The Astro::SIMBAD module is an objected orientated Perl interface to the SIMBAD astronomical database. SIMBAD provides basic data, cross-identifications and bibliography for astronomical objects outside the solar system.
I'd like to point anyone interested in the Astro::SIMBAD module towards the Astro::Catalog module, which does most of what Astro::SIMBAD does, and a whole lot more. It may be more suitable for your needs.
Due to the requirements of the eSTAR project for which this module was written I needed a modern object-orientated interface I could use for data mining SIMBAD. This module was the result.
The module requires the libwww-perl-5.60 package written by Gisle Aas <gisle@ActiveState.com> v5.53 or above. This package can be obtained via CPAN at http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=libwww-perl
Also required is the Net::Domain module, v2.13 or above, by Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>. This module has been included in the base distribution since Perl 5.7.2, but otherwise can be downloaded from CPAN as part of the libnet package, see http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=libnet
The package provides the following classes
Astro::SIMBAD::Query
Astro::SIMBAD::Result
Astro::SIMBAD::Result::Object
Where can I get it?
The package is availabe from CPAN <http://www.cpan.org/> and from http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/people/aa/pages/computing/estar.html
Installation is automated using the ExtUtils::MakeMaker library
% perl Makefile.PL
% make
% make test
% make install
This module was written by Alasdair Allan <aa@astro.ex.ac.uk>, of the University of Exeter Astrophysics Group (http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/) as part of his work for the eSTAR project.
As of release V2..0 the module includes patches written by Mark Echeverri <echever@ipac.caltech.edu> to support object-type queries in addition to "list"-type queries.
This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place,Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA