[AstroPy] problem with vo.table reading SkyBoT xml file

[Frédéric Grollier]

Le 17/12/2011 08:54, Jerome Caron a écrit :
> Dear list
> I try to use the SkyBoT service to retrieve asteroid positions, but I
> have some difficulties to read the VOtable with the vo.table python module.
> SkyBoT is described here
> http://vo.imcce.fr/webservices/skybot/?conesearch
> If I get the file with the following request (search radius - 100
> arcmin) and save it under skybot.xml
> http://vo.imcce.fr/webservices/skybot/skybotconesearch_query.php?-ep=2455911.0&-ra=0.0&-dec=0.0&-rm=100&-mime=votable&-output=object&-loc=500
> Then I can read it with the following code
> from vo.table import parse_single_table
> votable = parse_single_table("skybot.xml", pedantic=False)
> But if I make a search in a square box
> http://vo.imcce.fr/webservices/skybot/skybotconesearch_query.php?-ep=2455911.0&-ra=0.0&-dec=0.0&-bm=100x100&-mime=votable&-output=object&-loc=500
> Then the same instruction creates an error.
> Does anyone have an idea ? The syntax of my request seems fine and I got
> a proper response from SkyBoT.
> It looks like there is a problem with vo.table. I am using vo-0.7.2.

Well, as the traceback suggests, the problem in fact lies in the xml 
file. In the line 26 of your second file, "fovSR" is said to be of 
datatype 'double' with a value of "6000x6000", which is indeed inconsistent.

With your first request this value is "12000", which is a valid value 
for a double. You can for example manually change "6000x6000" by eg. 
"6000" to validate this explanation, and everything should go well.

So as far as I can tell the problem is with the SkyBoT code which 
generates invalid xml output, and you should probably warn the IMCCE 
about it.

Fred.