From mperrin at ucla.edu  Tue Jul  7 19:00:55 2009
From: mperrin at ucla.edu (Marshall Perrin)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 16:00:55 -0700
Subject: [AstroPy] WCS on Windows?
Message-ID: <A5A92C1F-67B2-4E50-B81B-189AE7A580C0@ucla.edu>

Hi again,

I've got an undergrad student with a Windows laptop, who's just  
informed me that she can't get any of the available WCS modules to  
compile or install properly on it. Not pywcs, not astWCS from astLib,  
nor WCS from Kapteyn.   The problems all seem to have to do with the C  
compilation parts... I myself gave up Windows long ago and thus doubt  
I'll be able to help her sort through the compiler errors in a useful  
fashion.

So my questions now are
1) Has anyone successfully compiled any of the above on Windows, and  
if so, how?, and
2) Are there any pure-Python implementations of WCS transformations?  
Really just the very basics (xy to ad for tangential projections and  
vice versa) are all she needs for the project I want her to work on...  
I suppose I should just have her implement the relevant equations  
herself, but that feels like a bit too much reinventing the wheel  
unless there's no other choice.

Thanks for any advice!

  - Marshall


From erin.sheldon at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 19:10:24 2009
From: erin.sheldon at gmail.com (Erin Sheldon)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 19:10:24 -0400
Subject: [AstroPy] WCS on Windows?
In-Reply-To: <A5A92C1F-67B2-4E50-B81B-189AE7A580C0@ucla.edu>
References: <A5A92C1F-67B2-4E50-B81B-189AE7A580C0@ucla.edu>
Message-ID: <331116dc0907071610g71f6be02md107b51fe3dd0949@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 7:00 PM, Marshall Perrin<mperrin at ucla.edu> wrote:
> Hi again,
>
> I've got an undergrad student with a Windows laptop, who's just
> informed me that she can't get any of the available WCS modules to
> compile or install properly on it. Not pywcs, not astWCS from astLib,
> nor WCS from Kapteyn. ? The problems all seem to have to do with the C
> compilation parts... I myself gave up Windows long ago and thus doubt
> I'll be able to help her sort through the compiler errors in a useful
> fashion.
>
> So my questions now are
> 1) Has anyone successfully compiled any of the above on Windows, and
> if so, how?, and
> 2) Are there any pure-Python implementations of WCS transformations?
> Really just the very basics (xy to ad for tangential projections and
> vice versa) are all she needs for the project I want her to work on...
> I suppose I should just have her implement the relevant equations
> herself, but that feels like a bit too much reinventing the wheel
> unless there's no other choice.

Do you have numpy working?  If so the wcsutil.py module in here only
depends on numpy:

http://sdss.physics.nyu.edu/esheldon/python/code/astro_code-2009-05-15.tar.gz


>
> Thanks for any advice!
>
> ?- Marshall
> _______________________________________________
> AstroPy mailing list
> AstroPy at scipy.org
> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/astropy
>


From Jim.Vickroy at noaa.gov  Wed Jul  8 13:52:15 2009
From: Jim.Vickroy at noaa.gov (Jim Vickroy)
Date: Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:52:15 -0600
Subject: [AstroPy] WCS on Windows?
In-Reply-To: <A5A92C1F-67B2-4E50-B81B-189AE7A580C0@ucla.edu>
References: <A5A92C1F-67B2-4E50-B81B-189AE7A580C0@ucla.edu>
Message-ID: <4A54DCCF.2040000@noaa.gov>

Marshall Perrin wrote:
> Hi again,
>
> I've got an undergrad student with a Windows laptop, who's just  
> informed me that she can't get any of the available WCS modules to  
> compile or install properly on it. Not pywcs, not astWCS from astLib,  
> nor WCS from Kapteyn.   The problems all seem to have to do with the C  
> compilation parts... I myself gave up Windows long ago and thus doubt  
> I'll be able to help her sort through the compiler errors in a useful  
> fashion.
>
> So my questions now are
> 1) Has anyone successfully compiled any of the above on Windows, and  
> if so, how?, and
> 2) Are there any pure-Python implementations of WCS transformations?  
> Really just the very basics (xy to ad for tangential projections and  
> vice versa) are all she needs for the project I want her to work on...  
> I suppose I should just have her implement the relevant equations  
> herself, but that feels like a bit too much reinventing the wheel  
> unless there's no other choice.
>
> Thanks for any advice!
>
>   - Marshall
> _______________________________________________
> AstroPy mailing list
> AstroPy at scipy.org
> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/astropy
>   
I have an experimental version of pywcs (provided by Michael Droettboom 
<mailto:mdroe at stsci.edu>) on my Windows XP machine using Python 2.5 and 
the Microsoft C compiler.  AFAIK, that version has not been officially 
released.  I can probably zip the contents of the build folder and 
e-mail that to you.  Alternately, contact Michael (mdroe at stsci.edu ) 
about the status of this version; he was very helpful.

