I need to have fields in my database for the following:
- RA (
hh:mm:ss.00) - Dec (
Degrees:arcseconds:arcminutes.00)
I need to have the facility to search for a range within each field.
Any ideas?
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Which DBMS do you use?– ypercubeᵀᴹCommented Sep 29, 2014 at 19:47
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mysql workbench on mac– sarahCommented Sep 29, 2014 at 19:47
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On Microsoft SQL Server, Spatial Data features were used to build the SkyServer for astronomical use. See: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa964138(v=sql.90).aspx. I know that MySQL also has extensions for Spatial Data, so it might be possible to leverage that functionality. dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/spatial-extensions.html– RLFCommented Sep 29, 2014 at 20:41
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1 Answer
If you just want to store the coordinates, for later searching, your best bet is to convert from degrees-minutes-seconds to decimal degrees, and store as DECIMAL. Here is an answer giving mysql functions that do that conversion, in both directions.
If you want to do more complex things like "Is this point within the constellation Orion" then you probably need to use spatial data extensions, as @RLF suggested in a comment. http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/spatial-extensions.html http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/using-spatial-data.html
