skytopix: Coordinate transformation from sky coordinates

This task allows a user to perform coordinate transformations with the full WCS and distortion model on source positions from sky coordinates to the WCS defined by an image. This task serves as a replacement for the IRAF.STSDAS task rd2xy, albeit with the added capability of understanding the full distortion model provided in the headers of images updated for use with astrodrizzle and tweakreg.

skytopix transforms source positions given as RA, Dec values into pixel positions on the image based on the WCS information and any recognized distortion keywords contained in the input image header.

Authors:

Warren Hack

License:

License

Parameters

inputstr

full filename with path of input image, an extension name [‘sci’,1] should be provided if input is a multi-extension FITS file.

Optional Parameters

rastring, optional

RA position in either decimal degrees or HMS format (with or without ':') like '19:10:50.337406303' or '19 10 50.337406303'

decstring, optional

Dec position in either decimal degrees or HMS format (with or without ':') like '-60:2:22.186557409' or '-60 2 22.186557409'

coordfilestr, optional

full filename with path of file with sky coordinates

colnamesstr, optional

comma separated list of column names from ‘coordfile’ file containing sky coordinates, respectively. Will default to first two columns if None are specified. Column names for ASCII files will use ‘c1’,’c2’,… convention.

precisionint, optional

Number of floating-point digits in output values

outputstr, optional

Name of output file with results, if desired

verbosebool

Print out full list of transformation results (default: False)

Returns

xfloat

X position of pixel. If more than 1 input value, then it will be a numpy array.

yfloat

Y position of pixel. If more than 1 input value, then it will be a numpy array.

Notes

This task performs a full distortion-correction coordinate transformation based on all WCS keywords and any recognized distortion keywords from the input image header. The transformation recognizes the conventions for describing distortion implemented as part of the SIP and Paper IV conventions used with AstroDrizzle. Input images can be updated to use these conventions through the use of the updatewcs module the STWCS package.

See Also

stwcs

Examples

These examples illustrate the syntax that can be used to run the task in a couple of common modes.

  1. Convert a single sky position (0:22:07.0088,-72:03:05.429)

    from a calibrated ACS image (j94f05bgq_flt.fits) into a pixel position (X,Y) without using the TEAL GUI:

>>> from drizzlepac import skytopix
>>> x,y = skytopix.rd2xy("j8bt06nyq_flt.fits[sci,1]",
...                      '0:22:07.0088', '-72:03:05.429')
  1. Convert a list of (undistorted) sky positions from the file,
    ‘radec.dat’ for a calibrated ACS image (j8bt06nyq_flt.fits)

    into distorted pixel positions, and write out the result to the file ‘xypos.dat’ without using the TEAL GUI:

>>> x,y = skytopix.rd2xy("j8bt06nyq_flt.fits[sci,1]",
...                      coordfile="radec.dat", output="xypos.dat")
drizzlepac.skytopix.rd2xy(input, ra=None, dec=None, coordfile=None, colnames=None, precision=6, output=None, verbose=True)[source]

Primary interface to perform coordinate transformations from pixel to sky coordinates using STWCS and full distortion models read from the input image header.

drizzlepac.skytopix.help(file=None)

Print out syntax help for running skytopix.

Parameters:
filestr (Default = None)

If given, write out help to the filename specified by this parameter Any previously existing file with this name will be deleted before writing out the help.