Let me know.
-- jv
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From mdroe at stsci.edu  Wed Jul  8 15:15:30 2009
From: mdroe at stsci.edu (Michael Droettboom)
Date: Wed,  8 Jul 2009 15:15:30 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [AstroPy] WCS on Windows?
In-Reply-To: <4A54DCCF.2040000@noaa.gov>
References: <A5A92C1F-67B2-4E50-B81B-189AE7A580C0@ucla.edu>
	<4A54DCCF.2040000@noaa.gov>
Message-ID: <20090708151530.ABL12440@comet.stsci.edu>

Yes, the SVN version of pywcs is known to compile on Windows (by at least myself and Jim Vickroy).  Pywcs is probably due for a new source release anyway.  We don't generally provide built Windows installers of Astrolib projects, but I'm happy to provide an "unsupported" one.

Of course, all this will have to wait until tomorrow when I'm back at the office.

Cheers,
Mike


From mdroe at stsci.edu  Wed Jul  8 17:18:25 2009
From: mdroe at stsci.edu (Michael Droettboom)
Date: Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:18:25 -0400
Subject: [AstroPy] WCS on Windows?
In-Reply-To: <20090708151530.ABL12440@comet.stsci.edu>
References: <A5A92C1F-67B2-4E50-B81B-189AE7A580C0@ucla.edu>	<4A54DCCF.2040000@noaa.gov>
	<20090708151530.ABL12440@comet.stsci.edu>
Message-ID: <4A550D21.1060005@stsci.edu>

Beat myself to the punch.  There is now a pywcs-1.5 release available 
here [1] which supports Windows.  If you need an installer, contact me 
off-list.[1

[1] https://www.stsci.edu/trac/ssb/astrolib/wiki/WikiStart

Cheers,
Mike

On 07/08/2009 03:15 PM, Michael Droettboom wrote:
> Yes, the SVN version of pywcs is known to compile on Windows (by at least myself and Jim Vickroy).  Pywcs is probably due for a new source release anyway.  We don't generally provide built Windows installers of Astrolib projects, but I'm happy to provide an "unsupported" one.
>
> Of course, all this will have to wait until tomorrow when I'm back at the office.
>
> Cheers,
> Mike
> _______________________________________________
> AstroPy mailing list
> AstroPy at scipy.org
> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/astropy
>    



From astropython at gmail.com  Mon Jul 20 09:32:12 2009
From: astropython at gmail.com (Astronomical Python)
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:32:12 -0400
Subject: [AstroPy] APLpy 0.9.3 Release
Message-ID: <f73d0e0c0907200632v4860f939y5be8d44927a86ea1@mail.gmail.com>

Subject: APLpy 0.9.3 released

We are pleased to announce the release of APLpy 0.9.3, which includes
bug fixes, improvements, and new features.

APLpy is a python module that makes it easy to interactively produce
publication-quality plots of astronomical images in FITS format. More
details are available at http://aplpy.sourceforge.net/

One of the main additions in this release is the ability to produce RGB
images starting from FITS files with different projections. More
information on the changes in this release is available in the release
notes available from the APLpy homepage.

>From the front page you can sign up to the mailing list and/or the
Twitter feed to be kept up-to-date on future releases.

Cheers,

Eli Bressert and Thomas Robitaille


From ppmime at gmail.com  Mon Jul 20 13:34:30 2009
From: ppmime at gmail.com (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jose_Miguel_Ib=E1=F1ez?=)
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:34:30 +0200
Subject: [AstroPy] Python version of IDL Astronomy library
Message-ID: <bd10af250907201034w597ff497y6785f5c6406927d3@mail.gmail.com>

Hi everybody,

I was wondering if exist any version or something like the IDL Astronomy
library for Python. I am
interested specifically into DAOphot routines, but all looks very useful.


