How do I download a Catalog containing MBM molecular clouds for annotation?

BlueRidgeDSIA

BlueRidgeDSIA

Well-known member
I have spent an hour or two trying to figure out where I can locate the MBM catalog to annotate objects in pixinsight. I think I found part of it on Simbad but I cannot find it on VizieR. I just want to make a custom catalog in PI so I can annotate an image. Does anyone have any advice on this?
 
https://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/...&Radius=2&Radius.unit=arcmin&submit=submit+id

Obtained using "MBM" as the identifier, and by choosing to query "a whole catalogue" from the drop-down list. I hope this suits your needs. BTW if you speak Python;), I strongly suggest using astroquery.simbad for such tasks:

Python: 
from astroquery.simbad import Simbad

mbmSimbad = Simbad()
mbm_table = mbmSimbad.query_catalog('mbm')
print(mbm_table)

# If you prefer working with Pandas:
mbm_df = mbm_table.to_pandas()

# Print only the first three columns (Main_ID, RA, DEC)
print(mbm_df[mbm_df.columns[:3]])

Happy hacking!
 
dld said:
https://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/...&Radius=2&Radius.unit=arcmin&submit=submit+id

Obtained using "MBM" as the identifier, and by choosing to query "a whole catalogue" from the drop-down list. I hope this suits your needs. BTW if you speak Python;), I strongly suggest using astroquery.simbad for such tasks:

Python: 
from astroquery.simbad import Simbad

mbmSimbad = Simbad()
mbm_table = mbmSimbad.query_catalog('mbm')
print(mbm_table)

# If you prefer working with Pandas:
mbm_df = mbm_table.to_pandas()

# Print only the first three columns (Main_ID, RA, DEC)
print(mbm_df[mbm_df.columns[:3]])

Happy hacking!
Click to expand...

Wow thank you so much! Unfortunately I really don't know much about coding but this is perfect, Honestly this is the only catalog I would ever need to try to customize so you have helped me out a ton.
 
dld said:
https://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/...&Radius=2&Radius.unit=arcmin&submit=submit+id

Obtained using "MBM" as the identifier, and by choosing to query "a whole catalogue" from the drop-down list. I hope this suits your needs. BTW if you speak Python;), I strongly suggest using astroquery.simbad for such tasks:

Python: 
from astroquery.simbad import Simbad

mbmSimbad = Simbad()
mbm_table = mbmSimbad.query_catalog('mbm')
print(mbm_table)

# If you prefer working with Pandas:
mbm_df = mbm_table.to_pandas()

# Print only the first three columns (Main_ID, RA, DEC)
print(mbm_df[mbm_df.columns[:3]])

Happy hacking!
Click to expand...

Im not very familiar with modifying a query. Is there a way to incorporate the Diameter into this query? I am fumbling along. Honestly I cannot even duplicate your result yet. Going to keep trying.
 
I have all of this loaded up and I just cant get it to label my image. It spits out an empty image in the preview

The process console says that images were identified but I just dont see them annotated



Custom catalog: 143 objects



Removing duplicate objects:

Found 0 duplicate objects in 897.200 us

Rendering annotation

Label placement optimization:

Optimizing for 14 entities, 1 quadtree node(s), height = 1

Optimizing: 0

Optimizing: 0

Layer Grid: 10 non-overlappable entities

Rendering OK
 
Thanks, could I possibly not be using J2000? It said J2000 on the link so I assumed I was ok there. Looking at other custom scripts though the RA data does not seem to look right. I attached my catalog .txt
 

Attachments

  • MBM Molecular Cloud Catalog - Copy.txt
    3.7 KB · Views: 57
I believe AnnotateImage recognises only the fields (column headings):
  • CODE (e.g. M1)
  • NAME (e.g. Crab Nebula)
  • RA
  • DEC
  • DIAMETER
  • MAGNITUDE
Other column headings will be ignored. Fields are separated by tabs. Anything (i.e. any text following a tab) after the last named column is ignored - so can be used as comment.
I believe the RA value must be a single number in decimal hours (0 ≤ RA < 24) and the DEC value must be a single number in (signed) decimal degrees.
I believe DIAMETER is in arc-minutes.
You have all the right data. Hopefully you have it aligned somewhere in a spreadsheet, where you can adjust the format.
 
