AstroImageJ Release Notes
Version 2.1.0 (with ImageJ 1.47i)
Important Bug Fix
· Fixed
problem when writing 32-bit floating point FITS images (bug existed in version
2.0.0, but not in 2.0 beta releases)
Changes
· Corrected
tooltip for BJD_TDB line in Multi-plot “Add new astronomical calculations”
panel
· In
FITS reader, BSCALE now defaults to zero in case the keyword is missing in the
FITS file
· Added
support for automatically setting north and east arrow orientation and x- and
y-direction pixel scales, if WCS information is found in FITS header
· Changed
default keyword for JD_MOBS_UTC from JD_MOBS to JD_UTC, changed HJD_MOBS to
HJD_UTC, and BJD_MOBS to BJD_TDB
Version 2.0.0 (with ImageJ 1.47a1)
Version 2.0.0 is a
major release that supports many new GUI features, saving of aperture settings,
plot settings, image displays (including aperture overlay), interactive target
vs. comparison star selection, interactive multivariate lightcurve detrending,
table column additions, and table manipulation. AstroCC coordinate converter is
a new module that provides time and coordinate
conversions, resolves target names using SIMBAD, and displays finder field
images using sky-map.org.
Changes in this Version
General
· Updated
ImageJ to 1.47a1
· Added
single-click automatic update to AstroImageJ toolbar under Help->Update
AstroImageJ
· Added
‘Release Notes’ button to Help->Update_AstroImageJ
panel
· New
file naming convention requires “Preferences” to be reset to default (or
advanced users can rename files as listed in the next four bullets). This
includes memory settings for Windows and OS X.
· Windows
launcher is now AstroImageJ.exe (rather than ImageJ.exe) and icon changed to
Saturn
· Preferences
are now stored at AIJ_Prefs.txt rather than IJ_Prefs.txt
· In
Linux and Windows the preferences directory is now .astroimagej
rather than .imagej (Mac is still
/Library/Preferences)
· The
Java and memory configuration file for windows is now AstroImageJ.cfg rather
than ImageJ.cfg
·
Image Display
New Features
· Added
a feature to allow the image display with apertures to be saved to a .png or .jpeg file
· Added
‘Open Apertures’ and ‘Save Apertures’ menu items to allow the currently defined
apertures to be saved to a file and to reload those at a later time
· Drag
and drop new image or aperture files onto displayed image to
open automatically
· Added ‘Save All’ menu option to allow the user to define file name
suffixes and to save the image display, plot display, plot configuration,
table, aperture settings, and log file with one operation.
· Added
slice delete icon
· Added
centroid on/off icon
· Added
icon to display apertures that are currently saved in preferences
· Added
FITS header editing feature
· Middle
mouse button now optionally centers on the clicked location
· Added
pixel scale display option and supporting settings
· Moved
image scale (brightness and contrast) settings from ‘Preferences’ to ‘Scale’
menu and added ‘fixed brightness and contrast (per image slice)’ option
· Added
‘Preferences’ option to display ‘mean’ value in live aperture rather than
‘peak’ value
Bug Fixes
· Fixed
bug that caused a lockup when the user is zooming or panning while DP is
loading a new image into the display
Multi-Aperture
New Features
· Added
option to display a help window during the aperture selection process
· Added
option to define more than one ‘Target’ star
· ‘Target’
and ‘Comparison’ designations can be exchanged with a shift-left-click in an
existing aperture
Bug Fixes
·
Multi-Plot
New Features
· Interactive
‘Target’ vs. ‘Comparison’ star management panel allows comparison star set to
be changed without rerunning Multi-Aperture
· Multivariate
interactive lightcurve detrending
· Detrend
regions can be selected with mouse in plot (control-left-click,
control-right-click, etc. – tooltips in GUI)
· Normalization
based on selectable regions of data
· Save
a subset of table columns for submitting data to collaborators or websites
· Save
and Open plot configurations to/from a file
· Save
and Open plot templates to/from a file (same as previous bullet except uses a
fixed user defined path name)
· Merging
of two or more tables by row or by column
· Add
new columns to table based on plotted data
· Drag
and drop table, plot configuration, and aperture setting files to Multi-plot
windows to open (or use menu commands)
· Save
plot image as .png and .jpg
· ‘Save
All’ menu item for saving image display, plot image, plot configuration, data
table, apertures, and log files with one command, based on user defined file
name suffixes.
