National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NAVO for Astronomers

NAVO helps get to the data in the NASA archives.

Python Notebooks

We supply a number of Python Notebooks, giving concrete examples on how to query our archives with specific use pages.

Tools

• NAVO Tools: Using NAVO (and VO) Interfaces
• What kinds of data are available?

Usage Scenarios

Resource Discovery

To discover the kinds of services that are available very generally scientists may query the VO registry a database of VO enabled capabilities. You can query the registry interactively in a faceted interface using the MAST Directory service, or through the Python module.

Querying catalogs and cross-correlations

For example, suppose ou want to look to see which of your set of Spitzer observed AGN have already been observed by ST and by which instruments.

Cone and Table access VO protocols

The Cone and Table access VO protocols allow you to make simple positional or SQL like queries of NAVO and other VO resources. A number of our Python notebooks give examples of how to get a standard Python table from a VO resource, and you can use standard Python table tools on these. The TOPCAT interface is a very powerful standalone tool for getting and manipulating VO tools -- including doing cross-correlations. The associated STILTS library lets you do the same kinds of things in scripts. The HEASARC Xamin web interface allows retrieval and correlations of VO data.

Spectral Analysis

The IRIS tool is a standalone capability that can retrieve spectral data using the spectral and generate SEDs or fits spectra. The Python notebook illustrates how you can use the VO protocols from within Python and feed into Python spectral analysis packages.