A minimal code to query the RNGC (Revised NGC).
For this code to work, you must have specifiet the catalog location with a symbolic link. Here is the line in my .cshrc file on one of my home machines I use to do this:setenv RNGC $scohome/codes/fortran/gfortran_compiler/lmgf/src/critical_files/rngc/catalog.dat
The procedure to run rngc is really simple:
% rngc.sh
Usage: rngc.sh 2 1
arg1 - object type (1=open cl. 2=glob.cl. 5=galaxy)
arg2 - Ra,Dec format (1=degrees, 2=sexigecimal)
% rngc.sh 1 1 > my.open_clusters
% head -8 my.open_clusters
5.975000 61.200001 1975.0 NGC0103
6.475000 71.250000 1975.0 NGC0110
7.125000 60.083332 1975.0 NGC0129
7.425000 63.216667 1975.0 NGC0133
7.525000 61.383335 1975.0 NGC0136
7.900001 63.133335 1975.0 NGC0146
10.475000 85.199997 1975.0 NGC0188
9.325000 60.916668 1975.0 NGC0189
The output is very simple:
col1 = RA in degrees
col2 = DEC in degrees
col3 = equinox
col4 = NGC name
If I use iform=2 I get the coordinates in sexigecimal format:
% rngc.sh 5 2 > my.galaxies
% head -8 my.galaxies
00:06:00.00 +27:34:00.0 1975.0 NGC0001
00:06:00.00 +27:32:00.0 1975.0 NGC0002
00:06:00.00 +08:09:00.0 1975.0 NGC0003
00:06:54.00 +08:01:00.0 1975.0 NGC0004
00:06:30.00 +35:13:00.0 1975.0 NGC0005
00:07:06.00 -30:03:00.0 1975.0 NGC0007
00:07:30.00 +23:42:00.0 1975.0 NGC0008
00:07:36.00 +23:40:00.0 1975.0 NGC0009
You can impose RA,DEC limits by building a local
file named RADEC.limits. This file contains the
(floating point) min/max limits in Ra(HOURS) and
Dec (DEGREES). Here is an example:
% cat RADEC.LIMITS
8.0 18.0 -4.0 65.0
I could easily precess my iform=2 list to J2000.0 with the
precess_list task:
% precess_list my.galaxies 2000.0 New.list % head -8 New.list