· Add
new astronomical data columns to table from Coordinate Converter based on input
of time from each table row
· Table
transpose under ‘Table’ menu exchanges row and column values for applications
such a H-R diagram creation
· Error
columns are now automatically selected when plotting Multi-Aperture created
data
· When
opening data generated by other programs, the Y-data values in magnitude can be
converted to relative flux for additional processing
· Added
color code to each row in Y-data panel
· Added
button above Y-data selections that opens help panel to display data column
naming convention for Multi-Aperture produced data
· X-axis
can optionally be displayed in terms of orbital phase, days since Tc, or hours since Tc
· Y-axis
can option be display inverted
· Magnitude
can be displayed as negative magnitude so that plotting is in the same sense as
non-magnitude-based data
· Holding
shift while moving mouse in plot image can optionally display the corresponding
slice in an open image stack
· When
data is opened from a .txt file, the delimiter used is ‘white space’
Bug Fixes
· Multi-plot
settings can be changed while data points are being added to a plot by
Multi-Aperture without causing a lockup
Data Processor
New Features
· New
GUI layout
· Added DP Coordinate Converter instance for calculating astronomical
values (time, coordinates, airmass, etc.)
· FITS
header updates based on data calculated by DP Coordinate Converter
· Target
can be set from FITS header target name and resolved by SIMBAD, or from FITS
header RA and DEC values, or by directly entering coordinates in DP Coordinate
Converter
· Observatory
location can be set by name from FITS header, or by latitude and longitude from
FITS header, or by manually entering into DP Coordinate Converter
· The
gzip file compression format is now supported for
both input and output. Currently the headers are compressed in addition to the
data.
· Optionally
saves a the plot image and field image to static file
names which can be used for display in other applications or on websites
Stack Aligner
New Features
· Now
supports virtual stacks by saving each aligned image to a file
Bug Fixes
·
AstroCC Coordinate Converter
New Features
· This
new feature adds the capability to calculate various time and coordinate
formats from a target location, observatory location, and any number of time
formats
· Optionally
uses SIMBAD to resolve target name to coordinates and proper motion
· Links
to sky-map.org to display finder field
· Supports
proper motion, precession, nutation, stellar aberration, and atmospheric
refraction calculations
· Supports
local, UTC, JD_UTC, Heliocentric JD_UTC (HJD), and Barycentric JD_TDB (BJD)
including leap second management
· Shows
phase of moon, and altitude and proximity of major solar system objects
· Three
instances supported: (1) independent instance under full user control, (2) Data
Processor instance for FITS header calculations, (3) Multi-Plot instance for
addition of new data columns in table
Bug Fixes
Known Problems
· Image
display rotation by 90 and 270 degrees is not implemented
· When
image display is flipped or rotated, native ImageJ text “ROIs” are displayed
flipped or rotated
· Native
ImageJ ROI resizing may require the View options to be set to “Invert None” and
“0 degrees” rotation to work properly
· AIJ
hangs if a file is opened from the OS while a blocking dialog window is open
Feature Requests in Roadmap but not in this Version
General
· Light
curve fitting
· Scripting (?)
