SIMBAD

Downloading Magnitudes from a List of Identifiers to a Spreadsheet

1. Start on the SIMBAD home page. Look on the left for Queries, and then underneath that click on by identifier.
2. Set Output Options
   1. Click on Output Options, which is in a yellow box on the right-hand side of the other query modes row along the top. A new tab will open.
   2. Set the Output Format in the top row.
      1. Choose ASCII (;-separator for spreadsheet) from the drop-down menu.
      2. Check file output.
   3. Make changes to the List Display column.
      1. Make sure Identifier is checked.
      2. Make sure Fluxes/Magnitudes is checked
      3. You must also check the individual filters in the right-hand cells of the Fluxes/Magnitudes row. You have nothing to lose by clicking all of them.
      4. In general, uncheck all other rows, unless you are suspicious about your target list and would like some extra columns in your spreadsheet to act as a reality check.
   4. Click the SAVE button at the bottom to set a browser cookie and save your changes.
3. Query a List of Identifiers is on the bottom half of the page.
   1. Prepare a .txt Notepad file containing only SIMBAD acceptable identifiers without a header. Chances are if you got your list of identifiers from a catalog, you'll be okay.
   2. Click Choose File and browse to your text file.
   3. Check list display.
   4. Check Submit File.
4. A .csv file will begin downloading automatically.

• If you are using Excel, then you'll need to use Data > Text to Columns and explicitly tell it that you are using semi-colons as a delimiter.
• The first few rows of the file identify and timestamp the query
• Missing magnitudes for a given filter are shown with a tilde (~) symbol.
• Identifiers from the uploaded list that SIMBAD couldn't parse are listed separately at the end.

--Childers 15:21, 19 February 2012 (PST)