Create a Source Catalog

Overview

Personal (re)source catalogs can be created, modified, and removed using the menu strip and icon menu at the top of the tools page. It is convenient to collect (re)sources for a specific project in a separate catalog, especially for convenience during SB creation and also when sharing with co-I's.

For all approved VLA proposals submitted through the PST, once your project has been imported into the OPT by NRAO staff, a source catalog will be created and populated with the approved sources from the proposal.  This source catalog will be labeled with the proposal/project code (e.g., 20A-123) and located in the left-hand side column. You should follow the exercise in the previous section and examples below to get a feel for what is in your source catalog. This is also a good time to double check the source coordinates of your science targets in your source catalog.  How to modify the content will be explained in a later section.

Important Note:  The OPT does not use global source properties; if you modify a source you must use the OPT to re-import the updated source to every applicable scan. For this procedure, a Bulk Scan Edit feature (described in a later section) has been implemented in the OPT per SB.


Icon Menu and Menu Strip Options:  The icon menu is the line of little icons at the top of the (re)source catalogs in the left-hand side column. They have the same functionality as the options from the menu strip (below), although not every menu strip option is represented as they are not used as often. Only basic cut/copy/paste and reordering can be done with this icon menu. Note that the actions selected from the icon menu apply only to editing in the left-hand side column. Only valid actions will have an active icon in the menu, i.e., pasting an item may only be performed after copying or cutting the item first — until then the paste-icon will appear grayed-out. Hovering over an item with your mouse will display a pop-up tool-tip help to remind you of the action attached to the icon, but we also show them for reference below:

	Cut (or delete) selected tree item
	Copy selected tree item
	Paste selected tree item
	Move the selected catalog up in the tree
	Move the selected catalog down in the tree

The same icon menu can be found in the RCT; for the OPT we will present additional icons for more options related to ordering scans in the OPT. Remember that these icons act only on the left-hand side column items.

The menu strip in the dark blue banner at the top of the page is used for creating new catalogs: FILE → CREATE NEW → CATALOG.  It is not advisable to copy the VLA catalog into a new personal catalog and add new target sources, but it is useful to copy VLA sources into a new or existing personal catalog. The menu strip options under FILE and EDIT are grayed out with a line through them if that particular option is not valid for the current selection (highlighted item in the catalog tree in the left-hand side column). If the action you want to perform shows up as an invalid option (e.g., EDIT → CUT → GROUP to delete your group of sources) this usually means that you are not at the right place in the tree (e.g., not in the group, but in the upper level catalog). The names of the actions are self-explanatory, so we only list them for reference in the table. A similar list of menu strip options is available in the RCT and OPT, but with options specific to the tools. The menu strip options may act on both items in the left-hand side column as well as items in the main editing window.

Add Sources to a Personal Catalog

There are three ways to add sources to a personal catalog, each described below. A fourth one is that the OPT gets filled with information from the PST once the TAC has approved observing time for your project. If you find a catalog imported directly from the PST, please carefully check the target source positions before you start using them in the OPT as you may have not entered them in the PST as you want them to appear in the SCT/OPT.

Import Source Lists

If you or a co-investigator uploaded a source list with your proposal in the PST, and this source list has not been transferred from the PST (or you prefer to delete that one), you should be able to get a head-start by uploading the same source list to the OPT. Use FILE → IMPORT... to communicate with a dialog box. Choose PST as input format and name your source catalog after it has been uploaded by selecting the New Catalog and navigating to the Properties tab. As a reminder, the PST format is/can be found in the relevant section of the PST manual (or in the complete description) in case you decide to make such a file at this stage. You may want to check the details of some sources to verify that the information has ended up correctly in the source property definitions. Verifying it now may save you more trouble later on when creating SBs.

If you would like to create a source list, the section, Text Files and Catalogs in the OPT Suite, describes in more detail the syntax, how to create a source list, and provides source list examples.

Copy Sources from Existing Catalogs

It is likely that your anticipated calibrator sources (which may not have been included in the proposal cover sheets) are already defined in the VLA calibrator source catalog. You can search for calibrator sources using the search tool described earlier in this section. In the catalog (or group) or in the search results you can select one or more sources you desire to add to your personal catalog by ticking the check-box(es) in front of the source name and editing icon using the top menu strip EDIT → COPY → SOURCES, etc. Then select the destination catalog or group and simply paste the copied sources: EDIT → PASTE → SOURCES, etc. You must repeat this action for each catalog or search results table page. Again verify that the source information in your personal source catalog is correct, e.g., by adding additional digits to a source position, prior to assigning source information to scans in the OPT. An example sequence would be as follows:

1. Make sure you have navigated to the SCT.
2. From the top menu strip select FILE → CREATE NEW →  CATALOG; you can skip this and the next step if the catalog you want to use already exists and is writable (the catalog name is not in red italic font), e.g., the catalog automatically generated with your project ID.
3. Your new catalog with the default name [New Catalog] appears in the main editing window, in the Properties tab. Change the name of the catalog to something useful to remind you of its purpose.
4. Optionally, add the names of coauthors that you want to share the catalog with and who may edit the sources in the catalog.
5. At this stage you may choose to group your sources. This is not necessary but convenient if you are going to have many sources. If you want to group sources in this catalog, select FILE → CREATE NEW → GROUP and name your group under the Properties tab.
6. Click to navigate back to the first tab: Sources.
7. Select the VLA source catalog and perform your source search as described previously; use Advanced Search or External Search if necessary.
8. In the source table to the right, in the main editing window, check the source(s) you want. If you don't know which source to select, study the details of each before selecting one. If there are more sources than fit on a page you can change the number of sources per page from 25 to 50 or 100, or use multiple actions to select all your sources in subsequent steps.
9. From the top menu strip select EDIT → COPY → SOURCES.
10. Select your newly named source catalog (or group within it).
11. From the top menu strip select EDIT → PASTE → SOURCES. If there are groups in the catalog, you will have the option to add them to a group as well. The sources now show up on the right-hand side.
12. This can also be achieved by copy/paste of entire groups and/or entire catalogs using the top menu strip options or the menu icons at the top of the (left-hand side) source catalog column. Use the fly-over tool-tip help to identify the proper icon for each action.
13. You may check the source properties using the Show/Edit icon for each catalog entry. You can also reorganize your sources by adding groups (FILE → CREATE NEW → GROUP) and move your sources around using the column icon menu, or using EDIT in the top menu strip. Unwanted sources can be deleted using Cut.
14. If you are unhappy with the name of the catalog or group you can always rename it by selecting it and then clicking on the Properties tab.

Note that sources do not have to belong to a group. If you have specified groups, sources that do not belong to that group will not show up if you select that group. When there are sources in groups and sources not belonging to a group in the same catalog, you can only see and select a source without a group when you select the entire catalog.