Multi-Aperture
· Automatic
identification and selection of comparison stars
· Automatic
optimization of aperture size
· Support
of fractional pixels in aperture
Data Processor
· Light
curve fitting
Image Display
· Implement
directional arrow support according to WCS headers
· Implement
image display rotation by 90 and 270 degrees
· Add
additional color image manipulation tools to ‘Color’ menu
Multi-Plot
· Light
curve fitting
Stack Aligner
· Wrap
to beginning of stack is started process on slice number > 1
Version 1.1 (with ImageJ 1.45l)
Changes in this Version
General
· Updated
ImageJ to 1.45l
· Changed
Toolbar name to AstroImageJ (was ImageJ)
Image Display
New Features
· Added
capability to set north and east directional arrows independently
· North
is now referenced to the +y-axis and East is referenced to +x-axis
· Added
auto contrast and brightness parameter settings
· Changed
text buttons to icon buttons with tool tips
· Added
button icons to control sky background annuli display, source ID display, and
source integrated count display
· Added
button icons to control clearing of all ROIs, run multi-aperture, and run stack
align
Bug Fixes
· Aperture
text is now displayed properly in when images are displayed flipped/rotated
· Fixed
problem with display of RGB stacks when displaying less than full dynamic range
Multi-Aperture
New Features
· Added
option to set aperture radii in Multi-Aperture setup window
· Added
option to enable or disable repositioning of aperture to object centroid
· Added
option to plot light curve data while Multi-Aperture is running
· Renamed
“ratio” to “rel_flux_XX”
· “Show
total comparison star counts” now adds N = # of Apertures of tot_C_cnts-XX columns. The reported columns are:
(Qty 1) tot_C_cnts = Source-sky_C2+…+
Source-sky_CN
(i.e. the sum of all comparison star net counts)
(Qty N-1) tot_C_cnts-CN
= tot_C-cnts -
Source-sky_CN
(i.e. the sum of all comparison star net counts less one of the
comparison stars -– useful for determining effects of bad comp. star)
· Added
feature to label each aperture with an identifying number that matches the
MeasurementsTable designations
· Added
sliders for slice and aperture selection
· Added
aperture delete (click on existing aperture), add (click a new star), renumber
(shift click a new star or existing star to renumber it as T1)
· Added
capability to make changes to stored apertures before processing start (make
changes as described in previous bullet, and then right click to start
processing)
· Added
table column for total comparison integrated count error (tot_comp_error)
· Added
ratio column for each comparison star
· Improved
centroid function (for single aperture operation also)
Bug Fixes
·
Multi-Plot
New Features
· Added
support for true plot zooming (zooming previously scaled the bit mapped plot).
Zoom in and out with scroll wheel or left click repeatedly to zoom-in and
right-click once to zoom-out to the full view.
· Added
support for interactive data section and deletion. To use the feature, press
the shift key and move the mouse curser over the plot. The measurements table
row with an X-data value (of the first curve enabled for plotting) nearest the
cursor position’s X-value will be highlighted (selected). A left mouse click
while continuing to press the shift key will delete the corresponding row from
the table.
· All
data columns entries can be sorted to a user definable order. Using this
feature, the most frequently used data columns can be kept at the top of the
list.
· Added an option to display predicted ingress and egress markers on
the plot. The time can be entered directly as the fractional part of
Julian Date or as UT time in HH:MM or HH:MM:SS format. After pressing
<enter>, UT will be converted to the fractional part of Julian Date.
· Added
new data point color selections.
· Added
individual x-data column for each y-data column
· Added
“operator” selection called “centroid distance” that calculates the distance
between two aperture locations. To use, select a “Y-data” column related to the
first aperture (e.g. ratio4) and a “Y-operator” column corresponding to the
second aperture (e.g. ratio5), and then select “centroid distance” as the
operator. By default, the distance in pixels is reported. To report distance in
arcsec, go to the main panel “Preferences” drop down menu and select “Change
pixel scale…” and enter a number for arcsecs/pixel and then select “Use pixel
scale when calculating distance”.
· Reduced horizontal size of Y-data panel by combining certain GUI
components. Y-error, Y-operator, and Y-operator error features are now
enabled by changing the pull down menu data column selectors to a non-blank
setting. Plotting relative to the displayed plot range (i.e. fit to plot) or
plotting using Y-values directly is selected using the “Fit” check box. The
same two scale and shift spinner boxes are used to accomplish both tasks,
depending on the “Fit” setting. The “grab” button was replaced by an icon to
save space. The “legend type” radio buttons have been replaced by icons to save
space.
· A
toolbar icon was added for all areas where extra option
setting are available by right clicking. Either method can now be used
to access the additional settings.
Bug Fixes
· “Y-data columns” panel non-wide mode now displays
properly at startup
· Corrected
scale and shift display values to match actual setting
· Disable
plot zoom function
· Changed
plot image to be displayed at 100% and with a size specified in the main plot
window
Data Processor
New Features
· Added
option run Multi-Aperture and Multi-plot directly from Data Processor window (a
macro is no longer needed for these functions)
· Added
an Icon that provides direct access to aperture setting
· Added
an Icon that brings up the Multi-Aperture settings the next time it runs.
