🔎Search

Search for stars and deep space objects.

Search endpoint can be used to get information for stars and deep space objects.

The response of this endpoint is an array of objects which is representing the results. Depending on the matching criteria, the resulting items could be of object type star or a deep space object.

See Search Result Properties for information on response object details.

Get available bodies

GET https://api.astronomyapi.com/api/v2/search

Returns a list of results based on the requested query

Query Parameters

Name	Type	Description
term*	string	Search term. Conditionally required if ra and dec values are not provided for area search.
match_type*	string	Matching algorithm. Valid values are fuzzy or exact . A fuzzy match will return results starting with the given term while an exact match will exactly match the term. Defaults to fuzzy . Optional for term search.
ra*	string	Right ascension value to search around. Must be a decimal value as a string representation. Required if dec value is provided.
dec*	string	Declination value to search around. Must be a decimal value as a string representation. Required if ra value is provided.
limit	string	How many records to return in the request.
offset	string	Use offset to paginate the results. 0 will return the first page, adding the limit to the offset will return the next page.
order_by	string	Order the results by the field. The supported value is name . Does not support during an area search.

Headers

Name	Type	Description
Authorization*	string	Basic

200: OK The response with the term as

{
    "meta": {
        "limit": 10,
        "offset": 0
    },
    "data": [
        {
            "id": "f9ea7803-44d6-56ea-a4c5-714d74d31237",
            "name": "Orion Nebula",
            "type": {
                "id": "SNR",
                "name": "Super Nova Remnant"
            },
            "subType": {
                "id": "EN+RN"
            },
            "crossIdentification": [
                {
                    "name": "M 42",
                    "catalogId": "M"
                },
                {
                    "name": "NGC 1976",
                    "catalogId": "NGC"
                },
                {
                    "name": "LBN 974",
                    "catalogId": "LBN"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Orion Nebula",
                    "catalogId": null
                },
                {
                    "name": "Great Orion Nebula",
                    "catalogId": null
                }
            ],
            "position": {
                "equatorial": {
                    "rightAscension": {
                        "hours": "5.59",
                        "string": "05h 35m 24s"
                    },
                    "declination": {
                        "degrees": "-4.61",
                        "string": "-5° 23' 24\""
                    }
                },
                "constellation": {
                    "id": "ori",
                    "short": "Ori",
                    "name": "Orion"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

Object types and sub types

Search API can only be used for searching stars and deep space objects. For searching for planets use the positions API instead. For a list of DOS types see DSO enums

Object catalogs

The following object catalogs are available for searching. Please note all objects may not be present in the database for some catalogs.

ID	Name
LBN	Lynds' Catalogue of Bright Nebulae
NGC	The New General Catalogue
HCG	A Hickson Compact Group
ZWG	The Catalogue of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies
HR	Revised Harvard Photometry
IC	Index Catalogue
UGC	The Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies
KUG	The Kiso Ultraviolet Galaxy Catalogue
FCC	A Catalogue and Photometric Properties of Galaxies
DDO	David Dunlap Observatory Catalogue
ARP	The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies
MCG	Morphological Catalogue of Galaxies
ESO	The European Southern Observatory Catalogue