Moving Object Detection

Dependencies:

• Python 3.4.x or later.
• Numpy 1.8.x or later.
• Pandas 0.16.x or later.
• AliPy 2.0.x or later.
• PyFITS 3.3.x or later.
• f2n for Python 3

Usage

usage: python3 atrack.py [-h] [-r ref_image] [-a] [-c] [-m] [-i] [-g]
                         [-p catalog_file] [-v]
                         fits_dir

A-Track.

positional arguments:
  fits_dir              FITS image directory

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -r ref_image, --ref ref_image
                        reference FITS image for alignment (with path)
  -a, --skip-align      skip alignment if alignment is already done
  -c, --skip-cats       skip creating catalog files if they are already
                        created
  -m, --skip-mpcreport  skip creating MPC file
  -i, --skip-pngs       skip creating PNGs
  -g, --skip-gif        skip creating animation file
  -p catalog_file, --plot-objects catalog_file
                        plot all objects in the catalog file on FITS file.
  -v, --version         show version

Installation

A-Track is tested on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Fedora 22 and Mac OS X Yosemite. If you want to use A-Track on Windows, you need to install SExtractor first! This is a bit tricky. Please see this thread.

To install A-Track on Linux or Mac, you can simply download the A-Track package and run the installation scripts install_linux.sh (for Linux: sudo sh install_linux.sh) or install_mac.sh (for Mac: sh install_mac.sh).

Alternatively, you can install A-Track manually following these steps:

1. Install Python3, pip3, imagemagick, git, and SExtractor:

Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install python3 python3-dev python3-pip imagemagick sextractor libxt-dev git build-essential

Fedora:
sudo dnf install python3 python3-devel python3-pip imagemagick sextractor libXt-devel git make automake gcc gcc-c++ kernel-devel
Install the latest SExtractor from here (we recommend v2.19.5 as the older versions detect fewer objects).

Mac OS X:
brew install python3 python3-pip imagemagick git-all sextractor
(You will need Homebrew to install the dependencies.)

2. Install Numpy, Pandas, Scipy, pyFITS, and pillow using pip3:

sudo pip3 install scipy pandas numpy pyfits pillow
(Mac users do not use sudo.)

3. Download and install astroasciidata:

git clone https://github.com/japs/astroasciidata.git
cd astroasciidata
sudo python3 setup.py install
(Mac users do not use sudo.)

4. Download and install Alipy:

git clone https://github.com/akdeniz-uzay/alipy.git
cd alipy
sudo python3 setup.py install
(Mac users do not use sudo.)

5. Download the A-Track package and install f2n:

git clone https://github.com/akdeniz-uzay/A-Track.git
cd A-Track/f2n
sudo python3 setup.py install
(Mac users do not use sudo.)

Now, you have A-Track! You can open a command-line interface in the A-Track directory and run A-Track.

For academic use, please cite the paper:

Atay, T., Kaplan, M., Kilic, Y., Karapinar, N., 2016, A-Track: A new approach for detection of moving objects in FITS images, Computer Physics Communications, Volume 207, p. 524-530.

Bibtex@ADS | CPC | doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2016.07.023