Astropy Astronomy

Astronomical computations using Astropy.

When to Use

• Celestial coordinate transforms (ICRS, Galactic, AltAz)
• Unit conversions for astronomical quantities
• Reading, writing, or inspecting FITS files
• Cosmological calculations (distances, ages, lookback times)
• Time system conversions (UTC, TAI, TDB, MJD, JD)

When NOT to Use

• Telescope control or instrument automation
• Real-time observation planning or scheduling
• Image reduction or photometry pipelines (use photutils)
• N-body simulations