WCSTools

WCSTools is a set of software utilities, written in C, which create,
display and manipulate the world coordinate system of a FITS or IRAF
image, using specific keywords in the image header which relate pixel
position within the image to position on the sky.  Auxillary programs
search star catalogs and manipulate images.

To make the entire package, type

make all

in the main directory or, on Solaris machines

make -f Makefile.solaris

This is version 3.3.1 of the WCSTools package developed by Doug Mink
(dmink@cfa.harvard.edu) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
with significant code from

Bill Cotton of NRAO (projection),
Mark Calabretta of CSIRO (projection),
Pat Wallace of Cambridge University (coordinate conversion),
Elwood Downey of the University of Iowa (WCS fitting procedure), and
John Roll of SAO for (network access).

Bill Joye and Eric Mandel of SAO, Allan Brighton of ESO, and Jean-Baptiste
Marquette of the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris helped debug the
subroutine library.  Norman Grogin, Scott Kenyon, Susan Tokarz, and Dan
Koranyi of SAO and Andreas Jaunsen helped debug the astrometry programs.
Steve Willner of SAO helped debug the FITS utilities.

Details of updates are in the Versions file.

Documentation, with examples and installation directions, is on the
World Wide Web at

        http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/software/wcstools/

References

If the WCSTools package has proven useful in your work, please reference
at least one of the following papers. If you want to find out which is
most applicable, the full texts are available on the WCSTools web site at

        http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/software/wcstools/publications/

The paper presented at ADASS in 1996 is the best published description
of the IMWCS world coordinate system fitting program: 
     "WCSTools: Putting Image World Coordinate Systems to Use",
     Douglas J. Mink, 1997, in Astronomical Data Analysis Software and
     Systems VI, A.S.P. Conference Series, Vol. 125, Gareth Hunt and
     H. E. Payne, eds., pp.  249-252. 

The 1998 ADASS paper is the best published description of the other tools
in the WCSTools package, including SAOimage when used for WCS work: 
     "WCSTools: An Image Astrometry Toolkit",
     Douglas J. Mink (1998), in Astronomical Data Analysis Software and
     Systems VIII, A.S.P. Conference Series, Vol. 172, 1999, Dave Mehringer,
     Ray Plante, Doug Roberts, eds., pp.  498-501. 

A paper presented at the 2001 ADASS conference describes how the
WCSTools package uses the web, among other new features:
     "WCSTools 3.0: More Tools for Image Astrometry and Catalog Searching",
     Douglas J. Mink, 2001, to be published in Astronomical Data Analysis
     Software and Systems XI, whenever it comes out.

This paper presented at the 2002 ADASS conference describes interesting
ways to use the SCAT program:
     "Federating Catalogs and Interfacing Them with Archives: A VO Prototype",
     Douglas J. Mink and Michael J. Kurtz, 2002, to be published in
     Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XII, whenever it comes out.

Program Descriptions

addpix	Add a constant value(s) to specified pixel(s)

conpix	Operate on all of the pixels of an image

cphead	Copy keyword values between FITS or IRAF images

delhead	Delete specified keywords from FITS or IRAF image file headers

delwcs	Delete the WCS keywords from an image. If both EPOCH and EQUINOX
	are present, EQUINOX is also deleted. 

edhead	Edit the header of a FITS file or the user parameters of an IRAF
	image file using a the text editor specified by the EDITOR environment
	variable.

getcol	Extract specified fields from an space-separated ASCII table file

getdate Convert dates and times between various formats

getfits	Extract portion of a FITS file into a new FITS file, preserving WCS

gethead	Return values for keyword(s) specified after filename.

getpix	Return value(s) of specified pixel(s)

gettab	Extract values from tab table data base files

i2f	Read two-dimensional IRAF image file and write FITS image file

imcat	List catalog sources which should be found in the area of the sky
	covered by a specific image.
	Specific catalogs supported include the GSC II, the 2MASS Point
	Source Catalog, the HST Guide Star Catalog, the USNO-A2.0 Catalog,
	the Tycho-2 Catalog, the PPM Catalog, the IRAS Point Source Catalog,
	and the SAO Catalog.

imextract Extract 1- or 2-dimensional images from 2- or 3-dimensional images

imhead	Print FITS or IRAF header

immatch	Match catalog and image stars using the WCS in the image file.

imrot	Rotate and/or reflect FITS or IRAF image files

imsize	Print center and size of image using WCS keywords in header

imstack	Stack 1-dimensional images into a 2-dimensional image

imstar	Find and list the n brightest stars in an IRAF or FITS image, with
	their sky coordinates if there is WCS information in the image header. 

imwcs	Automaticaly find stars in a FITS or IRAF image, match them to HST
	Guide or UJC Stars, compute the relation between sky coordinates and
	image coordinates, and write in in the image header.

keyhead	Change keyword names in headers of FITS or IRAF images.

newhead	Create dataless FITS image header files with BITPIX=0

remap	Remap an image from one WCS into another, rebinning as necessary

sethead	Set header keyword values in FITS or IRAF images.

setpix	Set specified pixel(s) to specified value(s)

scat	Search a source catalog given a region on the sky.
	Specific catalogs supported include the GSC II, the 2MASS Point
	Source Catalog, the HST Guide Star Catalog, the USNO-A2.0 Catalog,
	the Tycho-2 Catalog, the PPM Catalog, the IRAS Point Source Catalog,
	and the SAO Catalog.

sky2xy	Print image pixel coordinates for given sky coordinates on the
	command line or in a list file. 

skycoor	Convert between J2000, B1950, and Galactic coordinates from the
	command line or a file.

sumpix	Total pixel values over an image row or column or a specified area

wcshead	Print basic world coordinate system information on one line per image

xy2sky	Print sky coordinates for given image pixel coordinates on the command
	line or in a list file.

-Doug Mink, SAO, 2003-03-26
