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select id, time, energy from events where point(ra,dec) @ box ra_max,dec_max, ra_min,dec_min
The object point is constructed with the content of the 2 columns ra, dec. The operator @ means is inside.
The response time is around 10.2 9 second.

select id, time, energy from events where position @ box ra_max,dec_max, ra_min,dec_min
A column position has been added to the table. It is of type point and stores ra, dec.
The response time is around ** 0.8 second.

select id, time, energy from events where error && box ra_max,dec_max, ra_min,dec_min
A column error has been added to the table. It is of type box and stores ra+dg, dec+dg, ra-dg, dec dg with dg = 1.°. The operator && means overlaps.
The response time is around ** 0.8 second.

A R-tree index has been built using the error bounding box.
The response time is ** 0.6 seconds.

using the postgis module

PostGIS adds support for geographic objects to PostgreSQL. It implements some of the OpenGIS specifications.
The events table has been modified to comply with the OpenGIS standard. The following statement has been sent to the database :
select id, time, energy from events where error &&
GeomFromText('POLYGON((ra_max dec_max, ra_max dec_min, ra_min dec_min, ra_min dec_max, ra_max dec_max)', -1)

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