Gaia

giant.catalogs.gaia:

class giant.catalogs.gaia.Gaia(data_release='gaiadr3', catalog_file=None, include_proper_motion=True)[source]

This class provides access to the GAIA star catalog.

This class is a fully functional catalog for GIANT and can be used anywhere that GIANT expects a star catalog. As such, it implements the include_proper_motion to turn proper motion on or off as well as the method query_catalog(), which is how stars are queried into the GIANT format.

To use this class simply initialize it, specifying either the data release to use or pointing it to the file of the stored catalog (see build_catalog() for details). Once the class is initialized, you can query stars from it using query_catalog() which will return a DataFrame of the star records with GIANT_COLUMNS columns.

Parameters:

  • data_release (str) – The identifier for the data release to use. Typically this is of the form gaiaxxxx where xxxx is like dr2, edr3, etc.

  • catalog_file (Path | str | None) – A path to the stored catalog in a HDF5 file. If this is set to None then the data will be downloaded through the TAP+ service (requiring an internet connection).

  • include_proper_motion (bool) – A boolean flag specifying whether to apply proper motion when retrieving the stars

include_proper_motion

Apply proper motion to queried star locations to get the location at the requested time

data_release

The GAIA data release identifier to use when querying the TAP+ service

catalog_file

The path to the HDF5 file containing a local copy of the catalog

Summary of Methods

query_catalog

This method queries stars from the catalog that meet specified constraints and returns them as a DataFrame with columns of GIANT_COLUMNS.

convert_to_giant_catalog

This method converts records in the catalog format into records in the GIANT format.

get_stars_directions_and_pixels

This function produces the visible stars in an image, including their records, their inertial unit vectors, and their pixel locations.