query mode

Input

query mode has the arguments described below. Any arguments which are omitted will be prompted for, with the exception of additional-condition. Thus, if an additional-condition is specified then all the arguments must be included on the command line.

db-name

Name of the database to be queried (see Section ).

$\alpha$

Central Right Ascension of the query. The value should be for equinox J2000 and given in sexagesimal hours with a colon (`:') as the separator.

$\delta$

Central Declination of the query. The value should be for equinox J2000 and given in sexagesimal degrees with a colon (`:') as the separator. Southern Declinations are negative.

radius

Radius of the query in minutes of arc.

additional-condition

Any additional condition applied to the query. Databases vary in which, if any, additional queries they support. Three forms of additional-condition are accepted. The first is:

column-name=minimum-value,maximum-value

and objects will only be selected if their value for column column-name lies between minimum-value and maximum-value. The second is:

minimum-magnitude,maximum-magnitude

here the range is assumed to be a magnitude and no column name is specified (remember that magnitudes increase the `wrong way round' so that minimum-magnitude corresponds to the brightest object). The third is:

maximum-magnitude

which is again assumed to be a magnitude and only objects brighter than maximum-magnitude are selected. For completeness, the relationship between the forms of additional-condition and the `query tokens' for the database specified in the configuration file (as described in SSN/75[3]) is that additional-condition replaces the tokens as follows:

	Form	replaces token
first:	column-name=minimum-value,maximum-value	%cond
second:	minimum-magnitude,maximum-magnitude	%m1, %m2
third:	maximum-magnitude	%m

Output

The objects selected are written as a catalogue in the Tab-Separated Table (TST) format in the current directory. The TST format is described in SSN/75[3]. The name of the catalogue file is derived automatically from the name of the database and the central Right Ascension and Declination. catremote displays a line showing the name of the file created, for example:

!(Info.) Catalogue usno_eso_101500_303000.tab written successfully.

If the catalogue contained no objects which satisfied the query catremote will report:

! Failure: no objects found in the region specified.