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7.1.12 Matcher Combinations

In addition to the matching criteria listed in the previous subsections, you can build your own by combining any of these. To do this, take the two (or more) matchers that you want to use, and separate their names with a "+" character. The values* parameters of the combined matcher should then hold the concatenation of the values* entries of the constituent matchers, and the same for the params parameter.

So for instance the matcher "sky+1d" could be used with the following syntax:

matcher=sky+1d values*='<ra/degrees> <dec/degrees> <x>'
               params='<max-error/arcsec> <error>'
               tuning='<healpix-k> <bin-factor>'
values*:
  • ra/degrees: Right Ascension
  • dec/degrees: Declination
  • x: Cartesian co-ordinate #1
params:
  • max-error/arcsec: Maximum separation along a great circle
  • error: Maximum Cartesian separation for match
tuning:
  • healpix-k: Controls sky pixel size. Legal range 0 - 20. 0 is 60deg, 20 is 0.2".
  • bin-factor: Scaling factor to adjust bin size; larger values mean larger bins
This would compare positions on the sky with an additional scalar constraint. Rows are considered to match if both their ra, dec positions are within max-error arcseconds of each other along a great circle (as for matcher=sky) and their x values differ by no more than error (as for matcher=1d).

This example might be used for instance to identify objects from two catalogues which are within a couple of arcseconds and also 0.5 blue magnitudes of each other. Rolling your own matchers in this way can give you very flexible match constraints.


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STILTS - Starlink Tables Infrastructure Library Tool Set
Starlink User Note256
STILTS web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/stilts/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk
Mailing list: topcat-user@bristol.ac.uk