[AstroPy] Announcing version 2.0 of telarchive

[Peter Erwin]

Hi,

This is an announcement about an updated version of telarchive, my
quick-and-dirty Python-based command-line tool for searching telescope
archives (see below for a brief description of what it does):

  http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~erwin/code/

The new version (2.0) add support for Python 3 (finally!), and includes
various fixes to restore proper access to (and processing of results
from) the ESO, SMOKA, and Gemini Observatory archives. In addition, SDSS
spectroscopic searches now use SDSS Data Release 14. Other additions
include the ability to specify coordinate searches using decimal degrees
and to skip one or more archives during a search (e.g., when a
particular archive or archives are temporarily inaccessible).

For installation, the new version can be downloaded from the URL above, and is also
available from PyPi — e.g., “pip install telarchive” (or “pip install
--upgrade telarchive” if you’ve already installed it that way).

Finally, the full source (including unit tests, etc.) is also now available on 
Github, at:
   https://github.com/perwin/telarchive




About telarchive:

Telarchive is a Python-based command-line utility for doing quick
searches of multiple astronomical telescope data archives --
specifically, to determine if a particular target or location on the sky
has been observed or not. If the archive makes such information
available, then brief summaries of what kinds of data (e.g., imaging
versus spectroscopy, instruments used) are included.

Targets can be searched for using standard astronomical names (using
SIMBAD for name resolution) or via RA,Dec coordinates (coordinates can
be in sexagesimal -- e.g. "hh mm ss dd mm ss" -- or decimal-degree formats).

Example of use:

	$ telarchive 'NGC 4321'
		SIMBAD (Simbad 4, France):  Found object coordinates: RA = 12 22 54.899, Dec = +15 49 20.57

	Searching archives for NGC 4321 (RA = 12 22 54.899, dec = +15 49 20.57), with search box =  4.0 arcmin...
		CFHT Archive: Data exists! (269 observations found)
			MegaPrime (223), HRCAM (46)
		UKIRT Archive: Data exists! (58 observations found)
			UFTI (58)
		Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST): Data exists! (155 observations found)
			FUSE (1); HUT (1); IUE (40); SWIFTUVOT (106); UIT (6); XMM-OM (1)
		Gemini Science Archive: No data found.
		AAT Archive: Data exists! (41 observations found)
			-- 22 images, 21 spectra, 0 polarimetry
		Spitzer archive: Data exists! (31 records found)
			5 iracmap, 5 irsmap, 4 irspeakup, 2 mipsscan, 1 mipssed, 12 iracmapp, 2 irsstare
		ING Archive (La Palma): Data exists! (253 observations found)
			117 images, 136 spectra
			WHT -- AF2 (17), ISIS (62), LIRIS (25), PFIP (10), PNS (9), SAURON (52), TAURUS (5); INT -- WFC (71); JKT -- JAG (2)
		HST archive: Data exists! (285 records found)
			37 ACS, 45 STIS, 14 WFPC, 6 WFC3, 170 WFPC2, 7 FOS, 6 FOC
		ESO Archive: Data exists! (765 observations found)
			109 continuum, 45 spectra, 318 images, 40 mos, 60 polarimetry, 126 spectrum,nodding, 21 ifu, 38 echelle, 8 image,pre
			APEXBOL (109), EMMI (29), FORS1 (109), HAWKI (48), ISAAC (126), MUSE (1), EMMI/1.57 (9), SOFI (225), WFI (4)
		SMOKA (Subaru Mitaka Okayama Kiso Archive): Data exists! (1154 observations found)
			Subaru -- FOCAS (10), Subaru -- MOIRCS (60), Kiso -- 1k CCD (30), Kiso -- 2k CCD (155), Okayama -- SNG (8), MITSuME -- OAO (891)
		Sloan Digital Sky Survey (DR7+DR12): Data exists! 
			1 DR7 field; 6 DR12 fields; 0 spectra (within 0.10 arcmin of search center)


Telarchive should work with both versions 2 and 3 of Python. (It has been tested with
Python 2.7, 3.5, and 3.6.)


cheers,

Peter

=============================================================
Peter Erwin                   Max-Planck-Insitute for Extraterrestrial 
erwin at mpe.mpg.de              Physics, Giessenbachstrasse
tel. +49 (0)176 2481 7713     85748 Garching, Germany
fax  +49 (0)89 30000 3495     http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~erwin