akjmicro17/wds-tools repository overview

⁠Washington Double Star Catalog Tools

This is a handy and practical toolkit for astronomers interested in doubles star observing, and selecting various populations of double stars against various attributes, via SQL/sqlite3 tools. The data comes from the legendary, venerable, and largest catalog for double-stars in history: the Washington Double Star Catalog.

This kit makes it easy for anyone to get up and running, since it is also distributed as a ready-made docker container. But even if you don't use docker, it is quite easy to get going anyway by cloning the github repo.

⁠Running with docker:

• docker pull akjmicro17/wds-tools
• docker run -it akjmicro17/wds-tools

⁠Or, grab the code via github:

git clone https://github.com/akjmicro/wds-tools

If you've grabbed the code, you can optionally run it in docker via supplied helper scripts. If you run a decent OS (Linux or MacOS) with a decent shell, these should work:

• Option 1 (fetching the image and running it): ./fetch_and_run_docker.sh
• Option 2 (building the image locally, and running it): ./build_and_run_docker.sh

⁠How to use

Typically, you will only need to just fire up an sqlite3 command against the database, and just query using normal SQL. Understanding the use of SQL is beyond the scope of this documentation, however, a couple of examples might help:

sqlite3 wds_doubles.db

# (you'll now be dropped into an `sqlite3` prompt...)
select * from medium_doubles;
select * from tight_doubles where (mag2 - mag1) < 4;

Have a look at the setup of the database with certain views, etc. that exist in dbsetup.sql. Feel free to modify those or add to them to your heart's content.

In the event you feel the data is not up-to-date, just run refresh_data_setup.sh

⁠Exporting to SkySafari

If you create a nice database view of a select subset of interesting doubles, you can reference that view and auto-dump to a file called export.skylist. Here's how:

# Edit the contents of `make_skysafari_list.sql` first
# so that you capture whatever view or select statement you want
# The you can do:
sqlite3 wds_doubles.db
# Now, in the sqlite3 prompt:
.read make_skysafari_list.sql

Your new importable list is called export.skylist. Mail it as an attachment to yourself, import into SkySafari via, for example for the mobile app, clicking on the email attachment which will automatically add a new observing list for .skylist file-types. For best results, so more details get added, an extra step can be to now export this list back out to yourself via email (from SkySafari). The reason being: SkySafari automatically indexes the catalog entries properly with extra details from its own database. Once done, you can then delete the originally imported list and re-import the list you just exported that contains all the added details.

⁠Odds and ends

Contact me with questions, or if you want to add to the project.

Cheers, and enjoy those doubles!