· Added
an Icon that deletes all data from the measurements table
· Grouped
certain settings that are infrequently changed under pull down menus for better
organization and to save space
· Added
feature to allow user to enter (or cut and paste) both RA and DEC in
sexagesimal format into the RA field to populate both RA and DEC fields
Stack Aligner
New Features
·
Bug Fixes
· Forces variable aperture usage to off and
aperture reposition to on
Known Problems
· Image
Display maximize and return to normal corrupts display (drag window edge
instead)
· Image
display rotation by 90 and 270 degrees is not implemented
· When
image display is flipped or rotated, native ImageJ text “ROIs” are displayed
flipped or rotated
· ROI
resizing may require the View options to be set to “Invert None” and “0
degrees” rotation to work properly
· AIJ
hangs if a file is opened from the OS while a blocking dialog window is open
Feature Requests in Roadmap but not in this Version
General
· Add
light curve detrending and fitting capability
Multi-Aperture
· Automatic
identification and selection of comparison stars
Data Processor
· Implement
BJD calculations
Image Display
· Implement
directional arrow support according to WCS headers
· Implement
image display rotation by 90 and 270 degrees
· Allow
aperture radii to be updated directly in image window
· Add
file type (i.e. 8, 16, 32, RGB) manipulation from menu bar
· Add
a menu to the menu bar that combines various RGB image manipulation tools
· Put
middle click/drag measurements in a MeasurementsTable rather than a log window
Multi-Plot
· Add
ability to save plot settings as a template
MeasurementsTable
· Allow
column selection and cut/copy/paste
Stack Aligner
· Allow
user to left- click drag image to manually align with a reference image
Miscellaneous
· Fix
various Linux terminal window error messages
Version 1.0 (with ImageJ 1.45l)
Changes in this Version
General
· Updated
ImageJ to 1.45l
· Added
AstroImageJ version information at ImageJ/Help/About ImageJ…
· Changed
ImageJ/Help/Update ImageJ.. to
open AstroImageJ webpage
· Now
fully compatible with Apple OS X
Image Display
New Features
· Added a new set of “Zoom” buttons above the image. “Fit”
fits the image to the window, “Out” zooms out, “In” zooms in, “In x8” zooms in fast.
Click at the point on the image where the zoom should be centered before using
zooming in, otherwise, the zoom will operate on the center of the image. The
image data rotation features are now available in the “Process” menu.
· Double left-click on the image to perform a fast zoom in (i.e. “In
x8”) at that point. Double left click to zoom out to fill the window
with the image. Triple left clip zooms out to fit the entire image in the
window leaving white space if the aspect ratio of the image and window are
different.
· Added
north/east direction indicator arrows with setting to allow user to specify the
angle counter-clockwise from the default of north = up
· Added
a preferences setting to set the size of the zoom indicator box
· Added
view menu settings to disable/enable the display of the zoom box, x-y direction
arrows, and the north/east direction arrows
· Added pixel scale setting under preferences menu. When set
to a value other than zero, middle click-drag distance measurements are
displayed as arclength.
· Added “fixed min and max histogram values” under Preferences menu.
Enabling this option allows values to be directly entered in the “min” and
“max” boxes below the histogram. In this
mode the histogram range will stay at these fixed values until changed by the
user. When not in this mode, the values are automatically set to the min and
max pixel values of the image.
· Shift
left-click drag is a short-cut to draw an oval region of interest (ROI) on the
image
· Shift
left-click is a short-cut to perform a single aperture measurement
· Control
left-click drag is a short-cut to draw a rectangular ROI on the image
· Alt
left-click drag is a short-cut to draw a line ROI on the image
· Press
and hold “Tab” to move and resize ROIs. Astronomy mode is temporarily exited
when “Tab” is held down, so any native ImageJ function can be performed during
that time.
