funtools

Funtools, is a minimal buy-in FITS library and utility package from the SAO/HEAD R&D group.

Version : 1.2.3
Author(s) : SAO/HEAD (saord@cfa.harvard.edu)
License : GPL
Website : http://hea-www.harvard.edu/RD/funtools/

Installs from Open Source Astronomy for Mac OS X cd 1
Disk space required for installation is 21.47 Mb

Screenshots

Summary

Today's astronomical software systems are sophisticated, powerful, and diverse, but they are not easy to learn or use. Astronomers often struggle with complex analysis tasks to achieve even the simplest meaningful results. Wide-spread NASA data distribution and growing interest in multi-wavelength studies will exacerbate this problem, as astronomers find themselves contending with multiple analysis systems tailored to different wavelengths.

We therefore have built a suite of easily mastered tools to promote initial quantitative understanding of astronomical data before moving on to more complex traditional analysis systems. Our tools are based on a simplified FITS library that offers essential FITS access without the complexity of existing libraries. We also have built a sophisticated region filtering library (compatible with our SAOtng and IRAF regions) that filters images and tables using boolean operations between geometric shapes, support world coordinates, etc.