Databases and citizen science

The Databases workspace searches the local catalogues with filters, queries the major online astronomical databases, and lists citizen-science projects where your observations are useful. It has three tabs: Local catalogues, Online databases and Amateur science.

Contents

• Local catalogues
• Online databases
  • Resolving names
  • AAVSO VSX
  • SIMBAD cone search
  • ADQL queries
  • Working with results
• Amateur science
• Other places that use online data

Local catalogues

Search the catalogues installed on your computer, offline.

Filter	Meaning
Catalogue	Deep-sky objects, Stars (all), Named stars or Constellations
Type	Any type, or a single object type (galaxy, open cluster, globular cluster, planetary nebula, emission nebula, double star…)
Const.	Three-letter constellation abbreviation, for example Cyg
Mag ≤	Faintest magnitude
Size ≥ (′)	Smallest size in arcminutes (deep-sky objects)
Name	Part of a name or designation

Click Search. Results (up to 5000) are sorted by brightness.

Catalogue	Columns
Deep-sky objects	Object, type, constellation, RA, Dec, magnitude, size, surface brightness, current altitude, other names
Stars	Star, constellation, RA, Dec, V magnitude, B−V, spectral type, parallax, variable type, current altitude
Constellations	Abbreviation, name, genitive, label position, current altitude

Double-click a row to show it in the Sky chart. Select rows (Ctrl or Shift for several) and click Add to plan to add them to the active observing list. CSV… exports the results.

Examples:

• all galaxies in Virgo brighter than magnitude 11: catalogue Deep-sky objects, type Galaxy, Const. Vir, Mag ≤ 11,
• large nebulae for a short focal length: type EmissionNebula, Size ≥ 30,
• bright red stars: catalogue Stars, sort by B−V.

Online databases

These features need an internet connection.

Resolving names

Type any object name in Object and click Resolve name (Sesame). The CDS Sesame service looks it up in SIMBAD, NED and VizieR and returns its coordinates, type, V magnitude, spectral type and all its aliases (for example every catalogue designation of a star). The object becomes the selected object, so you can show it in the Sky chart or add it to a plan even if it is not in your local catalogues.

AAVSO VSX

AAVSO VSX looks up a variable star in the AAVSO Variable Star Index: its type, magnitude range, period, epoch, spectral type and other data. Useful before planning photometry.

SIMBAD cone search

SIMBAD cone (selection) lists up to 200 SIMBAD objects within 0.3° of the selected object, with their type, spectral type and V magnitude, sorted by brightness. Use it to identify what else is in your field.

ADQL queries

ADQL (Astronomical Data Query Language) is a SQL dialect used by astronomical databases through the TAP protocol. Choose an ADQL service:

Service	Contains
SIMBAD TAP	Basic data, identifiers, fluxes, object types, bibliography for millions of objects outside the solar system
VizieR TAP	Over 20,000 published catalogues, including Gaia DR3, 2MASS, UCAC4, APASS, Tycho-2 and the Washington Double Star Catalogue
NASA Exoplanet Archive TAP	Confirmed exoplanets with orbital, transit and host-star parameters

Type a query in ADQL, or pick one from Examples, and click Run query. The examples are:

Example	Query
SIMBAD: objects within 0.5° of M 42	Cone search around the Orion Nebula
SIMBAD: Mira variables brighter than V=8	Join of the basic and flux tables, filtered by object type
VizieR: Gaia DR3 stars G<12 near Vega	Gaia DR3 cone search with magnitude, colour and parallax
VizieR: Washington Double Star catalogue near Albireo	Double stars around β Cyg
Exoplanet Archive: transiting planets with host V < 10	Bright transiting systems for amateur follow-up

A minimal example to start from:

SELECT TOP 100 main_id, ra, dec, otype_txt
FROM basic
WHERE CONTAINS(POINT('ICRS', ra, dec), CIRCLE('ICRS', 202.47, 47.20, 0.5)) = 1

Working with results

• The grid shows up to 20,000 rows; the panel on the right shows the row and column count and messages.
• Double-click a row that has RA and Dec columns (in degrees) to show that position in the Sky chart.
• CSV… saves the results.
• Plot columns… asks for two column names and opens a scatter plot of one against the other (magnitude axes are inverted automatically), for example bp_rp,Gmag for a colour-magnitude diagram of a Gaia cone search.

Amateur science

The Amateur science tab lists 24 projects where amateur observations are used by professional astronomers. Double-click a row to open the project's website in your browser.

Field	Projects	What Sidralune exports
Variable stars	AAVSO, BAA Variable Star Section	AAVSO Extended Format from Photometry
Exoplanets	NASA Exoplanet Watch, ExoClock (Ariel), Exoplanet Transit Database	Light curves (CSV) and transit fits
Minor planets	Minor Planet Center, NEO Confirmation Page	MPC 80-column and ADES from Solar system
Occultations	IOTA, IOTA/ES, Occult Watcher Cloud	Event predictions and timings
Planets	ALPO, PVOL, JUPOS	Stacked and derotated images with WinJUPOS-compatible names from Planetary
Sun	SIDC / SILSO sunspot number
Meteors	IMO, Global Meteor Network	Shower rate predictions
Spectroscopy	BeSS, ARAS	BeSS FITS from Spectroscopy
Supernovae	Transient Name Server
Radio	Radio JOVE, Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers	Spectra and time series (CSV) from Radio
Online	Zooniverse space projects, Kilonova Seekers
Dark skies	Globe at Night	Your SQM readings

Other places that use online data

Feature	Service
Plate solving with Gaia DR3	VizieR
Photometric colour calibration	VizieR (Gaia DR3)
Asteroid occultation search	VizieR (Gaia DR3)
AAVSO comparison stars	AAVSO VSP
Transit predictions	NASA Exoplanet Archive
Minor-body lookup and close approaches	JPL SBDB and CNEOS
Ephemeris comparison	JPL Horizons
Online plate solving	nova.astrometry.net

All queries run in the background, and Sidralune identifies itself to the services with a Sidralune/0.4.1 user agent. Only what each query needs is sent: names, coordinates or ADQL text, and for astrometry.net the image being solved and your API key.