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Astronomical databases are easily accessible on the web. However, sorting through them is not always easy. When you are interested in a single object, Simbad is a good starting point. From this CDS website you can also access VizieR and Catalogs to browse large catalogs. You can easily download ascii tables from these websites for personal use. I have used both Python's Astro Ascii Data and IDL's ascii_template to cross-reference and manipulate information from these tables.
Recently I came across TopCat, which looks like it can save you a ton of time. Instead of writing your own code, it can cross-reference catalogs to create a master table. You can also do a lot of preliminary data analysis within the program itself. Check out the video tutorial: TopCat video on AstroBetter
From Lia
