photutils
Photutils - Astronomical Photometry
Photutils is the modern standard for extracting quantitative data from astronomical images. It replaces legacy tools like SExtractor or DAOPHOT with a modular, Pythonic interface integrated with the Astropy ecosystem.
When to Use
- Detecting stars or galaxies in an astronomical image (DAOStarFinder, IRAFStarFinder).
- Measuring the brightness of objects using circular, elliptical, or rectangular apertures.
- Performing PSF-fitting photometry (essential for crowded stellar fields).
- Estimating and subtracting complex 2D backgrounds (sky background).
- Calculating the centroids (precise centers) of astronomical sources.
- Performing "isophotal analysis" (measuring shapes of galaxies).
- Segmentation of images based on thresholding.
Reference Documentation
Official docs: https://photutils.readthedocs.io/
GitHub: https://github.com/astropy/photutils
Search patterns: photutils.aperture, photutils.detection, photutils.background, photutils.psf
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