really is a circular radius. (Results are generally sorted on the angular separation by default.) Note a range may also be specified so, for example, to search for all observations between 2 and 8 arcminutes from the center of a galaxy, just enter 2 .. 8 for the radius.

Equinox

The equinox of the RA and Dec you have entered, either B1950 or J2000. (Note: currently only J2000 is allowed as input.) This only applies to the input coordinates. The coordinates displayed in the search results will depend on the mission database and the selected output columns. (Note: all MAST missions include J2000 coordinates as default output columns.)

If you enter a target name and use either the SIMBAD or NED name resolver, the equinox will be set to J2000.

Object Category

This is a broad category for the target. Values include:

• wd - white dwarfs
• late - late-type stars
• early - early-type stars
• cv - cataclysmic variables
• ex - extragalactic objects
• ss - solar system objects
• pulsar - pulsars
• pn - planetary nebulae
• noid - unidentified
• lmxb - low-mass X-ray binaries
• snr - supernova remnants
• grb - gamma-ray bursters
• other - none of the above

Observation Start Time

This is the GMT time, to the nearest second, of the start of the observation. The target name and observation date together serve to uniquely identify each EUVE observation. (Note the first EUVE observation was obtained in June, 1992.)

When specifying this date, you need to include at least a date; a time is optional. The date can have any of the following formats (the month name can be spelled out or abbreviated to three letters; case is not significant):

      Jul 15 1994
      Jul 1994 15
      15 Jul 1994
      1994 Jul 15
      1994 15 Jul
      7/15/1994
      7-15-1994
      7.15.1994
    

If the day is omitted, the first day of the month is assumed. This means that a specification like "July 1994" will look for observations done on July 1 1994 00:00:00, not for observations done during July 1994. Note also that when entering a date with the month in numerical format, the American ordering is used; i.e., the first number is the month.

If a time is omitted, then any time for that day will match. Otherwise, you can specify a time in any of these formats:

      14:30
      14:30:20
      14:30:20:999
      14:30:20.9
      4am
      4 PM
      04:30:20 AM
    

To search for observations before a given date, use <, and for observations after a given date, use >. For example,

      > Jul 15 1994
      < Jul 15 1994
    

You can use the .. operator to search on a range of dates:

     Jul 1 1994 .. Aug 1 1995
   

This operator is inclusive on the first date and exclusive on the second.

Finally, you can search on a list of dates or date ranges. For example,

   Jul 1 1994 .. Jul 3 1994, 
   Dec 1 1995 .. Dec 6 1995
   

will search for observations done within either one of these date ranges.

Exposure Length

This is the median exposure for a given observation. There are four EUVE detectors which normally collect data simultaneously during an observation. Each detector will have a different exposure time. In this field, we have listed the median of the exposures of the individual detectors, in units of kiloseconds and rounded off to the nearest kilosecond. Note that sometimes one detector can be way off from the others and skew this number, or an observation can be very short producing an exposure time of zero. For the true exposure times you need to look in the headers of the images.fit extensions. The units can optionally be specified in seconds, although kiloseconds is the default used by the project.

Day/Night

Entries will contain either the word "night" or "day" indicating which part of the observation is being cataloged. Some observations will have both parts, others will only have a night part. Sometimes the night and day parts appear on different volumes. By default, both day and night observations will be returned. To not retrieve one or the other, click on the entry not desired.

Data ID

The unique identifier for an EUVE observation. EUVE data ids contain the target name, observation date and a character indicating if the target was taken in the night (N) or day (D) part of the orbit. Examples of data ids are: am_her__9808040924N and comet_hale-bopp__9411201903N.

Observer

The name of the PI of the proposal which has been associated with this observation in the CEA database. This is not always a very meaningful field, because many times multiple proposals (and PIs) were given simultaneous data rights to the target in the same observing cycle. In that case, only one of the PIs is listed here. The observer is listed as "EUVE" for targets which were scheduled as calibration targets. However, for most calibration targets, there was also a PI to whom the data was proprietary; unfortunately, our archive does not contain these PI names for calibration targets.