Thanks in advance,
JM
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From astropython at gmail.com  Tue Jul 21 09:38:30 2009
From: astropython at gmail.com (Astronomical Python)
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:38:30 -0400
Subject: [AstroPy] ATpy 0.9.0 Release
Message-ID: <f73d0e0c0907210638v4ae9de22r1e1c6d25b31f1918@mail.gmail.com>

We are pleased to announce the first public beta release of ATpy,
a high-level python module providing a way to manipulate tables of
astronomical data in a uniform way. More details are available at

                   http://atpy.sourceforge.net/

>From the front page you can sign up to the mailing list and/or the
Twitter feed to be kept up-to-date on future releases.

About ATpy
===========

ATpy is a high-level package providing a way to manipulate tables of
astronomical data in a uniform way. A table is defined by any number
of columns of data, each characterized by a column name, unit, null
value, and description (the last three being optional), and can be
supplemented with metadata in the form of keywords or comments. ATpy
can be used to manipulate single tables as well as sets of tables.

ATpy can be used to:

     * Seamlessly read and write table data to a number of table
       formats (FITS, VO, and IPAC tables, and
       SQLite/MySQL/PostgreSQL databases), building on existing
       python modules. More formats will be supported in future.
     * Remove, add, or rename columns.
     * Access and modify individual table cells.
     * Create an empty table and populate it.
     * Create a new table from a selection of rows.
     * Add keywords and comments.
     * Read and write sets of tables.

Noting that ATpy is still in beta development, you may encounter
bugs and/or missing features. If this is the case, please let us
know either by emailing us at astropython at gmail.com, or by
leaving a bug report or feature request in the forums at:

                http://apps.sourceforge.net/phpbb/atpy

Cheers,

Eli Bressert and Thomas Robitaille


From jh at physics.ucf.edu  Fri Jul 31 13:06:37 2009
From: jh at physics.ucf.edu (Joe Harrington)
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:06:37 -0400
Subject: [AstroPy] SciPy Foundation
Message-ID: <wl8fxcc6aua.fsf@glup.physics.ucf.edu>

About sixteen months ago, I launched the SciPy Documentation Project
and its Marathon.  Dozens pitched in and now numpy docs are rapidly
approaching a professional level.  The "pink wave" ("Needs Review"
status) is at 56% today!  There is consensus among doc writers that
much of the rest can be labeled in the "unimportant" category, so
we're close to starting the review push (hold your fire, there is a
web site mod to be done first).

We're also nearing the end of the summer, and it's time to look ahead.
The path for docs is clear, but the path for SciPy is not.  I think
our weakest area right now is organization of the project.  There is
no consensus-based plan for improvement of the whole toward a stated
goal, no centralized coordination of work, and no funded work focused
on many of our weaknesses, notwithstanding my doc effort and what
Enthought does for code.

I define success as popular adoption in preference to commercial
packages.  I believe in vote-with-your-feet: this goal will not be
reached until all aspects of the package and its presentation to the
world exceed those of our commercial competition.  Scipy is now a
grass roots effort, but that takes it only so far.  Other projects,
such as OpenOffice and Sage, don't follow this model and do produce
quality products that compete with commercial offerings, at least on
open-source platforms.  Before we can even hope for that, we have to
do the following:

- Docs
  - Rest of numpy reference pages reviewed and proofed or marked unimportant
  - Scipy reference pages
  - User manual for the whole toolstack
  - Multiple commercial books
- Packaging
  - Personal Package Archive or equivalent for every release of every
    OS for the full toolstack (There are tools that do this but we
    don't use them.  NSF requires Metronome - http://nmi.cs.wisc.edu/
    - for funding most development grants, so right now we're not even
    on NSF's radar.)
  - Track record of having the whole toolstack installation "just
    work" in a few command lines or clicks for *everyone*
  - Regular, scheduled releases of numpy and scipy
  - Coordinated releases of numpy, scipy, and stable scikits into PPA system
- Public communication
  - A real marketing plan
  - Executing on that plan
  - Web site geared toward multiple audiences, run by experts at that
    kind of communication
  - More webinars, conference booths, training, aimed at all levels
  - Demos, testimonials, topical forums, all showcased
- Code
  - A full design review for numpy 2.0
    - No more inconsistencies like median(), lacking "out", degrees
      option for angle functions?
    - Trimming of financial functions, maybe others, from numpy?
    - Package structure review (eliminate "fromnumeric"?)
    - Goal that this be the last breakage for numpy API (the real 1.0)
  - Scipy
    - Is it maintainable?  should it be broken up?
    - Clear code addition path (or decide never to add more)
    - Docs (see above)  
  - Add-on packages
    - Both existence of and good indexing/integration/support for
      field-specific packages
    - Clearer development path for new packages
    - Central hosting system for packages (svn, mailing lists, web,
      build integration, etc.)
    - Simultaneous releases of stable packages along with numpy/scipy

