astronomy-commons / astronomy-commons/lsdb

Calculate the association maximum separation using the positional coordinates

Open
#945 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
enhancement
Dominant language
Python
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55
Forks
26
Avg merge
4d 1h
Merged PRs (30d)
8

Description

Association catalogs have a `hats_assn_max_separation` property which defines the maximum separation between any two points in the catalog.

We should calculate this distance directly from the positional coordinates (ra/dec) of the catalogs participating in the crossmatch, instead of using a pre-existing separation column.

_Originally posted by @smcguire-cmu in https://github.com/astronomy-commons/lsdb/pull/811#discussion_r2223865688_:

"Not all crossmatch algorithms are required to give a separation column, and if they do it might be in different units. And it's annoying for the user to have to provide this. I think it will be easier to just compute the max separation from the ra dec columns."

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Research direction

Start by locating the code that sets the hats_assn_max_separation property during catalog crossmatching and inspect how it currently uses a separation column. Trace the ra/dec inputs from the participating catalogs. Done means the maximum separation is computed from positional coordinates without requiring a pre-existing separation column or assuming its units.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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