[AstroPy] Query for Messier objects in a given region

Jim Singh jimmyboysingh at gmail.com
Sun Apr 11 09:08:05 EDT 2021


Hi, I've put together a sky simulation using mathplotlib to display and
name the bright stars (size based on magnitude) within a certain radius of
a given planet. I convert the RA/Dec of each object to Alt/Az based on my
location and current time, and then flip the Az axis so that the field plot
matches the sky through my finderscope. What I'd like to finally do is
include and label any Messier catalog object in the same FOV of the plot.

So is there an online catalog you would suggest that can be queried by
region to return the following for objects in said region:
-Messier Number
-Apparent Magnitude (preferable but not essential)
-RA/Dec
I see SIMBAD supports  query for a specified Messier object like this:
result_table = Simbad.query_object("m83")
and there's also Simbad.query_region and Simbad.query_criteria
but I am not sure how they might be used for the stated objective (if at
all)?
Regards,
Jim
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