[AstroPy] plotting FITS/WCS in Python: APLpy, Pywcsgrid2

[Leo Singer]

Hi,

What are the current options for generating plots in Python from FITS/WCS data? I know of at least two Matplotlib-based projects:

APLpy, http://aplpy.github.io
Pywcsgrid2, http://leejjoon.github.io/pywcsgrid2/

Both generate very nice looking output. APLpy is under active development, but Pywcsgrid2 hasn't seen new patches in about a year.

These two projects have rather different designs. APLpy provides high-level operations built out of Matplotlib calls. On the other hand, Pywcsgrid2 is an Axes subclass that lets you use any Matplotlib plotting command, but in world or pixel coordinates.

I see the advantages of both approaches. The latter works better for me, because I often find that my plots involve delving into what I consider relatively esoteric Matplotlib techniques, such as insets, z-order, and annotation styles. For me, Pywcsgrid2 works well because in almost every respect I am dealing with an ordinary Matplotlib figure.

Pywcsgrid2 needs some patches to work with the latest version of Astropy. I am working on getting them upstream, but I am considering forking the project if it is not being maintained. It looks like APLpy and Astropy have many of the same committers, so I thought I would ask here: would there be any interest in incorporating a Pywcsgrid2-like axes subclass into APLpy, to support either paradigm?

Are there other Python-based astronomical plotting projects should I be aware of?

Leo