This has been deprecated for a long time, even though it still works.
It was originally written as simbot, later renamed to PySIMBAD, in 2006 for the TÜBİTAK National Observatory (TÜBİTAK Ulusal Gözlemevi - TUG) Data Archive, to resolve alternative names of astronomical objects, i.e. name resolution. Now there are various tools for that.
It would be wise to use this only for educational purposes, and use astroquery for production. https://github.com/astropy/astroquery
version 0.0.7 http://github.com/eaydin/PySIMBAD
This is a simple script, written in a simple manner.
Just connects to the CDS-Simbad Astronomical Services and retrieves information parsing the HTML files.
Can be used both as a Python module, or a standalone program.
Still has a lot to do, I'll add some stuff when I have the time.
Python 2.6.x
Can be used as a standalone program.
PySIMBAD.py <object name>
This will output everything that can be retrieved about the object.
Example :
PySIMBAD.py "bl cam"
Also can be used as a Python module.
Let's first import it.
import PySIMBAD as sim
Now we build a link for our desired object name, and we assign it to an object name (here named as "star"),
link = sim.buildLink("sirius")
star = sim.simbad(link)
Now let's see what we can do with it,
dir(star)
['__class__', '__delattr__', '__dict__', '__doc__', '__format__', '__getattribute__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__module__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', '__weakref__', 'dec', 'fk4', 'fk5', 'flux', 'flux_num', 'gal', 'getCoord', 'icrs', 'mainType', 'names', 'names_num', 'objectTypes', 'page', 'ra', 'refs']
So we have an attribute named fk5. Let's see what it does!
print star.fk5()
06 45 08.917 -16 42 58.02
print star.ra.__doc__
Returns a string RA joined by ':'
print star.ra(star.fk5())
06:45:08.917
Or we can just select the main type of the object (whether it's a galaxy, an asteroid, a supernova etc.)
print star.mainType()
Spectroscopic binary
How about the flux information?
print star.flux.__doc__
`Returns a dictionary of Fluxes according to their Colors.
Example :
>>> S.flux()
{'H': '-1.391', 'J': '-1.391', 'B': '-1.46', 'K': '-1.390', 'V': '-1.47'}
>>> S.flux()['J']
'-1.391'`
star.flux() {'H': '-1.391', 'J': '-1.391', 'B': '-1.46', 'K': '-1.390', 'V': '-1.47'}
Well, here's the best part (and it's why I started building it in the first place)
for i in star.names(): print i
NAME SIRIUS A
GEN# +1.00048915A
2MASS J06450887-1642566
SAO 151881
* alf CMa A
GJ 244 A
N30 1470
SBC7 288
* 9 CMa
HD 48915
NAME Dog Star
SBC9 416
* alf CMa
HGAM 556
NAME SIRIUS
SKY# 11855
ADS 5423 A
HIC 32349
NLTT 16953
TD1 8027
BD-16 1591
HIP 32349
NSV 17173
TYC 5949-2777-1
CCDM J06451-1643A
HR 2491
8pc 379.21A
UBV M 12413
CEL 1368
IDS 06408-1635 A
PLX 1577
UBV 6709
Ci 20 396
IRAS 06429-1639
PMC 90-93 186
USNO 816
CSI-16 1591 1
IRC -20105
PM 06430-1639A
uvby98 100048915 A
1E 064255-1639.4
JP11 1425
PPM 217626
WDS J06451-1643A
FK5 257
LFT 486
RAFGL 1007
Zkh 91
GAT 474
LHS 219
ROT 1088
GC 8833
LPM 243
RX J0645.1-1642
GCRV 4392
LTT 2638
1RXS J064509.3-164241
There you go, have fun...