Can't add row to table with, e.g., SkyCoord column

Starting with the documented way of making a table:

from astropy.table import Table
from astropy.time import Time
from astropy.coordinates import SkyCoord
tm = Time(['2000:002', '2002:345'])
sc = SkyCoord([10, 20], [-45, +40], unit='deg')
t = Table([tm, sc], names=['time', 'skycoord'])
print(t)

gives

         time          skycoord
                       deg,deg
--------------------- ----------
2000:002:00:00:00.000 10.0,-45.0
2002:345:00:00:00.000  20.0,40.0

But if I try to add another row:

# Add another row
t.add_row((Time('2017:001'),sc[0]))

I get

ValueError: Unable to insert row because of exception in column 'time':
'Time' object has no attribute 'insert'

Trying different things:

t = Table([[tm[0]],[sc[0]]], names=['time', 'skycoord'])
t.add_row([tm[1],sc[1]])

works giving:

         time                               skycoord                      
--------------------- ----------------------------------------------------
2000:002:00:00:00.000 <SkyCoord (ICRS): (ra, dec) in deg
    ( 10., -45.)>
2002:345:00:00:00.000 <SkyCoord (ICRS): (ra, dec) in deg
    ( 20.,  40.)>

So if you use astropy array objects, you can’t add rows. But if you use scalar values, you can add rows and later extract the values as a list .

[bsipocz]

Or, should I look into adding an insert() method for SkyCoord?

I would naively say yes, but let’s ping the coordinates maintainers @eteq @adrn to comment on it.

[kakirastern]

I have a feeling that the code involved to introduce an insert property to SkyCoord would be a lot more complicated than for either Time or Quantity…