blueridgeDSIA said:
Im not very familiar with modifying a query. Is there a way to incorporate the Diameter into this query?
Click to expand...
While I am quite happy messing around with post-processing queries, most of the flexibility is already available on the Simbad query interface.
The one slightly annoying limitation is that Simbad can output the RA and DEC either in "sexagesimal" format (between one and three space-separated fields: RA = h [m [sec]] DEC=d [m [sec]]) or "decimal" format ( single field, decimal degrees); sexagesimal is the format that produced your file, but it doesn't work because AnnotateImage doesn't (as far as I know) recognise the flexible multi-field RA and DEC values. The decimal format is much easier to handle, but the decimal degrees RA needs to be converted to decimal hour angle (x 24/360). The Simbad "output options" page can select these options (don't forget to "save" if you change any options - then just re-run the query). It can also select "angular size" (diameter - major and minor axes; needs processing to give a single number). On this page you can also select ASCII output to file, which I then import into Excel (or any other spreadsheet) for final cosmetic "tidy up" (e.g. column headings; unit conversion; etc.).
 
Last edited:
Eesh I think Im in over my head. I am going to try and get someone to help me get this to spit out the right way. On the up end, I will gladly come back and share the link so anyone can use an MBM Catalog to annotate their work.
 
Start from https://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-fid, then enter MBM at the Identifier search field and select "a whole catalogue" from the drop-down list for what you choose to query. With this you will be able to obtain the result of the link posted earlier. If you want to customize the output of a query, click the "Output options" button. There, among other options, you have the option to switch to decimal coordinates format and choose to have the angular size as an output too. Click the "Help" button at the query results for info regarding the angular size units and format. Experiment with the "Output options" and then perform any massaging needed in Excel or your software of choice.
 
Try the attached mbm.txt file as a custom catalog in the AnnotateImage script. I did not test it, but it will probably work. I often use similar custom catalogs.

And here is a Python script which created the catalog:
Python: 
from astroquery.simbad import Simbad

def parse_ra(coord_str):
    # 16 37.3 or 16 39 28.4
    parts = coord_str.split()
    raH = 0
    if len(parts) >= 1:
        raH = float(parts[0])
    raM = 0
    if len(parts) >= 2:
        raM = float(parts[1])
    raS = 0
    if len(parts) >= 3:
        raS = float(parts[2])
    ra = (raH + (raM + raS / 60) / 60) * 15
    #print(len(parts), parts, '->', ra)
    return str(ra)

def parse_dec(coord_str):
    # -12 16 or -14 05 21
    parts = coord_str.split()
    decH = 0
    if len(parts) >= 1:
        decH = float(parts[0])
    decM = 0
    if len(parts) >= 2:
        decM = float(parts[1])
    decS = 0
    if len(parts) >= 3:
        decS = float(parts[2])
    dec = decH + (decM + decS / 60) / 60
    #print(len(parts), parts, '->', dec)
    return str(dec)

result_table = Simbad.query_catalog('mbm')

#print(result_table.keys())
#result_table.pprint_all()

print('RA    DEC    NAME')

for row in result_table:
    f_RA   = parse_ra(str(row['RA']))
    f_Dec  = parse_dec(str(row['DEC']))
    f_Name = row['MAIN_ID']

    print(f_RA + '\t' + f_Dec + '\t' + f_Name)
 

Attachments

  • mbm.txt
    5.7 KB · Views: 60
While I have not used "custom catalogs" much, I have experimented with them before. I now find that I can't get them to work at all. After a lot of messing about with no success, I tried installing a copy of the "messier.txt" catalog - with no success. Then (with Messier unselected in AnnotateImage), I tried installing messier.txt (in its standard folder) as a custom catalog. It still didn't work. Has anything changed with respect to installing custom catalogs in AnnotateImage? Is there any guidance anywhere about what fields are allowed in a custom catalog, and with what constraints?
 
According to AdP/AstronomicalCatalogs.jsh (CustomCatalog -> parseHeader) a custom catalog supports the following fields: ra, dec, diameter, magnitude, name. Only ra and dec are required fields. Names of the fields are case insensitive.

The first line of the catalog line must include tab separated names of the fields. For example in the mbm.txt file the fields are:
RA DEC NAME
Subsequent lines contain tab separated values for each field. For mbm.txt: ra, dec and name.

Format of the fields:
ra, dec - float degrees;
diameter - float arcminutes;
magnitude - float number;
name - any text.

Hope this helps.
 
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