Finder Chart Known Bugs and Issues
Software version released: May 2023.
This list last updated: May 2023
Table of Contents
Reporting BugsSuggested Browsers
Known Major Bugs
Known Minor Bugs
Idiosyncrasies
Reporting Bugs
The known bugs and issues in this version of the Finder Chart service are listed here. If you think you have found a bug, before reporting it, please check this list, and read the online help. It may be a "feature" we already know about.
If you have found a real bug then please do let us know by contacting the Help Desk. Please include your operating system version and your browser software and version.
Suggested Browsers and Platforms
- Safari: at least version 12
- Firefox: at least version 90
- Google Chrome: at least version 90
- Edge: at least version 90
- Tablets: iPad Safari : Seems to work ok, though not on the iPhone. Cursory testing of a Droid tablet suggests it probably works ok.
Known Major Bugs
- Inconsistent handling of color images.
When you generate color images and then turn around and save the
images (in png or pdf), they may not be downloaded for all the targets
on which you searched.
Workaround: None known.Posted: March 2018
Known Minor Bugs
- Inconsistent handling of uploaded tables.
Sometimes, a table that you generate may work for some things (e.g.,
images) and fail for others (e.g., catalogs). Sometimes this is
transient network problems, and sometimes it is as simple as having a
hyphen in the filename.
Workaround: Rename the file to avoid hyphens. Run the file through the IPAC Table Validator to be sure it is 100% compliant.Posted: 14 December 2017 - Batch search hiccups.
Sometimes, when searching on a list of targets, the column that is
added by the tool called "in_row_id" sort of "eats" the columns of the
uploaded catalog. That is, suddenly the columns shift right, e.g.,
in_row_id is still there, but now the first column of the uploaded
catalog (might be cat_num) is populated with the same column of
numbers as in_row_id, the second column (might be num) has the first
column (cat_num) values, the third column (ra) has the second column
(num) values, etc. At a certain point, it no longer seems to render
the correct images for that target.
Workaround: Redo the search as soon as you notice this happening.Posted: 2019 - Changing color planes in 3-color images.
It used to be the case that you could change what images were used for
the different color planes in the 3-color images. This no longer
works.
Workaround: None known; it is on the list to add back in.Posted: 14 December 2017 - Multiple target 1-to-1 catalog matching for SDSS doesn't work
as advertised. There is not one line in the output for every line
in the input; only the hits are reported. (It works properly for the
rest of the catalogs, because they are here at IRSA.)
Workaround: Write code to match the sources by ID or RA/Dec for SDSS. OR, make sure your input list of targets has an object name column called "objname"; the column will be echoed in "objname_01" in the output, and then you can match rows by object name.Posted: 14 December 2017 - Regions files saved from large catalogs do not include all the
sources. If the file has >15,000 sources, it will make a
heatmap plot and show only a fraction of the sources on the image,
even if the image is zoomed in.
Workaround: Filter down the catalog by position or SNR until you have <15,000 sources.Posted: 14 Oct 2020 -
Catalogs not always overlaid for batch target search. When
searching on a list of targets, it may not overlay the catalogs
retrieved from the front page. The sources are there in that you can
click on them and have them highlighted, but the entire list of
targets may not be overplotted on the images.
Impact: lowWorkaround: Examine list of retrieved sources in the catalog and click on the source in the catalog to have it shown on the images.Posted: 27 January 2015 - Filtered catalog headers match the original, unfiltered
catalog, but the filtered catalog is saved.
Impact: lowWorkaround: manually change the total number of sources listed in the header to correctly reflect the total number of sources in the file.Posted: 9 December 2014 - VO catalog results not displayed
For VO catalog searches, the tool retrieves the catalog but is unable to display it.
Known Idiosyncrasies
- When searching for a catalog via the catalogs tab, the resulting
catalog is not overlaid on the images after the search. It used to do
this!
Notes: Yes, the catalogs used to be overplotted in a previous version of this tool, but given the potential for confusion since catalogs can now be searched from the front page, this behavior was changed. To overplot the catalog, go to the layers icon in the image toolbox and turn on the catalog overlay.Posted: 9 December 2014 - When searching for a catalog via the front page, and asking it
to search over very small search radii (the default), it does not look
like any catalogs are returned!
Notes: Especially if you are searching for just one source, the overlays of the catalogs will (most likely) all be right on top of the same, single source, and it will not be clear that the catalogs are overlaid at all, much less that the catalogs are different on each set of images. But, it is really overlaying the catalogs, and you can interact with them in the same way as any other catalogs returned.Helpful tip: If you leave the layers pop-up window open while you click on different images to select them, you can see the contents of the pop-up layers window change to reflect the layers (and options) present in that selected image.
Posted: 9 December 2014 - When leaving Finder Chart up overnight on my computer (or on a
laptop that I pick up and carry to another network or WiFi hub),
Finder Chart is sometimes left in a funny state.
Notes: Yes, these effects have been noticed before, but nothing consistent has been reproducible, so tracking down the root cause has been challenging. You will need to restart Finder Chart from its original URL.Posted: 9 December 2014 - Overlays on the 3-color images are often impossible to see.
Notes: Change the catalogs to light-colored overlays via the 'layers' icon, and use the image toolbox to bring the stretch of 3-color frames down so the background is mostly dark (a z-scale stretch on gray images enables you to see faint objects on the salt-and-pepper background, but for the 3-color images, a color "salt-and-pepper" with colored overlays is brutal). Bring the backgrounds closer to black.Posted: 9 December 2014