Telescope Reviews: Data reduction and analysis software

Tom Krajci was kind enough to provide our club with this list of software available for photometric observations, as I have had a devil of a time finding software for myself until this list showed up, I figured Tom wouldn't mind if I shared the info. Maybe we could sticky this.

Below is a list of some ideas for software that can be used to extract science data from CCD images.

This is a partial list. Some of it is free, some is not very expensive, some is rather expensive. Some is old, some is still being updated/developed.

AIP4WIN: http://www.willbell.com/aip/index.htm Not just good science software - a very good textbook covering basics of CCD imaging and science.

MPO Canopus/Photored http://www.minorplanetobserver.com/MPOSoftware/MPOSoftware.htm Written especially for asteroid photometry...where the moving object forces you to use different comparison stars every night, and perhaps every few hours.

IRAF: http://iraf.noao.edu/ Long learning curve, but very powerful.

MAXIM: http://www.cyanogen.com/maxim_main.php Very powerful

CCDSoft: http://www.bisque.com/Products/CCDSoft/ OK, we don't need the camera control aspect of it, but it can do photometry and astrometry. (May need to use TheSky for astrometry)

Astrometrica: http://www.astrometrica.at/ want to measure positions of objects? This is a good place to start. Shareware. 25 Euro.

Photometrica: http://photometrica.org/ scientific analysis application that lets you analyze remote astronomical CCD images online. Images do not have to be downloaded to your local computer, all work is done in the browser.

Sextractor (Source Extractor) Want to analyze *every* star in your images? http://sextractor.sourceforge.net/ Useful for searching for new variables.

MuniWin: http://c-munipack.sourceforge.net/ - good for time series, and searching entire image series for new variables
http://munipack.astronomy.cz/

GCX is linux based, has a GUI interface and command line options.
This means you can write scripts to automate tasks.
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Science-and-Engineering/Astronomy/gcx-1221.shtml
http://astro.corlan.net/gcx/index.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gcx/

Starlink, similar to IRAF. It's a GAIA program for data visualisation, photometry and astrometry is widely used. It is described
here: http://www.starlink.rl.ac.uk/star/docs/sun214.htx/sun214.html#xref_ GAIA can be used for aperture (classic or optimal) photometry and a command line program autophotom is good for scripting. Of course, Starlink is much more than that but it was GAIA (plus the integrity of the whole package) that convinced me to choose it 10 years ago instead of IRAF. Starlink is distributed under GPL.

http://starlink.jach.hawaii.edu/starlink STARLINK software for processing images from the UKIRT on Mauna Kea

Mira software: http://www.mirametrics.com/mira_products.htm

Sky Image Processor - a web-based astronomical image reduction and analysis system! (Virginia Tech) http://www.phys.vt.edu/~jhs/SIP/

IRIS: http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm

Astroart: http://www.msb-astroart.com/ - good for snapshot observations, not suited for time-series work.

Teleauto: http://teleauto.org/indexEn.php

CADET: http://www.terra.es/personal2/oscarcj/introeng.htm CADET is basically a program for calibration and deconvolution of astronomical images in FITS, BMP and JPEG formats.

LAIA: http://www.astrogea.org/soft/laia/laia.htm - need to know Spanish, and it's not been updated in quite some time. But it's free and can do some image measurement/analysis.

DAOPHOT - Stellar Photometry Package designed to deal with crowded fields. http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/daophot/ (Linux/Unix)

Anyway, this is a start. Some folks may like the free stuff. Others may like the way-powerful stuff that takes lots of time to master. There are many ways to skin the science cat.

This list is not meant to scare folks off. Find one or two software tools that work for you and start doing science.

(Maybe we'll write this list up properly into a document/cheat sheet for future reference.)
_________________
Tom Krajci
Cloudcroft, New Mexico
http://picasaweb.google.com/tom.krajci

Center for Backyard Astrophysics (CBA)
http://cbastro.org/ CBA New Mexico

American Association of Variable Star
Observers (AAVSO): KTC http://www.aavso.org/

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"Starman" Dan Doyle
Texas Astronomical Society of Dallas
Central Texas Astronomical Society
8" LX200GPS w/ST80 guidescope, Canon 350D+DSI Pro
150mm f/8 Sky Watcher Refractor
10" f/4.5 Homemade Dob
RV-6 Criterion Dynascope
http://darcstar.wordpress.com