If a large number of resources are to be queried it becomes excruciating for users to have to address all of these differences. Once a user has managed to query a set of resources, he or she faces a daunting task in trying to integrate the results. The first two problems are much more tractable than the third. Using Astrobrowse an astronomer can request images, catalogs and other information from hundreds of resources in a single simple request. Subsequent sections of this paper describe how to use Astrobrowse, its internal architecture, how other sites can build Astrobrowse agents, and finally how we hope to expand this service.
Users can ask for information about an object or position in the sky.
A user tells it that he or she is interested in information of a particular type and the Astrobrowse agent goes all over the Web to collect this information. There are three steps to using Astrobrowse. First the user selects the kinds of resources that are to be queried, then the user enters a position or target for which information is desired. Finally, after Astrobrowse has retrieved information from the desired resources, the user examines the results. Astrobrowse Home page Users can select pre-defined sets of resources.