DS9 Catalog Overlay
Dick Joyce wrote on Mar 03, 2009
This is not strictly an IRAF question, but the Analysis/Catalog function in DS9 now returns an error message "no items found" when attempting to overlay catalog sources on an image. This has worked very nicely in the past. The catalog tool correctly displays the WCS information (RA,DEC, field size), etc., but returns no sources for any of the catalogs.
If I do a catalog search such as 'mscgetcat', it does retrieve the information.
I have done the standard things such as remaking IRAF and reloading the DS9.
Thanks,
Dick
If I do a catalog search such as 'mscgetcat', it does retrieve the information.
I have done the standard things such as remaking IRAF and reloading the DS9.
Thanks,
Dick
Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on Mar 03, 2009
Hi Dick,
I tried this on a test image here and everything seemed fine, from your description I'd be tempted to write it off as a temporary service interruption and suggest you try it again. Otherwise, what catalog(s) were you trying to query and at what position? Was this the same DS9 binary that had previously worked? Is this an MEF image (you mentioned mscgetcat) or a simple FITS file? Since the RA/Dec showed up correctly I'm guessing you loaded the image standalone rather than from IRAF but please confirm.
Lastly, for an authoritative answer you can contact the DS9 developer directly by writing saord @ cfa.harvard.edu
Cheers,
-Mike
I tried this on a test image here and everything seemed fine, from your description I'd be tempted to write it off as a temporary service interruption and suggest you try it again. Otherwise, what catalog(s) were you trying to query and at what position? Was this the same DS9 binary that had previously worked? Is this an MEF image (you mentioned mscgetcat) or a simple FITS file? Since the RA/Dec showed up correctly I'm guessing you loaded the image standalone rather than from IRAF but please confirm.
Lastly, for an authoritative answer you can contact the DS9 developer directly by writing saord @ cfa.harvard.edu
Cheers,
-Mike
Dick Joyce wrote on Mar 03, 2009
Hi Mike:
Well, I still can't get it to work for me. I have tried images from several instruments, including DSS images, all of which have appropriate WCS information to display on the ds9 toolbar. Yes, I loaded through ds9 rather than IRAF, and the FK5 coordinates appear to be correctly displayed. When I do the catalog search, the catalog tool displays the correct FK5 coordinates and correctly reads the image field size. The "retrieve" button brings up the working message "Searching ....Catalog", the only problem being the "no items found" message. I tried every catalog listed.
I have been using a version of ds9 (4.0) which I downloaded from their site last fall because the default version of ds9 here at that time appeared to be an older version which did not have the catalog search capability. I now see that the default ds9 is 4.0 and brings up a wider selection of catalogs than the binary I had been using. However, the catalog search result is the same for both. I also rebooted my computer just in case...
I had Knut Olsen try this quickly on his machine with a similar null result, although he looked at only one or two catalogs. My comment about mscgetcat was just to verify that some sort of catalog searching within IRAF worked correctly; mscgetcat does not work for the WHIRC images because they are not MEF files (there is only one detector). Sorry if that misled you.
I will see what the folks at sao have to say about this.
Thanks,
Dick
Well, I still can't get it to work for me. I have tried images from several instruments, including DSS images, all of which have appropriate WCS information to display on the ds9 toolbar. Yes, I loaded through ds9 rather than IRAF, and the FK5 coordinates appear to be correctly displayed. When I do the catalog search, the catalog tool displays the correct FK5 coordinates and correctly reads the image field size. The "retrieve" button brings up the working message "Searching ....Catalog", the only problem being the "no items found" message. I tried every catalog listed.
I have been using a version of ds9 (4.0) which I downloaded from their site last fall because the default version of ds9 here at that time appeared to be an older version which did not have the catalog search capability. I now see that the default ds9 is 4.0 and brings up a wider selection of catalogs than the binary I had been using. However, the catalog search result is the same for both. I also rebooted my computer just in case...
I had Knut Olsen try this quickly on his machine with a similar null result, although he looked at only one or two catalogs. My comment about mscgetcat was just to verify that some sort of catalog searching within IRAF worked correctly; mscgetcat does not work for the WHIRC images because they are not MEF files (there is only one detector). Sorry if that misled you.
I will see what the folks at sao have to say about this.
Thanks,
Dick
Dick Joyce wrote on Mar 03, 2009
Bill Joye at SAO suggested downloading the latest version (5.5; I was using 4.0) of ds9, and this appears to have solved most of the problem. Catalog overlay now works properly except for some of the optical catalogs in a very dense field such as M13. Thanks for the help.
Last post on Mar 03, 2009