When you first launch the Solar System Search Form, you will see a screen like the one on the right. Read over the sentences described by the form:

Select the first _________ asteroids.
Please return their coordinates on September 22, 2006 in _________.

Here are what the different menu choices on the form mean:

Number of Asteroids

lets you choose the number of asteroids whose data you want to see. The form will make a query that will return data for that number of asteroids. Your choices are: 10; 50; 100; 500; 1,000; 5,000; 10,000; 30,000.

Type of Coordiante

lets you specify what type of coordinate you want to return. Your choices are RA and Dec and Ecliptic Longitude and Latitude.

RA (Right Ascension) and dec (Declination) are sky coordinates; Right Ascension is like longitude on the Earth, and Declination is like latitude on the Earth. Here are two good explanations of how the right ascension and declination system works (links open in a new window):

ThinkQuest
Sky & Telescope

Generating and Updating Your Query

lets you generate the SQL statement that will send your search request to SkyServer. When you have finished selecting all the choices that you want to select, click Generate Query to see the SQL statement. ALWAYS click Generate Query before clicking one of the buttons below to search the database.

Your complete SQL query will appear in the box below SQL Query. Study the query - it will help you learn how SQL works. If you want, you may return to the menus and select other options to change your query. If you do this, click Update Query to load the new version of your query.

If you want to edit your query directly by typing in the query box, click Edit Query. Make your changes; when you are satisfied with your edited query, click Done Edit. However, keep in mind that once you click Edit Query, you will NOT be able to make any further selections from the menus above unless you reset the form.

Reset Form resets all possible choices in the form to their default values, and clears any SQL Query in the query box.

Submitting Your Query to SkyServer

lets you submit your query to the SkyServer Solar System database. Click Submit Your Query to SkyServer to submit. You will receive numerical data for your results. You may choose from one of two formats for these data by clicking one of the radio buttons:

• HTML: a table that you can examine in your web browser
• CSV: a data file that can be opened by many spreadsheet programs, including Excel

After you have selected your data format, click Submit Your Query to SkyServer. Results of your search will appear in a new window.

If you requested Object IDs, and you plan to open CSV files in spreadsheet programs, you will need to take steps to make sure the IDs don't get cut off. See SkyServer's Graphing Tutorial to learn how to open the CSV file.

Hints for Better Searches

SkyServer has a very large solar system database, with complete information on hundreds of thousands of asteroids. The server that runs SkyServer has limits on the length of time that searches can run. If you edit your queries and don't plan your searches carefully, you could get a message that says, Timeout Expired, which means that your search will not return any data. Here are some tips to make sure your queries complete in a reasonable amount of time:

• To get a quick estimate of how many results your search will return, select "count only." The result of the search will be the total number of objects in the database that meet your search requirements.
• Select "top 100" or "top 1000" to limit the number of results your search will return.

If you have questions about this form, contact us.

Happy searching!