Quickstart#

This page gets you from an installed copy of atlas to a FITS image on screen, and names the parts of the window as it goes.

Open an image#

The quickest route is to name the file on the command line:

atlas image.fits

Every file you name gets its own frame:

atlas bias.fits dark.fits flat.fits

Or start empty and use File → Open Image… (Ctrl+O), which accepts several files at once, or File → Open Directory… to take every FITS file in a folder.

Find your way around#

Part of the window

What it is

The image area

One frame, or a grid of tiles in tile mode

File menu

Opening images and directories, quitting

Frame menu

Moving between frames, deleting them

View menu

Single vs tile layout, intensity scale, panel visibility

Tools menu

Whatever optional tools your configuration switched on

Status bar, left

Messages, such as errors from a tool

Status bar, right

The hover readout

An empty Tools menu is normal on a default launch: every tool except the header panel is opt-in. See Configuration for how to turn them on.

The shortcuts worth learning first#

Shortcut

Does

Ctrl+O

Open image

Ctrl+1

Show one frame at a time

Ctrl+2

Tile every frame

Ctrl+]

Next frame

Ctrl+[

Previous frame

Ctrl+3

Linear scale

Ctrl+4

Log scale

Ctrl+W

Close the current frame

Ctrl+Q

Quit

Compare two images#

Open both, then tile them and step between them:

atlas bias.fits dark.fits --mode tile

In tile mode the scale belongs to each frame separately, so you can put one image on a log scale beside another on a linear one. Hover anywhere and the status bar names the tile the cursor is over as well as the pixel.

Turn a tool on for one session#

You do not need a configuration file to try a tool. --enable takes any tool name:

atlas image.fits --enable histogram --enable statistics

--disable does the reverse, which is useful for stripping a panel out of a profile you otherwise want:

atlas --profile detector --disable zmq

Start from a profile#

Three profiles ship with atlas:

atlas --profile minimal      # image display, nothing else
atlas --profile viewer       # headers and histograms
atlas --profile detector     # tiled frames, tap subtraction, ZMQ

atlas --list-profiles prints the list, and atlas --help prints the full command line. When a profile is close but not quite right, copy it into your own YAML file and pass --config; Configuration covers the format.

Next steps#