Skip to content

Managing Targets

Targets are the astronomical objects you wish to observe. RIA-TOM stores them in a database and supports four categories, each with its own scheduling behaviour.

Target types

RIA-TOM inherits target types from the TOM Toolkit and assigns each a scheduler category:

TOM type Scheduler category Description
Sidereal STANDARD Stars, galaxies, nebulae, clusters. No time urgency.
Sidereal TRANSIENT Supernovae, GRBs, fast transients. High and decaying urgency.
Sidereal PERIODIC Transiting exoplanets, eclipsing binaries. Strict time window required.
Non-Sidereal NON_SIDEREAL Asteroids, comets. Position computed from orbital ephemerides.

The category is set when configuring the target's scheduling profile (see Defining Constraints). It determines how the scheduler scores and prioritises the target.

Adding targets

There are three ways to add targets to RIA-TOM: catalog search, manual coordinate entry, and automated alert brokers.

The quickest way to add a well-known object.

  1. Go to Targets → Create Targets → Catalog Search.

  2. Select the Service from the dropdown:

    Service Best for
    Simbad Stars, galaxies, nebulae, clusters — resolves common names and aliases
    NED Extragalactic objects (galaxies, quasars, AGN) — includes redshifts
    JPL Horizons Solar system bodies — planets, comets, asteroids by Horizons ID
    TNS Transients (supernovae, AT events) — enter the IAU designation without prefix (e.g. 2024abc)

  3. Type the object name and click Search. The service will return the coordinates and metadata.

  4. Optionally fill in any extra fields, then click Submit.

Adding the Orion Nebula

Select Simbad, type M42, and click Search. RIA-TOM will resolve it to RA 83.822°, Dec −5.391° and pre-fill the form. Click Submit to save it to your database.

Method 2 — Manual coordinate entry

Use this method when the object is not in any catalog or when you have precise custom coordinates.

  1. Go to Targets → Create Targets → Create a Target.
  2. Select the target type:

Sidereal targets

Fill in:

  • Name — a unique identifier.
  • Right Ascension (RA) — in decimal degrees or HH:MM:SS.sss format.
  • Declination (Dec) — in decimal degrees or ±DD:MM:SS.ss format.
  • Any optional fields (epoch, proper motion, parallax, magnitude, etc.).

Non-Sidereal targets

Fill in the orbital elements:

Field Description
Orbital Element Scheme MPC or JPL format
Epoch of Elements Reference epoch (MJD)
Eccentricity Orbit eccentricity (0–1 for elliptic)
Inclination Inclination to the ecliptic (degrees)
Longitude of Ascending Node Ω (degrees)
Argument of Perihelion ω (degrees)
Semi-major axis / Perihelion distance Depending on scheme
  1. Click Submit.

Scheduling profile

After creating a target, it has no scheduling constraints yet — the scheduler will ignore it until you configure its Scheduling Profile. See Defining Constraints to set it up.

Method 3 — Alert brokers (periodic and transient targets)

Alert brokers provide real-time streams of newly discovered transient and periodic objects. This is the recommended way to add PERIODIC and TRANSIENT category targets.

RIA-TOM integrates with the following brokers:

Broker Source Auto-detected categories
ALeRCE ZTF alerts, ML classification (lc_classifier_top) TRANSIENT, PERIODIC
Gaia Gaia Science Alerts TRANSIENT
Lasair Processed ZTF alerts TRANSIENT
TNS Transient Name Server (SNe, AT events) TRANSIENT

Step-by-step: adding targets from ALeRCE

  1. Go to Alerts in the main navigation.
  2. Click Create Query.
  3. Fill in:
    • Name — a label for this query (e.g. Periodic survey 2025).
    • Broker — select ALeRCE.
    • Target type — choose the category you want to retrieve (e.g. Periodic).
  4. Click Submit, then Run.
  5. A results table will appear listing all matching objects returned by the server.
  6. Select the targets you are interested in using the checkboxes.
  7. Click Create Targets.

RIA-TOM will:

  • Save each selected object as a target in the database.
  • Automatically assign the correct scheduler category based on the broker's classification.
  • Create an empty SchedulingProfile ready to configure.
  • Link the target to your user group.

Filtering results

Before clicking Create Targets, use the table filters to narrow down the list by magnitude, classification probability, or other available fields.

Extra fields

Redshift

RIA-TOM adds a custom redshift field to sidereal targets. It is available in the target detail interface and can be used to record the spectroscopic redshift of galaxies and quasars.

Viewing all targets

Go to Targets in the main navigation to see the full list of targets in your database. You can:

  • Filter by name, type, or group.
  • Click any target to open its detail view.
  • Use Target Groups to organise targets by project or observing programme.