astropy / astropy/ccdproc

Image Combine with wcs offset

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ccdproc combiner effort-medium enhancement package-intermediate
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Python
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Description

For simple and primitive image analysis for non-sidereal tracking data, it is quite common to use script like
```
imcombine @fits.list output=combined.fits combine="median" offset="wcs"
```

in IRAF (`fits.list` is the file containing the list of files), as explained [here](http://stsdas.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/gethelp.cgi?imcombine). *I want to request some simple features based on the difference between IRAF and python*.

The only module similar to the above IRAF task is `wcs_project` of `ccdproc`, AFAIK. However, the result from `ccdproc` differs from IRAF, which was unexpected for me.

For test, I combined 4 images using the first image's wcs as the `target_wcs`:

```python
import numpy as np
from ccdproc import CCDData, wcs_project, combine
from astropy.wcs import WCS

prefix = 'reproj_Tutorial/'
filelist = np.loadtxt(prefix+'fits.list', dtype=bytes).astype(str)

reproj = []
wcs_std = WCS((CCDData.read(prefix+filelist[0], unit='adu')).header)

for fname in filelist:
ccd = CCDData.read(prefix+fname, unit='adu')
reproj.append(wcs_project(ccd, wcs_std))

med = combine(reproj, output_file='test.fits', method='average')
```

Since I used the `target_wcs` as the wcs of the first input image, the `NAXIS` of `ccdproc`'s result is restricted to the field of view of the first image. I think most people who want to do the image combine with wcs offset want the whole image, not a "cropped" image at a certain FOV.

The following is the result from IRAF (left) and `ccdproc` (right):

![comparison](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/17214293/26525125/35e2c19e-4388-11e7-94ec-24597f5cb004.png)

The lower part and right part are "cropped" in `ccdproc`'s result, since they are out of the first wcs's FOV (`NAXIS=1024`). The `NAXIS=(1054, 1064)` for IRAF's result.

-----

So I want

1. Some options for `wcs_project` to reproduce similar result as IRAF (e.g., `restrict_NAXIS` or `fix_NAXIS` that has default value `True` for backward compatibility?)

2. And/or some functionality to use the wcs offset when combining images. I guess it will be very useful if some functions or modules, such as `median_combine`, have an option to take `offset={'wcs', 'world', 'physical', 'grid', }`, and do the reprojection and combination automatically based on the input. For example,

```python
combiner = Combiner([ccd1, ccd2, ...])
avg = combiner.median_combine(offset='wcs')
```

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with the ccdproc.wcs_project and Combiner entry points described in the issue, and compare their current handling of target_wcs, NAXIS, and image combination. Define and test whether WCS-offset combination should expand beyond the target field of view, and whether reprojection should be performed automatically by the combiner.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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