
stsci_python Description
========================

stsci_python is a library of Python routines and C extensions that
has been developed to provide a general astronomical data analysis
infrastructure. Primary development has been done to support Hubble
Space Telescope (HST) data calibration and analysis needs based on
general purpose libraries from the environment. Several of the
packages, though, can also be used to support data processing of
astronomical data. It includes the following:

PyRAF       
    an environment for running IRAF tasks without using the IRAF CL

PyFITS
    (released separately as well) used to read FITS images and
    tables into numpy or numarray objects and to manipulate FITS
    headers. See http://www.stsci.edu/institute/software_hardware/pyfits
    for full details.

pysynphot
    a synthetic photometry package (still in development) designed
    to replace IRAF's STSDAS.SYNPHOT. It is suitable for library
    or interactive use.

DrizzlePac
    a package for aligning and combining STScI images. Full
    documentation available at http://drizzlepac.stsci.edu .

acstools
    tasks for post-calibration processing of HST ACS images

calcos
    calibration software for HST Cosmic Origins Spectrograph's(COS) data

costools
    tasks for post-calibration processing of HST COS data

fitsblender
    general purpose package for merging FITS headers from multiple
    images into a single header

nictools
    tasks for post-calibration processing of HST NICMOS images

stistools
    tasks for post-calibration processing of HST STIS images

wfc3tools
    tasks for post-calibration processing of HST WFC3 images

wfpc2tools
    tasks for post-calibration processing of HST WFPC2 images

stsci.tools
    provides TEAL interface for defining a GUI for running Python
    tasks based on configobj for managing parameters

imagestats
    perform image statistics with sigma-clipping ierations

numdisplay
    task to visualize numpy array objects using image display tools
    like ds9 and ximtool through IRAF's IIS protocol

You can learn more about the complete stsci_python package, including reading the release notes, from our page at::

    http://www.stsci.edu/institute/software_hardware/pyraf/stsci_python

