Catalog Configuration Information

The list of available catalogs and image servers is stored in one or more catalog configuration files, locally or somewhere on the net. An environment variable CATLIB_CONFIG may be set to the URL for the config file, otherwise a default URL is used that points to the central ESO catalog list. These config files are initially created by hand, usually by the same people who provide the catalog servers. Some applications, such as Skycat, provide interfaces for editing the config files and storing local copies of them. In this way users can keep a list of favorite catalogs in their own personal catalog config file. A detailed description of the config file format can be found at the end of this section.

All of the information in the catalog config files is available via the C++ and Tcl library interfaces, so for example, an application can easily determine whether or not a catalog supports World Coordinates and if so, which columns are used for RA and DEC.