OAPd DB & Catalogues Group

Ekar Archive Help

Searches in the Ekar Archive are performed using the WDB software by Bo Frese Rasmussen, a general help on performing queries using this sofware is available as a separate document. In this page we will give some help specific to the Ekar Archive system.

The Archive Query Form consists of action buttons, which initiate an action when clicked, query fields, which are used to constrain searches, additional parameters, which can be added to the query output, and output controls, which control how query output is formatted and how many data rows are retrieved by a query.

Action Buttons

There are four action buttons, which are displayed at the top and the bottom of the query form:

search:: start searching the archive with the constrains specified in the query fields;
reset:: empties the query form;
help:: retrieve an help page on the query form;
home:: go to the Asiago Astronomical Observatory Home Page.

Query Fields

Query fields are used to select entries in the archive that satisfy some user's specified criteria. Within query fields search operands can be used wherever a search string is required (that is wherever the user must supply a string in order to constrain searches) to further qualify searches.

Object Name: enter a string that will be used as a substring to be searched (case insensitively) for in the object name field manually inserted by the observer at acquisition time. You can change search behaviour by adding one (or more) of the search operands.

Search Box: enter the search box semi-dimension in arcminutes. If you specify a search box then you must enter right ascension and declination.

Ra and Dec: right ascension and declination can be specified in one of the following formats (optional fields are enclosed in []):

hh[.hh], hh[:mm[.mm]], hh[:mm[:ss[.ss]]]: e.g. all these are valid: 12.5824388, 12:34.9463, 12:34:56.78 and represent the same right ascension;
[+/-]dd[.dd], [+/-]dd[:pp[.pp]], [+/-]dd[:pp[:ss[.ss]]]: e.g. all these are valid: +12.5824388, 12:34.9463, +12:34:56.78 and represent the same declination.

You can specify a range in R.A., DEC or both, e.g. you can type something like 1:20 .. 3:45, on the R.A. input field. If you specify a search box than enter R.A. and DEC as simple coordinates or an error will be issued.

Observer: the string that you enter will be used for a case insensitive substring search.

Observation date: dates are specified in the format day/month/year, month can be entered as a three characters string (e.g. "Oct") or as a number, year can be entered as a two digits number or four digits number, in the first case 1900 will be added (e.g. "95" means "1995"). N.B.: entering a single date will search observations performed exactly at 0h UT on that date, a range should be specified instead (e.g. to find observations performed on May 10th, 1996, input "10/05/1996..11/05/1996", NOT "10/05/1996")

Exposure time: specifying a floating point number will select observations with exactly that duration in seconds.

Observation type: choose among the currently supported exposure types.

Instrument: choose among the currently supported instruments.

Filter: the string that you enter will be used for a case insensitive substring search on the filter field manually inserted by the observer at acquisition time.

Memo: the string that you enter will be used for a case insensitive substring search on the memo field containing comments inserted by the observer at acquisition time.

Additional (non query-able) parameters.

Besides query fields parameters, the following parameters can be selected for inclusion in tabular output and always appear in full screen output.

Code: sequential number automatically assigned to each observation.

Cartridge: tape cartridge where data file reside.

File: file number within cartridge.

Exp. Start Time: exposure start time (UT).

Sidereal Time: sidereal time when exposure started.

Airmass: airmass when exposure started.

Telescope: telescope identification string.

Detector Name: detector identification string.

Dimensions: dimensions of CCD readout area.

Grating angle: inclination angle for the grating, manually inserted by the observer at acquisition time.

Grating type: type of the grating employed during spectroscopic observations, manually inserted by the observer at acquisition time.

Output Control

If a query is submitted that returns more than one row of data, output is returned in tabular form, like this:


More Object Name          R.A.       Dec
MORE gk per               03:31:41.08 +43:52:43
MORE hd 250550            06:02:31.45 +16:31:28
MORE hd 250550            06:02:31.48 +16:31:28
MORE gamma gem            06:38:15.68 +16:24:54
MORE hd 53367             07:05:01.30 -10:24:40
MORE thorio               07:05:04.03 -10:24:40

The user can control which columns are to be displayed in the output by clicking the toggle button placed at the left of the query field in the query form. Values at the leftmost column in the tabular output are hyperlinks that lead to a full screen display of the parameters stored in the database for the corresponding observation. Full screen output is used whenever a query returns only one row of data. At the end of the query form there are two additional output controls that can be changed to control the output of a query. Full--screen output format can be forced even if a query returns more than one row by clicking on the toggle button at the end of the query form. Also the maximum number of rows to return as result of a query can be adjusted (the default number of rows returned by a query is 50).

Search operands:

These operands can be used wherever a search string is required (that is wherever you must supply a string in order to constrain your search):

..: Range search (e.g. 100 .. 200);
*: Wild card operator, will match zero or more occurrences of any character (e.g. A*B matches AB, AxxxxB, etc., where x is any character);
==: Exact match (no wild cards, i.e. the * operator);
<: less than (e.g. < 100);
>: greater than (e.g. > 100);
<=: less than or equal;
>=: greater than or equal;
<>: not equal to;
=: equal to (with wild-cards, i.e. the * operator);
~: As = but case insensitive;
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OR: Will match any of the specified expressions.

Please send questions, problems and suggestions about the query interface to DB&CG, questions concerning the archive content should be addressed to R. Falomo.

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Last modified: Wed Jun 11 11:37:29 GMT+0100 2003