Munipack

Munipack is a command-line package for reducing astronomical images, from raw frames to calibrated magnitudes. Each step stores its results as FITS extensions in the frame itself, so the next step simply reads what the previous one wrote.

This is a fork of upstream Munipack 0.6.2 with many bug fixes and a few new features; see Differences from upstream. The easiest way to run it is the Docker image:

docker build -t munipack:0.6.2-hg1653-fixes .
docker run --rm -u $(id -u):$(id -g) -v "$PWD":/data munipack:0.6.2-hg1653-fixes find frame.fits

New here? Start with Installation and then the Quick start. The tutorials then walk through whole tasks step by step: a single image from raw frame to calibrated magnitudes, a time series ending in a light curve, and stacking and colour images.

What you can do

• Calibrate frames – make master frames with bias, dark and flat, and apply them with phcorr.

• Find stars with find.

• Measure brightness – aperture (aphot), PSF (psfphot) or growth-curve (gphot) photometry.

• Calibrate positions – match stars to a catalogue and fit the WCS with astrometry.

• Calibrate magnitudes – zero point, colour terms and physical fluxes with phcal; instrument transformations with phfotran.

• Stack and colour – stacks and mosaics with kombine, colour images with colouring.

• Simulate frames – realistic test frames from a catalogue with artificial.

• Use catalogues – download (cone), resolve names (sesame), convert (votable) and cross-match (cross).

• Handle files – inspect and edit FITS files (fits) and make light curves (timeseries).

Routines

Every routine is run as munipack <routine> [options] file(s), and each has its own page in the sidebar. The ones used in everyday work are under Routines; the less common ones (instrument transformations, name lookup, catalogue conversion and cross-matching, FITS utilities) are under Other routines. For the option list on your own machine, run munipack <routine> --help.

munipack on its own takes three options: --version prints the version and licence, -h/--help lists the routines, and --verbose makes the routine report its progress. A routine exits with status 0 on success and 1 on an error, with the reason printed to stderr, so it is easy to use in scripts.

Getting started

• Installation
  • Docker image
  • Running in parallel
  • Building from source
• Quick start
  • Setup
  • 1. Get a reference catalogue
  • 2. Simulate a frame
  • 3. Find the stars
  • 4. Aperture photometry
  • 5. Astrometry
  • 6. Photometric calibration
  • 7. PSF photometry (optional)
  • Look at the results
  • Next steps

User guide

• Single image
  • Get example data
  • 1. Make the master frames
  • 2. Calibrate the science frame
  • 3. Find the stars
  • 4. Measure the stars
  • 5. Solve the astrometry
  • 6. Calibrate the magnitudes
  • 7. Look at the results
  • 8. PSF photometry (optional)
  • Next steps
• Time series
  • Get example data
  • 1. Find the stars
  • 2. Aperture photometry
  • 3. Astrometry
  • 4. Photometric calibration
  • 5. Extract the light curves
  • 6. Plot the light curve
  • 7. Differential photometry
  • Next steps
• Colour images
  • Get example data
  • 1. Calibrate the positions
  • 2. Stack each filter
  • 3. Measure the stacks
  • 4. Compose the colour image
  • 5. View and convert
  • Next steps
• Concepts
  • Files and extensions
  • Units
  • How errors are estimated
  • Photometric systems
  • PSF file format

Routines

• bias
• dark
• flat
• phcorr
• find
• aphot
• gphot
• psfphot
• astrometry
• phcal
• kombine
• colouring
• artificial
• cone
• timeseries

Other routines

• phfotran
• sesame
• votable
• cross
• fits

Development

• Development
  • Repository layout
  • What this fork changed
  • Testing a change
  • How the methods were validated
  • Continuous integration
  • Updating the documentation
  • Licence
• Tests
  • Running the tests
  • What the tests check
  • Writing a test
• Differences from upstream
  • What was fixed
  • What is new
  • Compatibility notes
• Building the documentation
  • Writing pages