wcstools ☆
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Description:
Tools for using World Coordinate Systems (WCS) in astronomical images
Type: Formula  |  Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025
Links: Homepage  |  formulae.brew.sh
Category: Other
Tags: astronomy wcs fits scientific imaging
Install: brew install wcstools
About:
Wcstools is a comprehensive suite of utilities for creating and manipulating the World Coordinate System (WCS) metadata in astronomical image files. It enables the accurate mapping between pixel coordinates and real-world celestial coordinates (RA and Dec). This toolset is essential for aligning, calibrating, and interpreting astronomical data stored in standard FITS format.
Key Features:
  • Reading and writing WCS headers in FITS files
  • Image projection and coordinate conversion
  • Catalog searching and cross-identification
  • Image header manipulation and repair
Use Cases:
  • Calibrating raw telescope images with celestial coordinates
  • Extracting coordinates for specific pixel locations
  • Creating WCS solutions for astrometric calibration
Alternatives:
  • astropy.wcs – Part of the Astropy Python library; more modern and integrates better with Python-based scientific workflows.
  • Astrometry.net – Focuses on blind astrometric solving of images to generate WCS headers from scratch.
Version History
Detected Version Rev Change Commit
Sep 11, 2025 9:26pm 0 VERSION_BUMP 5c607ca6
Dec 28, 2024 2:47pm 0 VERSION_BUMP 20a879cd
Dec 28, 2024 10:07am 0 VERSION_BUMP ea145ec4
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