The VizieR database is hosted and developped by the CDS. This version of VizieR was released in November 2010.

1  Some useful hints for the VizieR usage

• 4 methods to search catalog:
  • By target name (resolved by Sesame) or position
  • By words using free text or predefined keywords (it includes author, catalog name, title, description, etc.)
  • By contents to search a type of data inside catalogs (search a catalogs containing a table which have a column with a given type (see UCD))
  • By Browsing modes by using lists or map maintened by the CDS.
  Note:

  The 3 first methods can be combined.

• Interoperability with external softwares:
  • The interaction with the CDS Portal enable you to save the VizieR results into a personalized account.
    This storage enable you to navigate inside the differents CDS services.
  • An XML output format (votable) enable you to reuse VizieR results with softwares compatible with the IVOA specifications.
  • If your browser accepts JAVA, you can send your results directly to SAMP compatible softwares.
  • The FITS format for astronomically-oriented applications is available.
  • Finally, output format like TSV (tab-separated values) could be used with your favorite spreadsheet.

• Operations on catalogs:
  • A set of catalogs can be joined into a single table if they have a common column with an identical name.
  • You can make a crossmatch between 2 or more tables of a set of catalogs (however, the number of resulting rows is truncated to a fixed number)
  • An external list of constraintscan be used to query 1 (or more) catalog(s).

• The VizieR navigation bar at the left of the page is available throughout your navigation. It remembers your choices and enable you to modify the output.

Note:

Currently the VizieR application use the POST method to navigate.
This approach can be problematic for bookmarking. However, you can save your result with using the CDS Portal; or click on the image (in the VizieR navigation bar ) to update the current Page in a GET form.

2  Overview

A query in VizieR can be achieved:

• either in the traditional way of stepping through the following actions:
  1. Select one or a few catalogues to be queried
  2. Refine your set of catalog from their description.
  3. Define your constraints or make some join operations
     (choice of the columns to display, the format, the sorting order, crossmatch , list of constraints, etc).
  4. Get the results in a tabular form. Correlated data may be found by a simple mouse click.
  5. Full Display of individual rows if wished; correlated data may be found when existing.

• or as a global search around a position on the sky addressed to all or to a subset of catalogues existing in VizieR: just fill the Target box and for more details, see the pages about Query from a Position.

A tutorial presents the basic VizieR functionnalities.

last update: 13 Feb 2024