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Sam Bianco - 2025 Feb 26

The astroquery.mast.MastMissions class now includes enhanced capabilities for retrieving and downloading data products! As a Python wrapper for the modern mission-specific search forms, MastMissions allows users to search mission-specific metadata and access data products more efficiently. The workflow for querying datasets and retrieving products is outlined in our “Searching for Mission-Specific Data with Astroquery” notebook. Other new features include authentication for proprietary data access and the ability to switch between missions to quickly change the collection being searched.

To check out the latest release (0.4.9.post1) of Astroquery and take advantage of these improvements, run the following command in a terminal:

    $ python -m pip install -U –-pre astroquery

You can verify your version by running these lines of code in a Python script or interactive session:

    import astroquery

    print(astroquery.__version__)

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to open a GitHub issue or email us at archive@stsci.edu. Thanks for using astroquery.mast!

A screenshot of a notebook tutorial titled “Searching for Mission-Specific Data with Astroquery.” The tutorial has a dark-themed interface with white text, blue links, and sidebar menus on the right and left. The main notebook content in the middle of the page outlines learning goals, including using the astroquery.mast module to access mission-specific data from MAST, run metadata queries, filter and download datasets, and search multiple missions. Below the learning goals, a table of contents lists sections such as querying for datasets, getting and downloading data products, and practice exercises. A collapsible navigation panel on the left provides links to other tutorials that are grouped by different missions. The selected notebook is found under “Multi-Mission Tools” and “Astroquery.” The right sidebar lists the contents of the current notebook. At the top are icons that allow the user to download and open the notebook with other tools, change the appearance of the page, and search for text within the notebook.
A screenshot of the “Searching for Mission-Specific Data with Astroquery” notebook tutorial. The main notebook content in the middle of the page outlines learning goals, including using the astroquery.mast module to access mission-specific data from MAST, run metadata queries, filter and download datasets, and search multiple missions. Below the learning goals, a table of contents lists sections such as querying for datasets, getting and downloading data products, and practice exercises.

 

Alt text: An infographic about astroquery.mast, a Python module for accessing astronomical data from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). The poster has a dark space-themed background with stars and an orange Astropy logo at the top. Illustrations of a telescope, the MAST logo, and a rocket ship are included for visual appeal. White text explains that Astroquery is a Python library that allows users to access online astronomical data archives and services programmatically. Astroquery.mast is a submodule of Astroquery that provides access to the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST), which contains data from over 20 missions. Astroquery.mast users can search for observation datasets and query for telescope data by object, coordinates, and other criteria. Users can retrieve and access data products, including raw and processed images, spectra, and light curves. Users can also query astronomical catalogs such as the Hubble Source Catalog, Gaia, Pan-STARRS, and more. Astroquery.mast also allows users to make cutouts from image products by extracting smaller regions from large astronomical images.
An infographic about astroquery.mast, a Python module for accessing astronomical data from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST).

 

 

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