atlas

atlas is a Python GUI for viewing FITS images, in the spirit of SAOImage DS9.

Installation

Requires Python 3.14 or higher.

pip install -e .            # atlas and its runtime dependencies
pip install -e ".[zmq]"     # also the optional ZMQ tool
pip install -e ".[dev]"     # also pylint, for the CI checks

Dependencies are declared in pyproject.toml.

Usage

Installing puts an atlas command on your path:

atlas                              # defaults: single frame, header panel
atlas image.fits                   # open a file straight away
atlas *.fits --mode tile           # every file in its own tile
atlas --profile minimal            # image display and nothing else
atlas --config observing.yaml      # your own configuration

It also runs straight from a checkout without installing:

PYTHONPATH=src python -m atlas.main --profile viewer image.fits

Run atlas --help for the full command line, and --list-profiles for the bundled profiles.

Frames

atlas borrows DS9's frame concept: each loaded image lives in its own frame, and the display mode decides how frames appear on screen.

Mode	What you see	Shortcut
single	one frame at a time	Ctrl+1
tile	every frame in a grid	Ctrl+2

Move between frames with Ctrl+] and Ctrl+[, or click a tile. Ctrl+W closes the current frame.

Scales

View → Scale decides how pixel values map onto the brightness of the display. It is a property of the frame, not of the window, so in tile mode one image can be shown on a log scale beside another on a linear one.

Scale	What it does	Shortcut
linear	brightness proportional to pixel value	Ctrl+3
log	stretches the faint end, compresses the bright end	Ctrl+4

Both scales first map the frame's own minimum and maximum onto the full display range, so changing scale never clips a pixel that was visible before, it only redistributes contrast. Only the rendered pixmap changes; the raw data is left alone, so switching back and forth is lossless.

The histogram window has its own Log count axis checkbox, independent of the frame's scale. A pixel histogram is usually dominated by a single sky or bias peak, and a log count axis is what makes the faint tail visible.

Statistics

The statistics tool adds a dock panel summarising the current frame's pixel values: mean, median, standard deviation, min and max, plus the pixel count. Enable it with --enable statistics or tools.statistics in a configuration.

The figures come from the raw array, not the rendered image, so they describe detector counts and do not move when the display scale changes. Blank pixels (NaN/inf) are excluded and reported separately, since a single NaN would otherwise make every statistic NaN.

Recomputing is not free. The median alone costs about ten times the other statistics put together, roughly 30 ms on a 2048x2048 frame. So while a live stream is running the panel refreshes at update_hz (2 Hz by default) rather than on every displayed frame. Switching frames by hand still recomputes immediately, and a hidden panel does no work at all.

Configuration

A configuration is resolved from, in increasing order of precedence: built-in defaults, the --profile, the --config file, then command-line overrides. Unknown keys are rejected with an error rather than ignored, so a typo cannot silently leave a feature switched off.

window:
  title: atlas
  width_fraction: 0.8      # of the screen
  height_fraction: 0.8

display:
  mode: single             # single | tile
  tile_columns: null       # null picks a roughly square grid

tools:
  header: true             # FITS header panel
  histogram: false         # pixel-intensity histograms
  tap_subtraction: false   # COO detector signal/reset taps
  zmq: false               # load frames announced over ZMQ
  statistics: false        # pixel statistics panel

Any tool taking options can be written either as a bare boolean or as a section:

tools:
  tap_subtraction:
    enabled: true
    tap_width: 128
    num_taps: 32
  zmq:
    enabled: true
    address: tcp://localhost:5555
    socket_type: SUB       # SUB | PULL
    bind: false
  statistics:
    enabled: true
    update_hz: 2.0         # recompute rate while a live stream is running

Individual tools can be toggled from the command line without editing anything:

python src/main.py --profile minimal --enable histogram
python src/main.py --profile detector --disable zmq

Bundled profiles

Profile	Purpose
minimal	Image display only — no panels, no tools.
viewer	General FITS viewing: headers and histograms.
detector	COO detector work: tiled frames, tap subtraction, ZMQ.

Reporting Issues

If you encounter any problems or have questions about this project, please open an issue on the GitHub Issues page. Your feedback helps us improve the project!