A comparison of SOFA and NOVAS astrometric software libraries

Andrzej S. Piascik; Christopher M. Copperwheat; Marco C. Lam; Apichat Leckngam; Apirat Prasit; Pakawat Prasit; Robert J. Smith; Iain A. Steele

doi:10.1117/12.2311800

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6 July 2018 A comparison of SOFA and NOVAS astrometric software libraries

Andrzej S. Piascik, Christopher M. Copperwheat, Marco C. Lam, Apichat Leckngam, Apirat Prasit, Pakawat Prasit, Robert J. Smith, Iain A. Steele

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Proceedings Volume 10707, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy V; 107071Z (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2311800
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2018, Austin, Texas, United States

Abstract

The preferred programming languages and operating systems used in writing and running astrometric software have changed over time. The Python language is now well supported by the scientific community which provides open-source standard libraries for astronomical calculation including Astropy,¹ SciPy² and NumPy.³ We surveyed available open source astrometric libraries and compare ICRS coordinate to observation transforms using recent releases of C source code and Python wrappers from the IAU Standard of Fundamental Astronomy⁴ (SOFA), against those using the US Naval Observatory Vector Astrometry Software⁵(NOVAS). The selection of an underlying operating system with long term support is also an important aspect of maintaining a working telescope control system. The installation and operation of the libraries under both Linux Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) and Windows 10 are explored.

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Andrzej S. Piascik, Christopher M. Copperwheat, Marco C. Lam, Apichat Leckngam, Apirat Prasit, Pakawat Prasit, Robert J. Smith, and Iain A. Steele "A comparison of SOFA and NOVAS astrometric software libraries", Proc. SPIE 10707, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy V, 107071Z (6 July 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2311800

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