Configuration Files¶

To use STScI recommended settings, refer to the *.cfg files in stginga/examples/configs. You can modify your existing configurations using the given values in the examples, or copy the files directly to your $HOME/.ginga directory. The latter is not recommended unless you know what you are doing (and remember to back up your existing Ginga configurations before copying). You can further customize Ginga according to your own preferences afterwards by modifying them again manually.

Note that our versions of existing Ginga configuration files do not have a complete list of possible configuration values. We simply list the values that we recommend for overriding Ginga defaults. For a full list, please refer to the respective examples in ginga/examples/configs.

Our own plugin configurations are described with their respective Plugins. Meanwhile, we explain the importance of overriding some Ginga defaults for use with STScI data below.

general.cfg¶

Due to the fact that some plugins can modify image buffers in memory (e.g., BackgroundSub), it is recommended that Ginga’s data cache is set to never expire (at the risk of memory error if you open more images than your machine can handle). If this is not set, you might lose any changes to your data buffer when the image is reloaded from file:

numImages = 0

Note

If you use channel_<channelname>.cfg (e.g., channel_Image.cfg), you also need to set numImages there appropriately, as it overrides the general setting.

In addition, our plugins also use some general settings that are specific to STScI FITS data structure. If they are not set, HST defaults are used:

# Inherit PRIMARY (EXT=0) header for multi-extension FITS
inherit_primary_header = True

# Header keywords. These can be in PRIMARY header only if it is inherited.
# Otherwise, Ginga will only look in the specified extension.
extnamekey = 'EXTNAME'
extverkey = 'EXTVER'
sciextname = 'SCI'
errextname = 'ERR'
dqextname = 'DQ'
instrumentkey = 'INSTRUME'
targnamekey = 'TARGNAME'

ginga_config.py¶

This is the same file as mentioned in Change Ginga Configuration to Always Load stginga. The following add default catalog services to the Catalogs local plugin:

def pre_gui_config(ginga):
    from ginga.util.catalog import AstroPyCatalogServer

    # TODO: Add MAST interface when available on Astroquery.
    # Add Cone Search services
    catalogs = [
        ('The HST Guide Star Catalog, Version 1.2 (Lasker+ 1996) 1',
         'GSC_1.2'),
        ('The PMM USNO-A1.0 Catalogue (Monet 1997) 1', 'USNO_A1'),
        ('The USNO-A2.0 Catalogue (Monet+ 1998) 1', 'USNO_A2'),
    ]
    bank = ginga.get_ServerBank()
    for longname, shortname in catalogs:
        obj = AstroPyCatalogServer(
            ginga.logger, longname, shortname, '', shortname)
        bank.addCatalogServer(obj)

Meanwhile, this automatically loads the MultiDim local plugin for the “Image” channel when Ginga starts:

def post_gui_config(ginga):
    # Auto start local plugins
    ginga.add_channel('Image')
    ginga.start_local_plugin('Image', 'MultiDim', None)

plugin_Contents.cfg¶

Ginga’s default columns for Contents plugin do not apply to STScI FITS data. Therefore, you should customize it to show keyword values that are relevant to your own data. However, you should always keep NAME and MODIFIED because they are used to identify the image buffer and specify whether the buffer has changed, respectively. For example:

# Columns to show from metadata
# Format: [(col header, keyword1), ... ]
columns = [ ('Name', 'NAME'), ('Object', 'TARGNAME'), ..., ('Modified', 'MODIFIED')]

plugin_Thumbs.cfg¶

Ginga’s default keywords for Thumbs plugin do not apply to STScI FITS data. Therefore, you should customize it to show keyword values that are relevant to your own data. For example:

tt_keywords = ['EXTNAME', 'EXTVER', 'NAXIS1', 'NAXIS2']

Navigation