· Added
several menu items to the “File” Menu to provide various file opening methods
and saving formats
· Added
“Edit” menu which contains menu items for editing aperture settings,
measurement settings, FITS header entries, and stack parameters
· Added
“Process” menu which contains various menu items for reducing image data and
making various other changes to the data
· Added
“Analyze” menu which contains various menu items for making measurements on an
image and producing plots and tables
Bug Fixes
· The
mouse “aperture” display now updates properly when the aperture settings have
been changed
· When
opening an image, the window no longer flashes on screen multiple times before
finally opening
Multi-Aperture
New Features
· The
total number of apertures is no longer required in the setup window. A right
click in the image window will end aperture selection, thus setting the number
of apertures per image. The number of apertures shown in the set up window is
now the maximum number of apertures.
· The
setup window now shows the number of stored apertures.
· Left
click drag can now be used to pan the image during aperture selection.
· A
new option to is available to enable double left-click
fast zoom-in and double right-click fast zoom-out while selecting aperture
positions. This option introduces a slight delay in aperture placement on the
image and can be left disabled if desired.
· The
first aperture selected is now displayed in green while the remaining apertures
are displayed in red
· The
aperture text font size has been increased
· Added a feature to check if Multi-Aperture may already be running
since it is easy to erroneously start another Multi-Aperture run when in
single-step mode.
Bug Fixes
· Fixed
erratic behavior after aborting a run using <escape>
· Fixed
erratic behavior after ending a single-step run using a right mouse click
Data Processor
New Features
· Combined
the two science image “Filename Pattern” fields into one field with wildcard support
(? matches any single character, * matches any number of characters)
· Added a “Browse” button next to the Filename Pattern fields.
When a file is opened using this button, the directory path is sent to the
Primary Directory field and the filename is sent to the Filename Pattern field.
If an underscore character is in the filename, any characters between the
underscore and the file type suffix are automatically replaced with a “*”.
· A
“File Number Filter” “Exclude” string is now allowed, so that numbers that are
common in a set of filenames can be ignored, which simplifies the setting of
“Min” and “Max” numbers for filename number filtering. This field can
optionally be automatically updated when a new filename pattern is entered
directly or opened using the browser.
· Changed
bias, dark, and flat "Filename Base" to "Filename Pattern"
with wild card support
· Removed
.fits file type requirement for both input and output files
· Master
calibration files now allow (require) the file type to be specified
· Processed
files can now be written to hard drive in any format supported by ImageJ by
setting the “Format” to the desired file extension type (i.e. .fits .jpg .tiff etc.)
Stack Aligner
New Features
· Single
step mode is now available in stack aligner, allowing image alignment for image
shifts larger than the aperture size
Known Problems
· Image
Display maximize and return to normal corrupts display (drag window edge
instead)
· Image
display rotation by 90 and 270 degrees is not implemented
· When
image display is flipped or rotated, any text displayed in an overlay is
flipped or rotated
· Image
display control buttons sometimes lose color
· ROI
resizing may require the View options to be set to “Invert None” and “0
degrees” rotation to work properly
· AIJ
hangs if a file is opened from the OS while a blocking dialog window is open
Feature Requests in Roadmap but not in this Version
General
· Add
light curve detrending and fitting capability
Multi-Aperture
· Label
comparison star numbers in image overlay
· Automatic
identification and selection of comparison stars
Data Processor
· Implement
BJD calculations
Image Display
· Implement
directional arrow support according to WCS headers
· Implement
image display rotation by 90 and 270 degrees
· Allow
aperture radii to be updated directly in image window
· Correct
flipped aperture text display in image overlay
· Add
“Auto Scale” user settings for customize the resulting contrast and brightness
· Add
file type (i.e. 8, 16, 32, RGB) manipulation from menu bar
· Add
a menu to the menu bar that combines various RGB image manipulation tools
· Put
middle click/drag measurements in a MeasurementsTable rather than a log window
Multi-Plot
· Add
x-axis choice to all y-datasets
· Change
plot zooming to zoom-in on data range, rather than zoom-in on bit map
· Add
ability to save plot settings as a template
MeasurementsTable
· Improve
table update speed for large tables
· Allow
row selection and cut/copy/paste
Stack Aligner
· Allow
user to left- click drag image to manually align with a reference image
Miscellaneous
· Fix
various Linux terminal window error messages