[AstroPy] [SciPy-user] FITS images with header-supplied axes?

[Cohen-Tanugi Johann]

hi there,
I just registered to this mailing list, and I was amused to see that one 
of the last threads actually match a question I have asked 2 days ago to 
the help at stsci regarding numdisplay and WCS.
I don't know if anything has come out of the discussion here yet, but I 
have the feeling that the following basic prototyped tool is right 
around the corner :
- open a fits file or else get a numpy array
- get a WCS object from the fits file or else creating it by hand
- display in matplotlib the resulting combination (numpy array, wcs 
astronomical axes)

astLib seems to do just that with the astPlot.FinderChart macro though I 
do not understand the use yet
astLib swigifies WCSTools, while pywcs takes the better approach IMHO of 
wrapping wcslib directly.
numdisplay sends to ds9 any numpy array, but that direciton does not 
seem very promising to me....

But again, as I just said the prototyped use above is essentially 
available, though not in a straightforward practical way. It would be 
nice to close the loop so that plotting astronomical data with 
matplotlib becomes an easy task.

best,
Johann