This is a Python script to generate a catalog of pulsars for Celestia, using the ATNF pulsar database. It's based on earlier work by Cham and Selden.
The data file necessary to generate the catalog is included in this repository as atnf_pulsars.csv, but if you want to download it yourself (for example, if the database is updated), here are instructions to do so:
- Go to the ATNF pulsar database and select "Name", "JName", "RaJD", "DecJD", "P0", "Dist".
- Set the "Output style" to "Long csv with errors", then click on "TABLE".
- Copy the output, remove the second line (
;;;;;(deg);;(deg);;(s);;;(kpc);), replace semicolons with commas, and save as atnf_pulsars.csv.- This can be done in a text editor by replacing semicolons with commas, or in Excel through "Data" -> "Text to Columns", and then saving the file with the appropriate extension.