docs: def _query_tns(self):
          """
          *determine how to query the TNS, send query and parse the results*
  
          **Return:**
              - ``results`` -- a list of dictionaries (one dictionary for each result set returned from the TNS)
          """
          self.log.info('starting the ``get`` method')
  
          sourceTable = []
          photoTable = []
          specTable = []
          relatedFilesTable = []
  
          # THIS stop IS TO KEEP TRACK OF THE TNS PAGINATION IF MANY RESULT PAGES
          # ARE RETURNED
          stop = False
  
          sourceCount = 0
          while not stop:
  
              status_code, content, self._searchURL = self._get_tns_search_results()
              if status_code != 200:
                  self.log.error(
                      'cound not get the search reuslts from the TNS, HTML error code %(status_code)s ' % locals())
                  return None
  
              if "No results found" in content:
                  print "No results found"
                  return sourceTable, photoTable, specTable, relatedFilesTable
  
              if self._parse_transient_rows(content, True) < self.batchSize:
                  stop = True
              else:
                  self.page += 1
                  thisPage = self.page
                  print "Downloaded %(thisPage)s page(s) from the TNS. %(sourceCount)s transients parsed so far." % locals()
                  sourceCount += self.batchSize
                  print "\t" + self._searchURL
  
                  timesleep.sleep(1)
  
              # PARSE ALL ROWS RETURNED
              for transientRow in self._parse_transient_rows(content):
  
                  # TOP LEVEL DISCOVERY CONTENT
                  sourceContent = transientRow.group()
                  discInfo, TNSId = self._parse_discovery_information(
                      sourceContent)
                  sourceTable.append(discInfo)
  
                  # PHOTOMETERY
                  phot, relatedFiles = self._parse_photometry_data(
                      sourceContent, TNSId)
                  photoTable += phot
                  relatedFilesTable += relatedFiles
  
                  # SPECTRA
                  spec, relatedFiles = self._parse_spectral_data(
                      sourceContent, TNSId)
                  specTable += spec
                  relatedFilesTable += relatedFiles
  
          # SORT BY SEPARATION FROM THE SEARCH COORDINATES
          try:
              sourceTable = sorted(sourceTable, key=itemgetter(
                  'separationArcsec'), reverse=False)
          except:
              pass
  
          self.log.info('completed the ``get`` method')
          return sourceTable, photoTable, specTable, relatedFilesTable