Astroquery: vo_conesearch should return astropy Table rather than votable

[bsipocz]

[pllim]

Can you please assign to me? I am not watching the repo, so I didn't get notified.

Note to self: Answer "does it handle vector skycoords?"

[pllim]

Short answer: "classic" API follows original astropy behavior. Astroquery API in core.py should have returned Table. Please post a snippet with your use case. Thanks!

[bsipocz]

>>> from astroquery.vo_conesearch import conesearch
>>> from astropy.table import Table
>>> result = conesearch.conesearch( (287.9869104, 13.0748496), radius=0.1, catalog_db="http://localhost:8080/cone?", timeout=4*60)
>>> print(type(result))
<class 'astropy.io.votable.tree.Table'>

[pllim]

What you are using is the "classic" API. The first example in https://astroquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/vo_conesearch/vo_conesearch.html#getting-started is the astroquery compliant one, and it does return Table but the API is not as flexible.

[bsipocz]

should the "classic" maybe return a warning that it's "classic"?

[pllim]

I am not convinced that everyone would notice the warning. They are already bombarded with VO table warnings because none of the services are 100% compliant.

If this really bothers you, in the next astroquery major release, I can change the behavior for "classic" API. Let me know when it is time to do so. Thanks!

[bsipocz]

Thank you @pllim. I would love it to be a Table as astropy.table.Table (as the most confusing part was that when you print a votable it says "Table" at the top, but then none of the expected behaviours work.
However I don't know whether it fully round trips for votable-Table-votable. If it's not then maybe another "output_format" kwarg, or more examples in the docs would be the solution.

[pllim]

It is completely reasonable to change the returned table to be astropy.table.Table, as no sane person wants to access votable.Table directly given the choice. Although extra option does not hurt, so I'll definitely follow your suggestion when the time comes. Thanks!

[bsipocz]

Thanks, I really appreciate it :)

[pllim]

I just realized that I might have to update tutorials when these changes are in too... :grimacing:

[pllim]

Actually, I take it back... The "new" API also seems to return votable... Ops.