docs: def get_simbad_astrometry_info (ident, items=_simbaditems, debug=False):
      """Fetch astrometric information from the Simbad web service.
  
      Given the name of a source as known to the CDS Simbad service, this
      function looks up its positional information and returns it in a
      dictionary. In most cases you should use an :class:`AstrometryInfo` object
      and its :meth:`~AstrometryInfo.fill_from_simbad` method instead of this
      function.
  
      Arguments:
  
      ident
        The Simbad name of the source to look up.
      items
        An iterable of data items to look up. The default fetches position,
        proper motion, parallax, and radial velocity information. Each item name
        resembles the string ``COO(d;A)`` or ``PLX(E)``. The allowed formats are
        defined `on this CDS page
        <http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/Pages/guide/sim-fscript.htx>`_.
      debug
        If true, the response from the webserver will be printed.
  
      The return value is a dictionary with a key corresponding to the textual
      result returned for each requested item.
  
      """
      import codecs
      try:
          from urllib.parse import quote
      except ImportError:
          from urllib import quote
      try:
          from urllib.request import urlopen
      except ImportError:
          from urllib2 import urlopen
  
      s = '\\n'.join ('%s %%%s' % (i, i) for i in items)
      s = '''output console=off script=off
  format object "%s"
  query id %s''' % (s, ident)
      url = _simbadbase + quote (s)
      results = {}
      errtext = None
  
      for line in codecs.getreader('utf-8')(urlopen (url)):
          line = line.strip ()
          if debug:
              print_ ('D: SA >>', line)
  
          if errtext is not None:
              errtext += line
          elif line.startswith ('::error'):
              errtext = ''
          elif len (line):
              k, v = line.split (' ', 1)
              results[k] = v
  
      if errtext is not None:
          raise Exception ('SIMBAD query error: ' + errtext)
      return results