sedbuilder

The sedbuilder package implements a Python interface to the ASI Space Science Data Center's SED Builder REST API.

Overview

This package provides programmatic access to multi-wavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) data from catalogs, surveys, and archival observations across the electromagnetic spectrum. It is based on SED Builder, a software developed at the ASI-SSDC to produce and display the SED data over the web.

Installation

pip install ssdc-sedbuilder

Quick Start

You can fetch data by querying a source name or its coordinates.

from sedbuilder import get_data

# By coordinates
response = get_data(ra=244.9795, dec=-15.64022)
# By name
response = get_data(name="Sco X-1")

# Access data in different formats
table = response.to_astropy()  # Astropy Table
data_dict = response.to_dict()  # Python dictionary
jt = response.to_jetset(z=0.034)  # Jetset table
json_str = response.to_json()  # JSON string
df = response.to_pandas()  # Pandas DataFrame (requires pandas)

# Find where data come from
first_reference = response.datasets[0].reference
refs = response.references()

When calling get_data by name, resolve_name queries the SSDC server — which checks SSDC, SIMBAD, and NED — falling back to the CDS Sesame resolver via astropy if no match is found.

from sedbuilder import resolve_name

(ra, dec), db = resolve_name("Crab Nebula")

Resolving a source name takes time. We suggest querying on coordinates when available.

Development

# install with development dependencies
git clone https://github.com/peppedilillo/sedbuilder.git
cd sedbuilder
pip install -e ".[dev,docs]"
# or with uv
uv sync --extra dev --extra docs
# routes queries to test server (requires internal network)
source dev.env
# install linter pre-commit hooks
pre-commit install
# runs tests
pytest
# runs smoke tests against the live server
pytest --smoke
# serve and build documentation
mkdocs serve
mkdocs build

For more, see documentation.

Requests

Need a new feature? Don't hesitate to ask in our discussion section.

Documentation

Check out our API reference.