Lookup can do three things: 1) Look up an object name in NED and/or SIMBAD for its coordinates; 2) Pull the coordinates out of a full 2MASS or WISE catalog name; or 3) Translate astronomical coordinates into several different systems.

The same input field is used in each case. For a single source, enter the object or coordinate string in the text box. For table input, use a column called "objname".

If doing coordinate translation, the input coordinates can be in a variety of forms -- all of the following are valid:

• 17h 44m 34s -27d 59m 13s Equtorial J2000
• 17h44m34s -27d59m13s
• 00h42m44.3s +41d16m08s b1950
• 00:42:44.3 -41:16:08
• 00 42 44.3 -41 16 08 b1983
• 004244.3 -411608
• 17h -27d Equ J2000
• 17h -27d
• 34.5565 54.2321 gal
• 34. 54. ecl

Name Resolver Options

1) NED then SIMBAD. This is the default. It will search NED first, then SIMBAD if no result is found, but note that it defers to SIMBAD objects NED identifies as "stellar" types: "*", "**", "*Ass", "Blue*", "*Cl", "C*", "Flare*", "Psr", "Red*", "SN", "SNR", "V*", "WD*", or "WR*", with or without a preceding "!", indicating an object in the Galaxy. That is, SIMBAD coordinates will be adopted if this object can be found in SIMBAD under that name (and the connection to SIMBAD is up).

2) NED only.

3) SIMBAD only.

4) SIMBAD then NED.

Table Upload

Use the [Browse...] button to select a table file on your computer for upload. The table file should be an ASCII file. The filename should not have spaces in it.

The table should have one column with the string to be parsed, in a column labeled "objname". A number of table formats are allowed. But a simple format shown below is IPAC Table Format. You can read about other possible formats here: Table Upload Help. (Lookup generally follows the same rules as the Dust Extinction service.)

|  objname  |
|  char     |
    M31

Download the example table.