specvizitor 0.3.0

Python GUI application for a visual inspection of astronomical spectroscopic data

Specvizitor is a Python GUI application for a visual inspection of astronomical spectroscopic data. The main goal is to provide a flexible tool for classifying large, homogeneous samples of galaxies observed with spectroscopy, which is a typical case for blind spectroscopic surveys. Originally developed for the JWST Cycle 1 program FRESCO, this software can be easily adapted for a variety of spectroscopic data sets represented in standard data formats used in the astronomy community (FITS, ASCII, etc.).

Installation

Installing specvizitor using pip

Set up a local environment (Python 3.10+) and run

$ pip install specvizitor

Installing specvizitor from source

1. Clone the public repository:

   $ git clone https://github.com/ivkram/specvizitor
   $ cd specvizitor
   

2. Set up a local environment (Python 3.10+) and run

   $ pip install -e .
   

Starting specvizitor

To start specvizitor, activate the local environment and run this command in your terminal:

$ specvizitor

Configuring specvizitor

The basic settings such as the path to the catalogue/data directory are available in Tools > Settings. For more advanced settings, open the directory indicated in the bottom of the Settings widget ("Advanced settings"). Its location is platform-specific and determined using the platformdirs package. The directory should contain the following YAML files: specvizitor.yml (the general GUI settings), lines.yml (the list of spectral lines displayed along with a spectrum) and docks.yml (the configuration of the data viewer). Several examples of changing these files for your needs are given below, but note that in the future, specvizitor will be fully configurable from the GUI.

Adding spectral lines

Open lines.yml and add an entry with the name of a spectral line and its rest wavelength to list, e.g.:

list:
  # ...
  PaG: 10938.086

By default, all wavelengths are represented in angstroms, which is determined by the wave_unit parameter in the same file.

Configuring the data viewer

The content of the data viewer is described in docks.yml. There are three types of data that can be displayed in the data viewer: images, plots and spectra.

Troubleshooting

To reset specvizitor to its initial state, run the script with the --purge option:

$ specvizitor --purge

License

specvizitor is licensed under a 3-clause BSD style license - see the LICENSE.txt file.