Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomical objects/Infoboxes

This page is where work is being done to come up with a generic table template to be used for organizing a list of facts about various astronomical bodies such as planets, natural satellites, and maybe also smaller bodies such as asteroids and comets (though I suspect that both asteroids and comets will be better served by having their own template design).

Main template: Infobox planet
This template has been designed for the presentation of information on non-stellar astronomical objects: planets (including extrasolar planets), dwarf planets, moons and minor planets. For and, alternative templates exist.

The adjunct infobox-example is generated by the Infobox planet template for the minor planet. This example uses the following wikicode:

Note

 * for a clean syntax, citations should be listed separately in the article's "References" section.
 * The above example uses a basic parameter selection for minor planets with some parameters such as image and mass left empty.
 * The template has an optional astron argument whose default value is helion; this allows its use to describe asteroid moons, as in the S/2000 1 example.
 * Formatting unnamed minor planets
 * use mp to format unnamed minor planets:  displays as
 * use mpl to add a link:  displays as
 * use mpl- to suppress the designation's number part:  displays as
 * for more details
 * to modify the article's title with subscripted index, use . See  first line in the edit window of article

Comets
As discussed above, comets might be served better by a different template. Here is a suggestion for Comet we can toy with until we are happy with it. Awolf002 00:23, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Useful sources

 * JPL's SSD, Natural Satellite Physical Parameters
 * JPL's SSD, Planetary Satellite Mean Orbital Parameters
 * Solarviews
 * The Nine Planets
 * nifty Windows tool (AstOrb Browser) by used to generate an Infobox planet and footers as mentioned below

Sidebars

 * Template:Distant minor planets sidebar - Small list of TNO-related topics

Planets

 * Template:Solar System - Planets in the Solar System
 * Template:Uranus - Uranus's natural satellites
 * Template:Neptune - Neptune's natural satellites
 * Template:Mars - Mars' natural satellites

Planetary moons

 * Template:Moons of Jupiter - Jupiter's natural satellites (exhaustive)
 * Template:Moons of Saturn - Saturn's natural satellites (exhaustive)

Dwarf planets

 * Template:Dwarf planets – for dwarf planets and candidates

Moons of dwarf planets

 * Template:Moons of dwarf planets - Natural satellites of Pluto, Haumea and Eris

Minor planets

 * Template:Minor planets navigator – sequential navigator for numbered minor planets

Cometary objects

 * Template:PeriodicComets Navigator – sequential navigator for periodic comets

Any small Solar System body

 * Template:Small Solar System bodies

Footer template examples
Particularly useful are the footer templates Minor planets navigator for minor planets, the footer template PeriodicComets Navigator for comets, and the footer template Small Solar System bodies for both minor planets and comets.


 * Example: Minor planets navigator for asteroid 61 Danaë


 * Example: PeriodicComets Navigator for comet 9P/Tempel


 * Example: Small Solar System bodies for any small Solar System body

Starbox tree
This table is composed of the following sub-templates:
 * Starbox begin
 * Starbox image
 * Starbox observe
 * Starbox character
 * Starbox astrometry
 * Starbox visbin
 * Starbox detail
 * Starbox catalog
 * Starbox end

References: 

Short star template
This template is for stubby star articles, and should be replaced with the full template when the article is expanded.
 * starbox short

Footers
Obsolete:
 * Template:ConstellationsListedByPtolemy - Ptolemy's constellations
 * Template:ConstellationList - Modern constellations
 * Template:ConstellationsRoyerAltered - Constellations altered by Augustin Royer in 1679

Replaced by:
 * Template:navconstel
 * Template:navconstel-historic

Extrasolar planets

 * Infobox planet

Supernovae
Template: Infobox supernova

This is a table template that should be used for supernovae. It automatically assigns the article to Category:Supernovae.

Open Clusters
Template: Infobox open cluster

''Sample table for M22. Please modify and improve as needed.''

The template is for open clusters.

Globular Clusters
Template: Infobox globular cluster

''Sample table for M22. Please modify and improve as needed.''

The template is for globular clusters.

Galaxies
Template: Infobox Galaxy

This example table should be edited and used for galaxies.

Notes: Please see List of galaxies to find galaxies that do not yet have infoboxes/factsheets. Please categorise your galaxy in a subcategory of Category:Galaxies

Galaxy cluster
Template: Infobox galaxy cluster

This example table should be edited and used for galaxy groups, clusters, and superclusters. It automatically assigns the article to Category:Galaxy clusters.

The sample data for this group was taken from the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) on 2006-09-18. However, NED may not be the best reference for all galaxy groups. It can be reliably used for compact groups such as the one in this example, and it can be used reliably for most Abell clusters and other moderate and high-redshift clusters, but it should be used cautiously (if used at all) for nearby galaxy groups such as the M81 Group.

Quasar
Template: Infobox quasar

This example table should be edited and used for quasars.

Nebulae
Template: Infobox nebula

To the right is an example using Template:Infobox nebula. This example can be copied and used for all nebulae, but pay close attention to the parameters like "type". For more information, see the template's documentation.

Categories and lists
Add articles to the appropriate Lists of nebulae and to the categories as given below, the category of its constellation, and the category of its catalog (ex:Category:Messier objects), in that order.


 * planetary nebulae
 * List of planetary nebulae, Category:Planetary nebulae


 * protoplanetary nebulae
 * List of protoplanetary nebulae, Category:Protoplanetary nebulae


 * diffuse nebulae.
 * List of diffuse nebulae, Category:Diffuse nebulae


 * dark nebulae
 * List of dark nebulae, Category:Dark nebulae

Useful links

 * List of asteroids
 * List of galaxies
 * List of Messier objects
 * List of NGC objects
 * List of planetary nebulae
 * To view changes made in the last 24 hours to astronomy pages on Wikipedia click here