jwst_coronagraph_visibility: James Webb Space Telescope Coronagraph Visibility Tool

SIAF version: PRDOPSSOC-027

The James Webb Space Telescope Coronagraph Visibility Tool (CVT) is a GUI-based target visibility tool for assessing target visibilities and available position angles versus time relative to MIRI^[1] and NIRCam^[2] coronagraphic masks. The CVT is available as a standalone gui-based python tool (AstroConda package) or as a macOS app bundle.

The allowed pointing of JWST leads to target visibility that depends on ecliptic latitude, and the range of roll angles allowed depends on solar elongation. The allowed position angles for a target can thus be a complicated function of time. As a result, it can be difficult to: (1) understand the possible orientations of a given target on the detector, especially in relation to any instrumental obscurations; (2) determine the ideal roll angle offsets for multi-roll observations; and (3) determine a group of targets that are simultaneously visible. The CVT was created to address these issues and assist in planning MIRI and NIRCam programs prior to entering targets and observations into the APT^[3].

We stress that the CVT is designed to provide quick illustrations of the possible observable orientations for a given target. As such, the CVT rapidly approximates JWST’s pointing restrictions and does not query the official JWST Proposal Constraint Generator (PCG), nor include detailed pointing restrictions like Earth and Moon avoidance, etc. Therefore, CVT results should be treated as useful approximations that may differ from official APT constraints by a degree or so.

Documentation can be found online at JWST Coronagraph Visibility Tool Help.

Authors: Christopher Stark, Joseph Long, J. Brendan Hagan, Mees Fix and Bryony Nickson

Installation for Users

Installing the Python Package

Installing with pip

CVT may be installed from the Python Package Index in the usual manner for Python packages.

$ pip install jwst_coronagraph_visibility 

Installing the macOS application

If you are running macOS and would like a double-clickable application, click on the following link:
Download for macOS (86.4 MB).

Simply extract the downloaded zip file to obtain the .app bundle, then double-click to run the JWST Coronagraph Visibility Tool.

Installation for Contributors

For those wishing to contribute to the code base, you can install jwst_coronagraph_visibility by cloning and installing the repository. This is only recommended for those looking to help with development. In general, those wishing only to use the jwst_coronagraph_visibility tool should install the latest stable version from using Astroconda, as described in the instructions above.

Prerequisites

It is highly recommended that contributors have a working installation of Miniconda or Anaconda for Python 3.6. Package requirements for contributing to jwst_coronagraph_visibility will be provided by a setup.py script included in the repository.

Clone the repository:

Clone the jwst_coronagraph_visibility GitHub repository as follows:

$ git clone https://github.com/brynickson/jwst_coronagraph_visibility.git
$ cd jwst_coronagraph_visibility

Environment Installation

Following the download of the jwst_coronagraph_visibility repository, create and activate a new jwst_coronagraph_visibility environment:

$ conda create -n jwst_coronagraph_visibility-3.7 python=3.7
$ conda activate jwst_coronagraph_visibility-3.7

Package installation

Next, you need to install the jwst_coronagraph_visibility package. This can be accomplished by running the setup.py script:

(jwst_coronagraph_visibility-3.7)$ python setup.py develop

The package should now appear if you run conda list jwst_coronagraph_visibility.

Citation

If you use the CVT for work/research presented in a publication (whether directly, or as a dependency to another package), please consider citing the Zenodo record using the DOI page above. Please find additional instructions in CITATION.

Software Contributions

Contributors should use a "forking workflow" when making contributions to the project.

Code of Conduct

Users and contributors to the jwst_coronagraph_visibility repository should adhere to the Code of Conduct. Any issues or violations pertaining to the Code of Conduct should be brought to the attention of a jwst_coronagraph_visibility team member or to conduct@stsci.edu.

Questions

For any questions about the jwst_coronagraph_visibility project or its software or documentation, please open an Issue.

Known Issues

• The CVT does not (and will not) query the JWST Proposal Constraint Generator. The only constraint on the field of regard is the Sun and anti-Sun avoidance angle.
• Target name resolution depends on the availability of the SIMBAD service. If the service cannot be reached, you will have to enter coordinates yourself.
• The CVT does not currently provide a way to export the plotted points as text. Plots can be saved from the GUI using the save icon below the plot panel.
• The CVT has only been tested on Mac and Linux. Issue reports from Windows users are welcome, and we will do our best to address them, but we are not testing the tool on Windows.

See issue tracker at https://github.com/spacetelescope/jwst_coronagraph_visibility/issues.

Current Development Team

• Mees Fix @mfixstsci
• Bryony Nickson @brynickson

Acronyms

[1] - Mid-Infrared Instrument (see documentation) ↩
[2] - Near-Infrared Instrument (see documentation) ↩
[3] - Astronomer's Proposal Tool (see documentation) ↩