General Search Parameters

Besides the mission-specific parameters described in the mission help pages, the MAST mission search forms share several general parameters. These parameters may be included in HTTP GET requests and are described below.

The list below shows the parameter name as specified in the url, followed by the type of value allowed, valid values, and notes. Note the parameter names may be case-sensitive. If you click on the parameter name, a more detailed description of the data will be found.

Parameter	Data Type	Valid Values	Notes
target	Character	Examples: M+81,HD+60753	use "+" to fill blanks
resolver	Character	SIMBAD, NED	default = SIMBAD
radius	Float	Range: 0.0 - ?	default = 3.0 arcmin (20 for vla-first)
ra	Float	Range: 0.0 - 360.0
dec	Float	Range: -90.0 - 90.0
equinox	Character	J2000	default value: J2000
selectedColumnsCsv	Character	Example: hut_target_name,hut_data_id	comma separated list of output columns
ordercolumn1	Character	Example: ang_sep	primary sort column (dfefaults are mission specific)
descending1	Character	on	if not specified, values are in ascending order
ordercolumn2	Character	Example: ra	2nd sort column
descending2	Character	on	if not specified, values are in ascending order
ordercolumn3	Character	Example: dec	3rd sort column
descending3	Character	on	if not specified, values are in ascending order
outputformat	Character	html,csv,Excel_Spreadsheet,VOTable	default = html
showquery	Character	on, off	default = off
makedistinct	Character	on, off	default = off
max_records	Integer	1,50,100,200,500,1000,1500	default = 100