TIC Tutorial - Single Target

Jump To: Search For A Target Name | Search For A Coordinate

Single Target Search: By Name

This tutorial will show you how to do a search on a single target, based on a target name, within the TESS Input Catalog in the MAST Portal. Specifically, we will do a search centered on the exoplanet host star HD 209458.

Upon visiting the MAST Portal, the first step is to change the collection of data we are searching in from the Context menu (Item #1) at the top left.

From the Context drop-down menu, select MAST Catalogs, then, in the Mission drop-down menu that appears (Item #1), select either TESS Input for the TIC, or TESS CTL for the candidate target list. In this example, we'll select TESS Input.

We are now ready to do a target search by entering text into the Search Box (Item #1). The Search Box uses a name resolver that accepts a wide range of text values, including any name that is resolvable by NED or Simbad, any catalog entry from the Kepler Input Catalog (e.g., "KIC nnnn"), the K2 EPIC Catalog (e.g., "EPIC nnnn"), and the TESS Input Catalog (e.g., "TIC nnnn"), as well as some special areas of the sky, such as "GOODS-N", "GOODS-S", "HUDF" for the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, etc. In this example, we'll do a search centered on the exoplanet host star HD 209458.

We now see the results of our search. First, note that the default search radius is often assigned to be a 0.2 degree radius (Item #1). Exceptions are for any objects resolved by external services (like NED) that have object radii defined for them, e.g., extended objects like galaxies or clusters. These can always be changed by specifying your search radius (see the Show Examples link below the search box for examples).

The search results area has three main panels, on the left is the Filters panel (Item #2), where you can select subsets of your returned rows by filtering column values. In the middle is the Search Results Grid (Item #3), which contains the table of results itself (hint: columns can be sorted by clicking on the headers). On the right is the AstroViewer (Item #4), which is a 3D sky map that will overplot the footprints of observations or catalog objects from your search results, and offers a wide range of background images from surveys that span the electromagnetic sepctrum from X-rays to the radio. We can see all the TIC sources in our 0.2 degree search radius quite clearly.

We'll do a quick filter to demonstrate how to select subsets. In the Filters panel on the left (Item #1), we'll scroll down to the Luminosity Class From RPM subpanel, and check the box to only select those targets identifed as dwarfs by the reduced proper motion diagram. Note: you can use the Edit Filters... link at the top of the Filters panel to add or remove any columns from the Filters panel, not every column will show up by default in the Filters panel. You can see in the AstroView the results of selecting only these targets (Item #2).

You can save the search results at any time using the Export Button (Item #1). From the dialog menu that appears, you'll be able to select the format of your output file and whether you want to export all the available columns in the catalog, or only those that are currently displayed in the Search Results Grid.

Single Target Search: By Coordinate

This tutorial will show you how to do a search on a single target, based on a coordinate, within the TESS Candidate Target List (CTL) in the MAST Portal. Specifically, we will do a search centered on the K2 Campaign 2 field.

Upon visiting the MAST Portal, the first step is to change the collection of data we are searching in from the Context menu (Item #1) at the top left.

We are now ready to do a target search by entering text into the Search Box (Item #1). The Search Box can accept coordinates in either decimal degrees or in sexagesimal format. You can specify a search radius by adding r = and then your desired radius. For example, r = 0.3d is a 0.3 degree search radius, r = 5m is a 5 arcminute search radius, and r = 3s is a 3 arcsecond search radius. For our example, we'll search on the K2 Campaign 2 field center located at 16:24:30 -22:26:50 with a search radius of 1.7d, which is roughly the size of a Kepler module. Note that this search may take a while, since searches with radii larger than a degree typically return a lot of rows.

We now see the results of our search. First, note that the search radius we specified is reported back to us in the query translation button (Item #1). The search results area has three main panels, on the left is the Filters panel (Item #2), where you can select subsets of your returned rows by filtering column values. In the middle is the Search Results Grid (Item #3), which contains the table of results itself (hint: columns can be sorted by clicking on the headers). On the right is the AstroViewer (Item #4), which is a 3D sky map that will overplot the footprints of observations or catalog objects from your search results, and offers a wide range of background images from surveys that span the electromagnetic sepctrum from X-rays to the radio. We can see all the TIC sources in our 1.7 degree search radius quite clearly.