[aplpy-announce] APLpy 0.9.1 released

[Astronomical P. <ast...@gm...>]

=========================
APLpy 0.9.1 Release Notes
=========================

This update includes new capabilities, minor bug fixes, and removes the
SciPy dependency.

Highlights
=================

SciPy Dependency Dropped
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While SciPy is a great python package, it can be troublesome to build
and install from scratch. Thanks to Tom Aldcroft's suggestion and
highlighting some of his own code we were able to easily drop
the SciPy dependency.


New Features
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Users can now pass a pyfits HDU instance instead of filenames for
  both FITSFigure() and show_contour() if desired.
- Users can now specify an existing figure with the figure= argument.
- Users with a recent enough version of matplotlib (0.98.6svn) can now
  use the subplot= argument to place multiple plots in a single figure.
- New hide/show_tick_labels() and hide/show_axis_labels() methods.
- Show_grayscale and show_colorscale() now accept percentile_lower= and
  percentile_higher= as arguments.
- Show_grayscale and show_colorscale() now print out vmin and vmax if
  chosen automatically.
- New recenter() method to pan and zoom non-interactively.


General Fixes and Optimization
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Added HDU keyword for the show_contour() method.
- More robust reading in FITS file for the show_contour() method.
- Warning if FITS files do not exist for FITSFigure() or
  show_contour().


News & Discussion
=================
The reception and interest in APLpy has been very positive. We have
received enthusiastic comments on features to add to APLpy as well as
some difficulties in installing APLpy's dependencies. The primary
installation issues are when users try to install the NumPy and SciPy
packages manually (vs. the Enthought Python Distribution). The
features that we'll be adding soon are given below. If you have
something in mind, please let us know through the APLpy forums or
email ast...@gm....

1) Return coordinates of mouse pointer in WCS and x,y coordinates.
2) Ability to plot a scale bar to show angular or physical sizes.
3) Ability to plot an elliptical beam, for example for interferometric
   observations.
4) Ability to plot a compass to show the North and East directions.
5) Ability to plot a gray/colorscale wedge.

Cheers,

The APLpy team