Finder Chart: Results

Contents of page/chapter:
+Introduction
+Image Pane
+Table Pane
+Plot Pane
+Downloading Data

Introduction

After searching, Finder Chart presents to you its results in up to four panes. If you did a search on a single target, without catalogs, you have just one pane containing all the images you requested. If you did a search on a single target with catalogs, you have three panes -- images on top, catalog(s) in the lower left, and plot(s) of the catalog(s) in the lower right. If you did a search on multiple targets, you have your list of targets in the upper left, the images on the upper right, the resulting catalog(s) in the lower left, and plot(s) of the catalog(s) in the lower right.

This is an example Finder Chart results screen, which we now discuss.

Image Pane

The upper pane, by default, contains all the images matching your search criteria. If you chose to retrieve catalogs at the same time, the catalog is overlaid on the corresponding images -- that is, the 2MASS catalog appears on the 2MASS images, the WISE catalog appears on the WISE images, etc.

⚠ Tips and Troubleshooting

If you opted to have catalogs returned, even over a small radius, those catalogs are overlaid on the images...even if it doesn't look like it. If you have a relatively isolated, bright star, all the catalogs will return a source at the same location, so all the catalogs will be overlaid on the same bright star in each image. The example above is for catalogs searching "within the image boundary."
The color swatches at the top of the tables correspond to the colors used in the overlays. Go here for more information.
If you have a lot of sources in your retrieved catalogs (more than ~1000), your catalog may be rendered hierarchically -- go here for more information.

Along the top of the images, there are several notations.

Your search is summarized succinctly at the top.

The "Prepare Download" button initiates the data download process.

The "PDF" button is another kind of data download, where it makes a PDF of the search results.

This icon adds a 3-color image at the end of each row, where the constituents of the image come from that row.

This icon controls whether you view one image at a time (left icon) or many images at once (right icon).

All of the basic visualization tools are available to interact with the images.

⚠ Tips and Troubleshooting When the 2MASS survey was concluded and final tiles generated, internet (and computers) were much slower, and as a result, the final image tiles are small. Therefore, when you request 2MASS images, you may very well run into edges of tiles, as in the screenshot above where the 2MASS data appear to 'end' on the right hand side before the WISE or Spitzer data do. There really are 2MASS data over essentially the entire sky, and the tool is doing the best it can to get you the best possible tile given the position and size you requested, but you may very well run into an edge of a tile. If you really need a larger contiguous fraction of sky from 2MASS, try the IRSA Viewer tool, and use the "6 degree" (not 6x, but 6 degree) 2MASS images.

Table Pane

All the tables in this tool allow you to filter, sort, manipulate, hide or add columns, etc.

If you opted to have catalogs returned, the lower left pane is a table with tabs for all of the catalogs meeting your search criteria; the catalogs are also overlaid on the images. If you pick a different row in a catalog of search results, that target is highlighted on the images.

If you did a multi-target search, the upper left pane is a table of your input target list, with all the same capabilities as other tables in this tool. If you pick a different row in a search target list, the images update to reflect that search target choice.

Plot Pane

By default, the tool also gives you an x-y plot. It appears on the lower right. By default, it is a plot of the RA and Dec from the corresponding retrieved catalog. If you did a search on an individual stellar target and asked it to only get you a catalog for sources within a small (default) search radius of your target, this is likely a fairly boring plot, as it probably contains only one target.

However, if you choose to retrieve catalogs over the whole image, or you search for more catalogs, the plots are more interesting even in their default ra/dec state. You can make more sophisticated plots in this tab.

Downloading Data

Downloading is covered in separate section.