Why use madcubapy#

madcubapy simplifies working with FITS files and their accompanying history files created by MADCUBA. It offers a seamless integration of these files into Python workflows, enabling efficient data processing and visualization.

The vision of madcubapy#

The primary goal of madcubapy is to streamline the analysis of MADCUBA-exported data by combining FITS files and their external history files into a single, user-friendly object in Python. This avoids the need for manual parsing and makes the analysis process more intuitive.

MADCUBA Products and the History File#

Unlike traditional FITS workflows, MADCUBA stores operation details in a separate “history file” rather than writing them in FITS header cards. The madcubapy package integrates these external history files alongside the FITS data, ensuring all metadata and processing steps are easily accessible.

For more details, see the dedicated History File page.

Built on Astropy#

Instead of re-inventing the wheel, madcubapy uses the power of the Astropy library for its core functionality. By building on the Astropy ecosystem, madcubapy inherits robust, well-tested features and extends them to meet the specific needs of MADCUBA users.

Why choose madcubapy?#

  • Unified Workflow: Combine FITS and history data into a single Python object. Every operation performed on the data through madcubapy is stored into de history file following MADCUBA standards.

  • Enhanced functionality: Offers several tools to automatically resolve unit inconsistencies and other common issues, even with non-MADCUBA products.

  • Visualization Tools: Includes helpers for visualizing data created to work with MadcubaMap objects, but also fully compatible with Astropy’s CCDData objects.

  • Failsafe mechanism: The MadcubaMap object contains a ccddata attribute, which is a CCDData object that can be used for operations that lack compatibility with MadcubaMap objects.