Montage Montage is an astronomical image toolkit with components for reprojection, background matching, coaddition and visualization of FITS files. It can be used as a set of command-line tools (Linux, OS X and Windows), C library calls (Linux and OS X) and as Python binary extension modules.
The Montage source is written in ANSI-C and code can be downloaded from GitHub ( https://github.com/Caltech-IPAC/Montage ). The Python package can be installed from PyPI ("</i>pip install MontagePy"). The package has no external dependencies. See http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu/ for details on the design and applications of Montage.
MontagePy.main modules: mProject¶
The Montage modules are generally used as steps in a workflow to create a mosaic of a set of input images. These steps are: determine the geometry of the mosaic on the sky, reproject the images to a common frame and spatial sampling; rectify the backgrounds to a common level, and coadd the images into a mosaic. This page illustrates the use of one Montage module, mProject, which is one of the modules used to reproject images.
Visit Building a Mosaic with Montage to see how mProject is used as part of a workflow to creage a mosaic (or the one shot version if you just want to see the commands). See the complete list of Montage Notebooks here.
from MontagePy.main import mProject, mViewer
help(mProject)
mProject Example¶
mProject is one of four modules focused on the task of reprojecting an astronomical image. It is totally general (any projection and coordinate system) and flux-conserving but is also the slowest. The algorithm is based on pixel overlap in spherical sky coordinates rather than in the input or output planar pixel space.
mProject has a number of extra controls for things like toggling from the normal flux-density mode to total energy mode or excluding a border (image borders often have bad pixels). But the basic inputs are a FITS image and a FITS header describing the output image we want. In all cases, the only output is a FITS image with the data from the input resampled to the output header pixel space.
The input FITS header (actually an ASCII file that looks like a FITS header but with newlines and unpadded line lengths) can be produced in a number of ways. There are Montage tools to take an image list (or point source list) and determine a bounding box (mMakeHdr) or just a location and size (mHdr). You can also pull the header off another file (mGetHdr) if you want to build a matching mosaic from other data. Or you can just create the output header by hand (e.g., a simple all-sky Aitoff projection).
Here we have pulled the header from the input image and edited it by hand to modify the rotation by 30 degrees.
rtn = mProject('M17/raw/2mass-atlas-990502s-j1340186.fits',
'work/M17/2mass-atlas-990502s-j1340186_project.fits',
'M17/rotated.hdr')
print(rtn)
Before and After¶
Here are the original image and the reprojected one:
from IPython.display import Image
rtn = mViewer("-ct 1 -gray M17/raw/2mass-atlas-990502s-j1340186.fits \
-2s max gaussian-log -out work/M17/2mass-atlas-990502s-j1340186.png",
"", mode=2)
print(rtn)
Image(filename='work/M17/2mass-atlas-990502s-j1340186.png')
rtn = mViewer("-ct 1 -gray work/M17/2mass-atlas-990502s-j1340186_project.fits \
-2s max gaussian-log -out work/M17/2mass-atlas-990502s-j1340186_project.png",
"", mode=2)
print(rtn)
Image(filename='work/M17/2mass-atlas-990502s-j1340186_project.png')
mProject Error Handling¶
If mProject encounters an error, the return structure will just have two elements: a status of 1 ("error") and a message string that tries to diagnose the reason for the error.
For instance, if the user asks for an image that doesn't exist:
rtn = mProject('M17/raw/unknown.fits',
'work/M17/2mass-atlas-990502s-j1340186_project.fits',
'M17/rotated.hdr')
print(rtn)
Classic Montage: mProject as a Stand-Alone Program¶
Unix/Windows Command-line Arguments¶
mProject can also be run as a command-line tool in Linux, OS X, and Windows:
Usage: mProject [-z factor][-d level][-s statusfile][-h hdu][-x scale][-w weightfile][W fixed-weight][-t threshold][-X(expand)][-b border-string][-e(nergy-mode)][-f(ull-region)] in.fits out.fits hdr.template
mProject as a Library Call¶
If you are writing in C/C++ on Linux or OSX, mProject can be accessed as a library function:
/*-***********************************************************************/
/* */
/* mProject */
/* */
/* Montage is a set of general reprojection / coordinate-transform / */
/* mosaicking programs. Any number of input images can be merged into */
/* an output FITS file. The attributes of the input are read from the */
/* input files; the attributes of the output are read a combination of */
/* the command line and a FITS header template file. */
/* */
/* This module, mProject, processes a single input image and */
/* projects it onto the output space. It's output is actually a pair */
/* of FITS files, one for the sky flux the other for the fractional */
/* pixel coverage. Once this has been done for all input images, */
/* mAdd can be used to coadd them into a composite output. */
/* */
/* Each input pixel is projected onto the output pixel space and the */
/* exact area of overlap is computed. Both the total 'flux' and the */
/* total sky area of input pixels added to each output pixel is */
/* tracked, and the flux is appropriately normalized before writing to */
/* the final output file. This automatically corrects for any multiple */
/* coverages that may occur. */
/* */
/* The input can come from from arbitrarily disparate sources. It is */
/* assumed that the flux scales in the input images match, but this is */
/* not required (leading to some interesting combinations). */
/* */
/* char *input_file FITS file to reproject */
/* char *output_file Reprojected FITS file */
/* char *template_file FITS header file used to define the desired */
/* output */
/* */
/* int hdu Optional HDU offset for input file */
/* char *weight_file Optional pixel weight FITS file (must match */
/* input) */
/* */
/* double fixedWeight A weight value used for all pixels */
/* double threshold Pixels with weights below this level treated */
/* as blank */
/* */
/* char *borderstr Optional string that contains either a border */
/* width or comma-separated 'x1,y1,x2,y2, ...' */
/* pairs defining a pixel region polygon where */
/* we keep only the data inside. */
/* */
/* double drizzle Optional pixel area 'drizzle' factor */
/* double fluxScale Scale factor applied to all pixels */
/* int energyMode Pixel values are total energy rather than */
/* energy density */
/* int expand Expand output image area to include all of */
/* the input pixels */
/* int fullRegion Do not 'shrink-wrap' output area to non-blank */
/* pixels */
/* int debug Debugging output level */
/* */
/*************************************************************************/
struct mProjectReturn *mProject(char *input_file, char *ofile, char *template_file, int hduin,
char *weight_file, double fixedWeight, double threshold, char *borderstr,
double drizzle, double fluxScale, int energyMode, int expand, int fullRegion,
int debugin)
Return Structure
struct mProjectReturn
{
int status; // Return status (0: OK, 1:ERROR)
char msg [1024]; // Return message (for error return)
char json[4096]; // Return parameters as JSON string
double time; // Run time (sec)
};