I posted a basic improvement plan some years back.  The core ideas
have not changed; it is linked from the bottom of
http://scipy.org/Developer_Zone.  I chose our major weakness to begin
with and started the doc project, using some money I could justify
spending simply for the utility of docs for my own research.  I funded
the work of two doc coordinators, one each this summer and last.
Looking at http://docs.scipy.org/numpy/stats/, you can see that when a
doc coordinator was being paid (summers), work got done.  When not,
then not.  Without publicly announcing what these guys made, I'll be
the first to admit that it wasn't a lot.  Yet, those small sums bought
a huge contribution to numpy through the work of several dozen
volunteers and the major contributions of a few.

My conclusion is that active and constant coordination is central to
motivating volunteer work, and that without a salary we cannot depend
on coordination remaining active.  On the other hand, I have heard
Enthought's leaders bemoan the high cost of devoting employee time to
this project, and the low returns available from selling support to
universities and non-profit research institutes.  Their leadership has
moved us forward, particularly in the area of code, but has not
provided the momentum necessary to carry us forward on all fronts.  It
is time for the public and education sectors to kick in some resources
and organizational leadership.  We are, after all, benefitting
immensely.

Since the cost of employee time is not so high for us in the public
and education sectors, I propose to continue hiring people like Stefan
and David as UCF employees or contractors, and to expand to hiring
others in areas like packaging and marketing, provided that funding
for those hires can be found.  However, my grant situation is no
longer as rich as it has been the past two years, and the needs going
forward are greater than in the past if we're now to tackle all the
points above.  So, I will not be hiring another doc guru from my
research grants next year.

I am confident that others are willing to pitch in financially, but
few will pitch in a full FTE, and we need several.  We can (and will)
set up a donations site, but donation sites tend to receive pizza
money unless a sugar daddy comes along.  Those benefitting most from
the software, notably education, non-profit research, and government
institutions, are *forbidden* from making donations by the terms of
their grants.  NSF doesn't give you money so you can give it away.

We need to provide services they can buy on subcontract and a means
for handling payments from them.  Selling support does not solve the
problem, as that requires spending most of the income on servicing
that particular client.  Rather, we need to sell a chunk of
documentation or the packaging of a particular release, and then
provide the product not just to that client but to everyone.

We can also propose directly for federal and corporate grant funds.  I
have spoken with several NASA and NSF program managers and with
Google's Federal Accounts Representative, and the possibilities for
funding are good.  But, I am not going to do this alone.  We need a
strong proposal team to be credible.

So, I am seeking a group that is willing to work with me to put up the
infrastructure of a funded project, to write grant proposals, and to
coordinate a financial effort.  Members of this group must have a
track record of funded grants, business success, foundation support,
etc.  We might call it the SciPy Foundation.  It could be based at
UCF, which has a low overhead rate and has infrastructure (like an HR
staff), or it might be independent if we can find a good director
willing to devote significant time for relatively low pay compared to
what they can likely make elsewhere.  I would envision hiring
permanent coordinators for docs, packaging, and marketing
communications.  Enthought appears to have code covered by virtue of
having hired Travis, Robert, etc.; how to integrate that with this
effort is an open question but not a difficult one, I think, as code
is our strongest asset at this point.

I invite discussion of this approach and the task list above on the
scipy-dev at scipy.org mailing list.  If you are seeing this post
elsewhere, please reply only on scipy-dev at scipy.org.

If you are eligible to lead funding proposals and are interested in
participating in grant writing and management activities related to
work in our weak areas, please contact me directly.

Thanks,

--jh--
Prof. Joseph Harrington
Planetary Sciences Group
Department of Physics
MAP 414
4000 Central Florida Blvd.
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL 32816-2385
jh at physics.ucf.edu
planets.ucf.edu