From perry at stsci.edu  Wed Jan 12 16:03:30 2005
From: perry at stsci.edu (Perry Greenfield)
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 16:03:30 -0500
Subject: [AstroPy] astrolib for Python
Message-ID: <69533026-64DD-11D9-B8A8-000A95B68E50@stsci.edu>


STScI is starting to develop tools akin to those found in the IDL 
ASTRON library (aside from FITS, which we already have). We would like 
this to be as open and inclusive a process as possible and will host it 
at the http://scipy.org site as an open source project. We welcome 
comments, ideas, and, especially, code, testing, and documentation 
contributions. At this point our effort is preliminary (we are just 
getting underway). Rather than post a lengthy email, I'll refer those 
that are interested to wiki pages (rooted at:
http://www.scipy.org/wikis/topical_software/AstroLib) set up for the 
purpose of recording ideas about the project. We've already put some of 
our early thoughts about how to approach this on these wiki pages

I expect that much of the discussion will use the astropy mailing list, 
but that detailed arguments, rationales, conclusions, and such will be 
added to the wiki pages.

Our initial work is focusing on handling FITS WCS and then general 
astronomical coordinates. At the moment I've labeled the effort 
astrolib but we are open to better names.

Perry Greenfield



From cstawarz at head.cfa.harvard.edu  Thu Jan 20 19:36:38 2005
From: cstawarz at head.cfa.harvard.edu (Chris Stawarz)
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 19:36:38 -0500
Subject: [AstroPy] Using S-Lang from Python
Message-ID: <200501210036.j0L0ac4k002677@devel12.cfa.harvard.edu>

Hello,

I've written a package, PySL, that makes S-Lang functions and variables 
accessible via Python.  This may be of interest to Python users in the 
astronomical community, as it allows them to take advantage of the S-Lang 
packages and modules developed for use with the Chandra Interactive Analysis 
of Observations (CIAO) software package.

The S-Lang software developed for CIAO includes both Chandra-specific 
utilities (e.g. for accessing the calibration database or performing 
coordinate conversions) and general data-analysis tools (for modeling and 
fitting, plotting, creating and manipulating histograms, timing analysis, 
etc.).  For more information, see

  http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/slang/

For further details on PySL or to download the package, please visit

  http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~cstawarz/pysl/

Note that PySL is neither supported nor endorsed by the Chandra X-ray Center.  I've written it in the hope that it will make CIAO and related software more accessible to Python users, and any questions, comments, or bug reports should be sent directly to me.


Thanks,
Chris Stawarz