Tools for interacting with data on the Portal |
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There are a variety of tools available for interacting with the results of a search. The most prominent tool in the search results window is the AstroView Tool, which shows the footprint(s) of entries in the results grid superimposed on a sky background (by default, the Digital Sky Survey). AstroView is described separately.
Of the remaining tools, not all are available for every result. The following tools are indicated as icons in the Actions column:
Icon | Tool | Description |
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Timeseries Viewer | View the data in the Time Series Visualization tool | |
Spectral Viewer | View the data in the Spectrum Visualization tool | |
Jdaviz | View the data in the Jdaviz tool | |
Toggle Overlay Image | Toggle an image overlay in AstroView |
Only icons for tools that are applicable to the results table row are displayed. |
Some observations have cutouts of FITS images available for display. Cutouts are hidden from search results by default. To toggle the display of image cutouts, check the relevant cutout checkbox or radio button depending on the current view.
View | Icon |
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List View | |
Album View |
Checking the box will show a new Cutout column which displays cutout images for all search results where available (Figure 1). Results that have no cutouts available will display "No Cutout Available".
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Viewing cutouts in Album View (see Figure 2) opens up the option to change the resolution of the cutout. Use the dropdown menu on the right-hand side.
The Image Overlay action button indicates that the image of the relevant observation can be overlaid on the AstroView on-sky panel; see Figure 3.
The Spectral Viewer action button indicates that the relevant observation has a spectrum that can be viewed with the Spectrum Plotter tool. Clicking this button opens up a new window (Fig. 4), displaying the spectrum for the given row. To select and overplot multiple spectra (up to 10), select all valid rows of interest you wish to view, and click the Spectrum Viewer icon that is located in the Search Results Toolbar. This opens up the same window with all selected spectra over-plotted.
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Watch this video for details on the features of the Spectrum Viewer Tool.
The Configuration Panel has the following sections:
Section | Description |
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Range | Change the x-axis or y-axis display range or scaling |
Options | Change plot grid and line styles, or smooth the spectrum |
Indicators | Add a vertical line at a specified wavelength |
Line Lists | Add a marker for a specified spectral line |
Fitting | Perform simple spectral line fitting |
Doppler Shift | Shift the spectrum by a specified redshift or velocity value |
The TimeSeries action button indicates that the relevant observation has a time-series spectrum that can be viewed with the TimeSeries Plotter tool. Clicking this button opens up a new window (Figure 5), displaying the time series for the given row. All the spectra in the series are made available in the legend, but only one series may be viewed at a time. Time series also have an option to phase fold the data to discover periodic events such as transiting exoplanets. Phase folding may be enabled by entering a period (and optionally an epoch to apply a shift) and checking the "Enable Phase Folding" checkbox in the Phase Folding configuration section.
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The Configuration Panel has the following sections:
Section | Description |
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Range | Change the x-axis or y-axis display range or scaling |
Options | Change plot grid and line styles, or smooth the spectrum |
Phase Folding | Phase fold the time series spectrum by a specified period |
To cross-match a set of search results against other MAST or CDS catalogs, click the Cross-Match button, located in the Search Results Toolbar, to display a pop-up window (Figure 6). Select the catalog resource against which to match, specify the match radius in arcseconds, choose whether to match against all rows or a selected subset, and click the cross-match button to begin the search. The returned results will display as a new tab in the main Search Results Grid. The new tab will display all columns from the original search plus all columns from the matched catalog. To perform a successful cross-match, the original search results must contain proper RA and Dec coordinate columns. If no results are found, or an error occurred during cross-match, a pop-up message will be displayed indicating the reason, and no new tab will be created.
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To explore scatter plot relationships between columns in a set of search results, click the Charting Tool button, located in the Search Results Toolbar, to display a pop-up window (Figure 7). The plotter tool lets you plot any two numeric columns against each other for display as a scatter plot. Columns can also be combined by selecting the Combine Columns button, which allows for arithmetic between two columns. Each axis can be configured by adjusting the range sliders or manually specifying new axis bounds. The plot image will automatically adjust. Click "Reset Range" to reset the axis ranges to their defaults. The user may also click-and-drag in the plot window to zoom in on a region, which also updates the axis ranges automatically. Data subsets may be selected by holding Shift while click-and-dragging. The selected subsets will update the results displayed in the Results Grid.
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The Configuration Panel has the following sections:
Section | Description |
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Series | Change the selected columns to plot |
Range | Change the x-axis or y-axis display range or scaling |