Stacked SEDs

A Python package for stacking faint galaxy images from multiple broadband filters and preparing them for Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) analysis.

Key Features

• Galaxy Image Stacking: Robust stacking of hundreds of faint galaxy cutouts using trimmed mean statistics
• Error Propagation: Automatic calculation of uncertainty maps using Median Absolute Deviation (MAD)
• Radial Photometry: Azimuthally averaged surface brightness profiles with background subtraction
• Publication-Ready Plots: Automated generation of multi-filter comparison plots
• Command-Line Tools: Simple sed-stack and sed-photom commands for easy workflow execution

Installation

PyPI (Recommended)

pip install stacked-seds

Development Installation

For contributors or to get the latest features:

git clone https://github.com/ryantrainor/stacked-seds.git
cd stacked-seds
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Verify Your Installation

# Test command-line tools
sed-stack --help
sed-photom --help

# Test Python imports
python -c "import stacked_seds; print(f'Successfully installed version {stacked_seds.__version__}')"

Requirements

• Python ≥ 3.8
• NumPy ≥ 1.20.0
• SciPy ≥ 1.7.0
• Astropy ≥ 5.0.0
• Matplotlib ≥ 3.5.0
• PhotoUtils ≥ 1.5.0

All dependencies are automatically installed with pip.

Quick Start

Basic Usage

# 1. Create configuration file
cp config/params.yml my_config.yml

# 2. Edit my_config.yml with your data paths

# 3. Run stacking workflow
sed-stack my_config.yml
sed-photom my_config.yml

Python API Example

from stacked_seds import stacking, photometry

# Load and stack galaxy images
pixel_coords = stacking.get_galaxy_pixel_coords("image.fits", "galaxies.reg")
stamps = stacking.create_stamps(image_data, wcs_obj, pixel_coords)
stacked_image, error_map = stacking.stack_images(stamps)

# Perform radial photometry
radii, profile, errors = photometry.get_radial_profile(stacked_image, center)

Documentation

• Full Documentation: https://stacked-seds.readthedocs.io/
• API Reference: API Documentation
• Tutorial: Getting Started Guide
• Configuration Guide: Configuration Examples

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.

Development Setup

git clone https://github.com/ryantrainor/stacked-seds.git
cd stacked-seds
pip install -e ".[dev]"
make test

Code Quality

This project uses modern Python development tools:

• Black for code formatting
• flake8 for linting
• pytest for testing
• GitHub Actions for CI/CD

# Run all quality checks
make check

# Format code
make format

# Run tests
make test

Citation

If you use this software in your research, please cite:

@software{stacked_seds,
  title={Stacked SEDs: Galaxy Image Stacking and Photometry},
  author={Abraham, O. and Chapman, C. and Garcia, E. and Trainor, R.},
  year={2025},
  url={https://github.com/ryantrainor/stacked-seds},
  doi={10.5281/zenodo.XXXXXX}
}

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions
• Email: ryan.trainor@fandm.edu

Acknowledgments

This project was developed at Franklin & Marshall College. We thank the astronomy community for their valuable feedback and contributions.