Merge pull request #3527 from cds-astro/vizier-document-query-object-radius

vizier: add precisions about query_object

Author: bsipocz

astroquery/vizier/core.py

@@ -359,6 +359,9 @@ def query_object_async(self, object_name, *, catalog=None, radius=None,
         Serves the same purpose as `query_object` but only
         returns the HTTP response rather than the parsed result.
 
+        This resolves the object name into coordinates and searches around these in a
+        small radius.
+
         Parameters
         ----------
         object_name : str
@@ -367,7 +370,7 @@ def query_object_async(self, object_name, *, catalog=None, radius=None,
             The catalog(s) which must be searched for this identifier.
             If not specified, all matching catalogs will be searched.
         radius : `~astropy.units.Quantity` or None
-            A degree-equivalent radius (optional).
+            A degree-equivalent radius (optional). It defaults to 2 arcmins.
         coordinate_system : str or None
             If the object name is given as a coordinate, you *should* use
             `~astroquery.vizier.VizierClass.query_region`, but you can

docs/vizier/vizier.rst

@@ -187,7 +187,7 @@ Query an object
 ---------------
 
 
-For instance to query Sirius across all catalogs:
+For instance to query around Sirius across all catalogs:
 
 .. doctest-remote-data::
 
@@ -201,6 +201,8 @@ For instance to query Sirius across all catalogs:
        '2:I/34/greenw2a' with 16 column(s) and 1 row(s) 
        ...
 
+The default radius is 2 arc minutes.
+
 All the results are returned as a `~astroquery.utils.TableList` object. This
 is a container for `~astropy.table.Table` objects. It is basically an
 extension to `~collections.OrderedDict` for storing a `~astropy.table.Table`