AstroImageJ Changelog

What's new in AstroImageJ 2.1.0

Jul 4, 2013

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

New in AstroImageJ 2.0.0 (Jul 4, 2013)

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
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
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

New in AstroImageJ 1.1 (Jul 4, 2013)

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)
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 , 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
Bug Fixes:
Forces variable aperture usage to off and aperture reposition to on

New in AstroImageJ 1.0 (Jul 4, 2013)

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
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