Qualifiers

Qualifiers can be entered into any of the qualification table qualifiers columns entries. These qualifiers are used to build up the database query when the search button is pressed.

Note that object name is not an especially good qualifier to specify, as many objects are referenced by different names. StarView does not attempt to find aliases for target names when they are put into a form. Rather, a target resolver tool to use either the Simbad or NED databases to resolve object names to coordinates is provided. Once a form is up, you can click on the target resolver button and will be presented with

Fill out the target name and click resolve. The resolve button will become a cancel button and can be pressed at any time to cancel the search. Once resolved, the coordinates will be pushed onto the first instances of ra and declination on the qualification screen.

Syntax of StarView Qualifiers

Qualifiers are specified as they were under previous versions of StarView. One can simply specify the value expected in the field for all fields except coordinates. Coordinates are always specified as ranges. Notes about coordinates are listed below.

Text Qualifiers

Most qualifiers are text based (logical types char, text, varchar, lastname...). Those qualifiers that require numeric entries will warn the user if they have entered invalid data after the user finishes editing the field.
Starview understands the case sensitivity of many of these fields and will take care of capitalization for you. For example, insturment names are all caps in the database, so StarView capitalizes your entries.
Most fields do not wildcard your qualification. WFPC should not match WFPC2. One logical type will, the wildtext. You can see the logical type of a qualifier in the fourth column of the qualifier table. If it is wildtext the wildcards are inserted at the beginning, end, and around all punctuation characters (,;| and &). Examples are

Galaxy qualifies (case insensitive) on *galaxy*
Starburst, galaxy qualifies on *galaxy* AND *starburst* (matches as long as both appear in the text).
Starburst Galaxy qualifies on *starburst galaxy* (matches the phrase as there are no punctuation marks).
Starburst Galaxy, star formation qualifies on *starburst galaxy* AND *star formation*.

Special Characters

* - wild card (R* matches all things staring with R)

, - join multiple qualifiers with an OR (R*;*E matches all things starting with R OR ending with E)

; - join multiple qualifiers with an AND (R*;*E matches all things starting with R AND ending with E)

.. - specify a range of values (2..3 specifies things in the range of values from 2 to 3)

() - parentheses are used to specify order of operation (e.g. a;(b,c) yields (b or c) and a)

> - greater than (valid only for numeric fields)

< - less than (valid only for numeric fields)

Numeric and Date Formats

Coordinates and times can be listed in decimal format (-14.232223) OR in segidecimal (-14:17:23.2). Segidecimal numbers may be degrees and minutes or degrees, minutes, and seconds.

All dates and times are in Universal Time.

Dates are listed in Month Date, Year (e.g. October 12, 2000), Month/Day/Year (10/12/2000), or Year-Month-Day (2000-12-10). Dates listed without times cover the entire day.

Note that queries encompass all time up to the precision of the qualifier. If the qualifier only lists a year, then the qualifier includes everything from January 1 to December 31 of that year. If the qualifier is listed to the hour(t.g. 1999-04-12 10, then everything in that hour is included.

Times are really only used up to the nearest second.

Special Notes about coordinates

All coordinates are in the J2000 system.
Coordinates must be given in ra and dec pairs. For every RA in a list, there must be a corresponding Dec.
Searches are done in boxes around these coordinates such that ra = 1,2 and dec = 3,4 finds boxes around 1,3 and 2,4 but not 2,3 and 1,4.
The units of RA depend on the users environment. By default they are in hours of time. The Environment popup (found under the View menu item) allows the user (on the Data Formats tab) to choose the RA Format for the display to be hms (for hours, minutes, and seconds), decimal hours, or decimal degrees. If the output is either hms or decimal_hours the qualifiers input is in hours of time. Otherwise it will be in degrees of time.
The units of Dec are always in degrees of arc.
The radius for the coordinate is to be given in degrees of arc. It may be formatted either as a decimal number (0.166667) or as a segidecimal number (0:10).
There should be a radius in its qualifier for each RA and Dec pair.
The radius will be used to search around any single coordinate point. If a range is specified, the radius is ignored and the range specified is used.
One can mix points and ranges in a single coordinate (e.g. ra = 23:12:44 dec =-14.22..-15.30). The single point will use the default radius while the range will ignore it.

Getting details on a particular qualifer

To get more information about a qualifier, right click on the qualifiers row and select Get DB Field Info from the menu. You will be presented with a window that looks like this

Here you find the name of the database, the database table, and the database field for this qualifier. The label for the form is specified, as is the type of data, the logical type, any associated fields (ra is associated with dec), a list of constraints, and help text currently based on the keywords from the data that populate this field.