Astronomical Software on Ubuntu

Many astronomical packages are directly available from the "Debian for Astronomy" project (https://blends.debian.org/astro/tasks/index.de.html, see also Section 10). This document provides information for the installation of most commonly used packages.

1. ESO MIDAS

2. IRAF

2.1. Install IRAF and PyRAF from AstroConda

2.1.1 General brief instructions

If you are already (or going to be) familiar with Conda, which is an open source package management system, then you may prefer to install IRAF/PyRAF from AstroConda channel. AstroConda provides a simple way to plan and extract packages into your environment. You can refer to the documentation of AstroConda for instructions on how to install Legacy Software Stack with IRAF. In short, the installation can be done with:

conda config --add channels http://ssb.stsci.edu/astroconda
conda create -n iraf27 python=2.7 iraf-all pyraf-all stsci

Note that every time you want to use IRAF/PyRAF (and any other packages in iraf27 environment), you need to activate the env ‘iraf27’ that you have created:

source activate iraf27
### or conda activate iraf27

And to deactivate, run:

source deactivate
### or conda deactivate

See more details on: https://yumingfu.space/tech/iraf-installation/

2.2 Install IRAF Community Distribution

2.2.1 Install binary packages (under Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and later)

For Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and later, IRAF Community Distribution are available via system package manager “APT”. Although there some major differences between the Community Distribution and the conda version.

Try to install those packages with command:

sudo apt install xterm iraf iraf-dev iraf-noao iraf-noao-dev iraf-wcstools iraf-rvsao xgterm

See more details on: https://yumingfu.space/tech/iraf-installation/

2.3 Further information

Other IRAF packages available on Ubuntu: https://blends.debian.org/astro/tasks/iraf

https://iraf-community.github.io/install.html

https://yumingfu.space/tech/iraf-installation/

3. IDL (Exelis IDL on ESO Internal Link)

https://www.eso.org/intra/itservices/standards/self-managed-applications.html

4. ESO dfits and fitsort

# sudo apt-get install qfits-tools

#which dfits

/usr/bin/dfits

#which fitsort

/usr/bin/fitsort

5. ESO Skycat

Follow instructions on:

https://eso.org/sci/observing/phase2/ESO_sw_repos.html

https://eso.org/sci/observing/phase2/SMGuidelines/FIMS/FIMSInstall.FORS.html

6. FITS Viewer (fv) and fitsverify

sudo apt update

sudo apt get-install fitsverify

sudo apt-get install ftools-fv

For fv, beware of conflicts with multiple installations of tcl/tk, for instance if Anaconda is installed. Check executable paths: which tcl, which wish, which fv. If necessary install tk prior to fv (sudo apt install tk).

7. SAO ds9 and other viewers

# sudo apt install saods9

# which ds9

/usr/bin/ds9

Other data viewer tools available on Ubuntu: https://blends.debian.org/astro/tasks/viewers

8. QFits View

QFitsView is available directly from Ubuntu repository:

# sudo apt install qfitsview

# which QFitsView

or from the QFitsView page: https://www.mpe.mpg.de/~ott/QFitsView/

Official packages

Ubuntu includes many packages useful for astronomy and astrophysics.

Stellarium

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. Developed at ESO, and used as a base in VirGO, a VO tool for European astronomers.

Homepage

Celestia

A real-time visual space simulation

Choose a point within the Local Group of galaxies, and Celestia will show you an approximation of how it would appear to your eyes were you actually there. Orbit a couple kilometers above the surface of a tiny, irregular asteroid, then head off towards Jupiter, watching it grow from a bright point of light into a looming sphere filling your field of vision.

Leave our solar system entirely and observe the sun as it fades from a brilliant disk to a bright star, disappearing almost entirely as you head off toward the Upsilon Andromeda system to orbit around its innermost giant planet.

Celestia is available with a range of front-ends

Homepage User Guide Package Information

GCX

Astronomical image processing and photometry

Gcx is an astronomical image processing and data reduction tool, with an easy to use graphical user interface. It provides a complete set of data reduction functions for CCD photometry, with frame WCS fitting, automatic star identification, aperture photometry of target and standard stars, single-frame ensemble photometry solution finding, multi-frame color coefficient fitting, extinction coefficient fitting, and all-sky photometry; as well as general-purpose astronomical image processing functions (bias, dark, flat, frame alignment and stacking); It can function as a FITS viewer.

The program can control CCD cameras and telescopes, and implement automatic observation scripting. Cameras are controlled through a hardware-specific server, to which gcx connects through a TCP socket. It generates FITS files with comprehensive header information.

Homepage User Manual Package Information

IFRIT

A powerful tool for visualizing 3-dimensional data sets

IFRIT (the Ionization FRont Interactive Tool) has its origins (and hence name) in a specialized utility designed to visualize ionization fronts in cosmological numerical simulations. IFRIT, however, has outgrown its origins and now can visualize general data sets as well.

Homepage Example Animations Package Information

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