Scientific Tools

An interactive sky-atlas application from the Strasbourg astronomical data centre that lets the user overlay images, surveys, and catalogues on the same patch of sky and query Virtual Observatory services directly. Aladin is a central tool for cross-identifying objects across archives.

An astronomy-focused build of the ImageJ image-analysis program, adding precise astronomical image display, calibration, and differential photometry. AstroImageJ is especially popular for measuring exoplanet transit light curves from amateur and small-professional telescopes.

The Common Astronomy Software Applications package, the primary tool for calibrating and imaging data from radio interferometers, developed for ALMA and the Very Large Array. CASA turns the raw visibilities of an interferometer into scientific images and cubes.

The Image Reduction and Analysis Facility, a classic suite for the reduction and analysis of astronomical images and spectra developed at the US national optical observatory. Once ubiquitous in professional astronomy, it is no longer actively developed by the observatory but is maintained by the community, and much of its role has passed to the Python ecosystem.

A toolkit for assembling astronomical images into custom mosaics, reprojecting many overlapping FITS images onto a common grid and matching their backgrounds to make a seamless whole. Montage is used to build large image mosaics from survey data while preserving flux.

A widely used astronomical imaging and data-visualisation application for displaying FITS images, with support for multiple frames, colour scales, region analysis, and coordinate overlays. DS9 is a standard viewer for inspecting professional image data.

An interactive desktop tool for viewing, cross-matching, plotting, and manipulating large astronomical tables and catalogues, with deep support for Virtual Observatory table formats and services. TOPCAT is a workhorse for exploring catalogue data from surveys and archives.