table = eso.query_main(column_filters={'instrument': 'vircam'}) is case sensitive about astroquery

[richardgmcmahon]

Thanks @keflavich for the speedy response.

I am using astroquery 0.4.3 and Python 3.8.16 | packaged by conda-forge | (default, Feb 1 2023, 16:05:36)
[Clang 14.0.6 ]

For info table = eso.query_instrument('vircam') works as expected.

I do not have a preference on case. I suggest making the query code case insensitive i.e. query_main and query_instrument.
OR make the instrument list upper case to follow ESO.

ESO list all their instruments here: http://archive.eso.org/cms/eso-data/instrument-specific-query-forms.html

All are all uppercase except for "X-Shooter" which is mixed case and has a hyphen. I note that eso.list_instruments() returns "xshooter" i.e the hypen is removed. eso.list_instruments() returns xshooter.

table = eso.query_main(column_filters={'instrument': 'XSHOOTER'}) works OK
table = eso.query_main(column_filters={'instrument': 'xshooter'}) fails

table = eso.query_instrument('XSHOOTER') works OK
table = eso.query_instrument('xshooter') works OK

So it looks like query_instrument is case insensitive. e.g. table = eso.query_instrument('XsHoOtEr') works

So, I am not sure what to suggest or to call this a "documented feature"

[keflavich]

Thanks for the report @richardgmcmahon , I confirm this is at least incorrect documentation, and possibly a bug.

To investigate: Should we always pass instrument names as uppercase? Or do we just need to make list_instruments return the correct case?