Old Filename

Old EUVE Archive ID number (gonum): this is the old ID number the target was assigned in the now obsolete EUVE spectral browser and archive. Notice that there is not a one-to-one correspondence between the old archive and the new one, so some targets have more than one ID number associated with them and other IDs are used by multiple targets. The old ID might be of use for historical purposes or for users who know the old ID of a target they want. EUVE has stopped assigning ID numbers to publically released targets as of the Feb. 1, 1998 release.

Note wildcards can be used in the filename specification.

Public Date

This is the date on which an observation becomes public. If this field is blank, the target is already public. If there is a date present, the target is still proprietary to its Guest Observer and should not be made public until the indicated date. EUVE releases data on monthly intervals. Targets observed in Cycles 1-4 of the EUVE Guest Observer program have one year proprietary periods. In Cycle 5 (which began in 1997) and later, the period is six months. The period begins when the data is delivered, not when it was observed, and we sometimes make exceptions if there was a problem with the data delivery, etc., so the public dates cannot be inferred from the data itself. Also, some EUVE observations are done in parts over an extended period of time; the proprietary period is determined from the delivery date of the last part.

User Option

You may now search on any column in the mission database. Select the field you wish to search on and type in the qualification. You may find the valid range of values by clicking on the field name. NOTE only fields which are not already included on the search form should be selected. Specifying search criteria for a field that is listed in BOTH the form and in the User Option field, may cause either the query to fail or return unexpected results.

Output Columns

This form element allows one to choose the columns to be displayed and their order, for the search results. A set of columns that are commonly requested has been chosen as a default.

You remove output columns by highlighting the column to be removed and then clicking on the remove button to the right of the output columns list.

You may determine the order of columns by highlighting a column and then clicking on the up or down buttons to the right of the list of chosen output columns.

You may also add a column to the list. Select the desired column from the pull down menu beneath the list of chosen output columns, then click the add button. The column will be added to the bottom of the output column list.

Note the output column form element has its own reset button to restore the list of output columns to the values initially displayed when the page was drawn. The reset button at the top of the form is used to reset the other form elements. Clicking the "clear form" button however can be used to restore the original default values.

Sort output by:

Choose how you want the output rows sorted (by default). You can select up to three fields to sort on. The rows will be sorted in the order of the first sort field; if two rows have the same sort field, they will be sorted in order of the second sort field, and so on.

For each field, you can select that the rows be sorted in reverse order on that field by selecting the reverse checkbox. For example, you can sort the rows with the most recent observations first by selecting Observation Date for the first sort field and selecting the reverse checkbox next to it.

Note that the latest search scripts also allow users to sort results based on any of the displayed fields, simply by clicking on the column names at the top of the search results table. Clicking a second time will sort results in descending order. This sorting feature however does require javascript to be turned on.

Display Coordinates

Specifies whether coordinates are output in decimal or sexigesimal format. Decimal coordinates will have 5 significant figures to the right of the decimal pont. Sexigesimal format is used by default.

Maximum Records

This value specifies the maximum number of rows returned in a single query. For the standard mission search forms, the current default is 1,001, but values from 1 to 15,001 are allowed. For the file upload forms in which multiple targets, data ID's, or coordinates can be specified, the default is set to 20 rows per file entry, with allowed values ranging from 1 to 500.

Note when displayed as HTML, the latest search scripts will display 50 records per page. Links to the additional pages are shown on the results page. This paging feature however does require javascript to be turned on.

When queries are submitted as a web service, the default number of rows returned is 2,000, but any value is allowed when max_rows is specified as a query parameter. (See the MAST Web services page for more information.)

Records per page

This parameter controls the number of records displayed per web page. By default, 50 rows or records are displayed per HTML page. Therefore if 200 records are returned, links to 4 pages will be displayed at the top and bottom of the results table. Selecting 100 would display 100 records and links to 2 pages. The paging feature however uses javascript, so if javascript is turned off, paging won't work and only the rows shown on the first page can be displayed. This is one reason why increasing the default value may be helpful. The current limit is 500 rows per page. Note this value is ignored when output formats other than HTML are selected.

Show SQL Query

Select this checkbox if you want to see the SQL query that the IUE Search engine constructs from your query qualifications. The query will be shown at the end of the search results.

