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 |
"NED",
"SIMBAD", "CFA" = SIMBAD at CFA, "Don't Resolve" = search on target name without resolving to coordinates | default = NED |
| 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, B1900, B1950 | default value: J2000 |
| selectedColumnsCsv | Character | Example: hut_target_name,hut_data_id | comma separated list of lower-case output columns. A default set has been defined for each mission/table. Specify verb=3 to see all columns. |
| ordercolumn1 | Character | Example: ang_sep | primary sort column (defaults 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_Table" = Table in HTML format,
"VOTable" = VOTable format, "CSV" = comma-separated values, "SSV" = space-separated values, "PSV" = pipe-separated values, "COSV" = semicolon-separated values, "JSON" = JSON format, "Excel_Spreadsheet" = Excel Spreadsheet format Other formats available. | For non-VO services, default = HTML_Table. For VO services, VOTable is the default but HTML_Table is optional for SSAP. |
| showquery | Character | on, off | default = off |
| makedistinct | Character | on, off | default = off |
| coordformat | Character |
"sex" = Sexigesimal notation,
"dec" = decimal degrees, "dechr" = decimal hours for RA and decimal degrees for Dec |
default = sex |
| max_records | Integer | 1 to ? | default = 2000. Limit may be set by available memory, but values > 25,000 may not complete. |
| max_rpp | Integer | 1 to ? | default = 100. Defines the maximum number of records displayed per HTML page. Not used for other output file formats. |
| verb | Integer | 1 to 3 | default = 1. If verb=3, all the columns in the searched table will be output. Setting verb=1 or 2 just returns the default fields. |