[AstroPy] Problem creating all-sky projection with matplotlib

Tue Sep 13 16:59:57 EDT 2011

Thanks you very much again Matt,

All the best,

2011/9/13 Matt Davis <mrdavis at stsci.edu>

> Hi Eduardo,
>
> About your grid issue: just move the grid statement further down in the
> code. I think matplotlib often just plots things in the order given in the
> code, so putting the grid at the end makes it come out on top. Another
> option is to use the zorder keyword. Objects created with the largest zorder
> keyword are plotted last.
>
> I tried your code with the ax.grid call on line 27, just before making the
> color bar, and I get the grids.
>
> Best,
>
> Matt Davis
>
> On Sep 13, 2011, at 4:30 PM, Eduardo Bañados Torres wrote:
>
> Hi Matt,
>
> Thanks for your response!!  your explanation of why I was getting this
> behavior is very clear.
> So, I finally solved the problem (I think) thanks to your answer and the
> one posted by Joe Kington in Stackoverflow.
>
> This time I used pcolormesh instead of imshow and I got this beautiful (at
> least for me) image:
>
> http://i53.tinypic.com/2r6l5k6.png
>
> The only "problem" is that now I cannot show the "grid" (ax.grid(True) is
> not working), so if someone know how to add the grid, please let me know ;)
> (although this is just a detail)
>
> If this is useful for someone else, I attach the "corrected version" of my
> code (which produces the image above).
>
> Thanks again!
>
> =========================corrected version========================
>
> import numpy as np
> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
> import matplotlib.backends.backend_agg
>
> #array between 0 and 360 deg
> #CAVEAT: it seems that is needed an array from -180 to 180, so is just a
> #shift in the coordinates
> RA = np.random.random(10000)*360-180
> #array between -45 and 90 degrees
> DEC= np.random.random(10000)*135-45
>
> fig = plt.Figure((10, 5))
> ax = fig.add_subplot(111,projection='mollweide')
>
> ax.set_xlabel('RA')
> ax.set_ylabel('DEC')
>
> ax.set_xticklabels(np.arange(30,331,30))
>
> #The ax.grid is not working though =/
> ax.grid(color='r', linestyle='-', linewidth=2)
>
> hist,xedges,yedges =
> np.histogram2d(DEC,RA,bins=[60,40],range=[[-90,90],[-180,180]])
>
> X,Y = np.meshgrid(np.radians(yedges),np.radians(xedges))
>
> image = ax.pcolormesh(X,Y,hist)
>
> cb = fig.colorbar(image, orientation='horizontal')
> canvas = matplotlib.backends.backend_agg.FigureCanvasAgg(fig)
> fig.canvas.print_figure("image4.png")
>
>
>
> 2011/9/13 Matt Davis <mrdavis at stsci.edu>
>
>> Hi Eduardo,
>>
>> You are seeing this behavior because imshow works just by filling in rows
>> of the image with rows of your array. In your case, your array is zeros in
>> the bottom quarter and non-zero in the top three-quarters, so that's what
>> you see in the resulting plot. Imshow *does not* account for the projection.
>>
>> I think you would prefer to use pcolor so that your data is mapped to the
>> projection. See:
>> http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/api/axes_api.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.pcolor
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Matt Davis
>>
>> On Sep 13, 2011, at 9:38 AM, Eduardo Bañados Torres wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I posted this question in Stackoverflow (
>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7355497/curious-bad-behavior-creating-all-sky-projections-with-matplotlib)
>> but I haven't get any answer so far, so I hope some of you can help me :-)
>>
>> In short, I am plotting a density all-sky plot using the molloweide
>> projection.  I create objects with coordinates ranging from 0 to 360 deg in
>> RA and from -45 to 90 deg in DEC, but the output I get is the following:
>>
>> image1.png -> http://i56.tinypic.com/24mu96s.png
>>
>> A plot which is OK in RA (0-360) but in DEC ranges only between -35 to 90,
>> so I am missing 10 degrees in the south.
>>
>> But I would expect this image:
>>
>> image2.png -> http://oi53.tinypic.com/2yl1nch.jpg
>> A plot ranging between 0 to360 and -45 to 90 as it was defined
>>
>> I attach the self-contained code to produce these images, I hope someone
>> can tell me if I am doing something wrong that I can't notice now  or
>> misunderstanding something in the code or if there is a curious bug in
>> matplotlib??
>>
>>
>> ############the self-contained example################
>>
>> import numpy as np
>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
>> import matplotlib.backends.backend_agg
>>
>> from math import pi
>>
>> #array between 0 and 360 deg
>> RA = np.random.random(10000)*360
>>
>> #array between -45 and 90 degrees. By construction!
>> DEC= np.random.random(10000)*135-45
>>
>>
>> fig = plt.Figure((10, 5))
>>
>> ax = fig.add_subplot(111,projection='mollweide')
>>
>> ax.grid(True)
>> ax.set_xlabel('RA')
>>
>> ax.set_ylabel('DEC')
>>
>> ax.set_xticklabels(np.arange(30,331,30))
>>
>>
>> hist,xedges,yedges = np.histogram2d(DEC,RA,bins=[90,180],range=[[-90,90],[0,360]])
>>
>> #TO RECOVER THE EXPECTED BEHAVIOUR (image2.png), I HAVE TO CHANGE -90 FOR -80 IN THE PREVIOUS LINE:
>> #hist,xedges,yedges = np.histogram2d(DEC,RA,bins=[90,180],range=[[-80,90],[0,360]])
>>
>> #I DO NOT WHY!
>>
>> extent = (-pi,pi,-pi/2.,pi/2.)
>>
>>
>> image = ax.imshow(hist,extent=extent,clip_on=False,aspect=0.5,origin='lower')
>>
>>
>> cb = fig.colorbar(image, orientation='horizontal')
>>
>>
>> canvas = matplotlib.backends.backend_agg.FigureCanvasAgg(fig)
>>
>>
>> fig.canvas.print_figure("image1.png")
>>
>> ######################################################
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Eduardo Bañados
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
>> AstroPy mailing list
>> AstroPy at scipy.org
>> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/astropy
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Eduardo Bañados
>
>
>

-- 
Eduardo
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