SQL (Standard Query Language, pronounced either "ess cue ell" or "sequel") is a language used used by most relational database systems for retrieving information from database tables. The sarch script takes your search specifications and converts them to an SQL query to run on our database. Viewing the generated query is often useful for debugging, and may also be useful for SQL-literate users who want to see what logic was used in the query. (In fact, this may be useful for most people, since SQL is pretty easy to understand.)

Make Rows Distinct

Select this checkbox if you want to have a set of distinct rows displayed. This is useful if you would like to see a distinct list of objects with certain criteria e.g. all the objects within an IUE or FUSE object class. In this case, one would limit all but the "Target Name" (or RA and Dec); this is done with the "Remove" button in the Output Columns window. This action permits a selection only on unique targets names (or coordinates) that have been observed by the satellite for the object class given. (Hint: be sure to keep the "Maximum Records" number large enough for the length of your anticipated list!) Also note that columns such as RA, Dec and Magnitude were frequently defined by the observer and often have different values for the same target name. If columns such as these are chosen as output columns, there will often be more than one row listed per object name.

Output Format

You may choose any of the following formats for displaying/storing search results. If you are using a browser (e.g., Firefox, etc) to submit a query from a MAST web form, the formats labelled "File: ..." offer a way to download results directly to your local computer. Choose any of the other format options if you want to display the results in the browser, or if you are submitting the request from a program (see MAST web services).

• HTML_Table (default) - results returned as a standard HTML table including various links for retrieving data, displaying previews, literature references, plotting spectra, etc.
• File: Excel_Spreadsheet - results are stored as an Excel spreadsheet file. (Note: assumes users computer/browser provides support for Excel-format files). The default file name when downloaded is "mission"_search.xls where "mission" is the mission name (e.g., fuse_search.xls).
• VOTable - an XML format adopted by the Virtual Observatory (VO) project and displayed in the user's browser. Note coordinates in VOTable format are always in decimal degrees rather than sexigesimal format. For searches returning results from more than one mission and/or target, multiple "resource" tags are created. Searches with a radius of 0 will return a VOTable file listing the output fields for that particular mission/catalog. (For more information on the XML file format, see VOTable documentation.)
• Comma-separated values - a simple ASCII array containing column headings followed by rows of comma-separated values. In file upload mode, a blank line is inserted between the search results to separate multiple target queries.
• Space-separated values - a simple ASCII array containing column headings followed by rows of space-separated values. In file upload mode, a blank line is inserted between the search results to separate multiple target queries. Note users may want to select coordinates in decimal rather than sexigesimal format to maintain the correspondence between column headings and entries although some column headings may contain blanks as well. (Semi-colons or commas are probably safer delimiters.)
• Semi-colon separated values - a simple ASCII array containing column headings followed by rows of semi-colon separated values. In file upload mode, a blank line is inserted between the search results to separate multiple target queries.
• File: comma-separated values - a simple ASCII text file containing column headings followed by rows of comma-separated values. In file upload mode, a blank line is inserted between the search results to separate multiple target queries. Rather than being displayed in the browser, the results are directly downloaded to the users computer using the file name "mission"_search.txt where "mission" is the mission name (e.g., hst_search.txt). Depending on the browser settings, the user may be prompted for a file location before the file is downloaded.
• File: Space-separated values - a simple ASCII text file containing column headings followed by rows of space-separated values. In file upload mode, a blank line is inserted between the search results to separate multiple target queries. Rather than being displayed in the browser, the results are directly downloaded to the users computer using the file name "mission"_search.txt where "mission" is the mission name (e.g., hst_search.txt). Depending on the browser settings, the user may be prompted for a file location before the file is downloaded.
• File: Semicolon-separated values - a simple ASCII text file containing column headings followed by rows of semicolon-separated values. In file upload mode, a blank line is inserted between the search results to separate multiple target queries. Rather than being displayed in the browser, the results are directly downloaded to the users computer using the file name "mission"_search.txt where "mission" is the mission name (e.g., hst_search.txt). Depending on the browser settings, the user may be prompted for a file location before the file is downloaded.

Note: If no entries are found for an entry a "no entries found" message is written in the selected format and the program continues. In all cases, error conditions will cause the database search to abort.