Using the program

After installing the program, you can run ucmima by executing:

$ ucmima

Immediately the graphical window opens.

Description of the user interface

The next figure shows the program in a typical execution:

The user interface is divided in different areas (labeled as A, B, C,…, G in the previous image).

Several buttons give access to different program actions. This buttons can be activated by clicking them with the mouse cursor or by pressing the key that appears between brackets in the button label.

Area A

Several buttons provide access to different operations:

FILE section:

[l]oad: read FITS image stored in the computer hard disk

[s]ave: save current FITS image (that may have been modified

e[xX]it: finish the program execution (the uppercase X does not prompt for confirmation)

ZOOM section:

[z]oom: zoom in the image

[w]ole: zoom out the image

JUST=0: if JUST=1, the scales of the x and y axes will be equal; otherwise (JUST=0) they will be scaled independently

LUT section:

[l]ut #: modify the palette employed to display the images. Five palettes (predefined in PGPLOT) are available: #1 grayscale, #2 rainbow, #3 heat (default), #4 weird IRAF, and #5 AIPS.

MEASURE section:

[m]easure: after activating this button, the program allows the user to click in any location of the image in order to obtain the statistical analysis in a box centered on the cursor location. The box has a square shape of side given by the number that appears in the button below this one (21 pixels by default). The resulting statistical summary is displayed in the area D of the user interface and also in the user console.

CALCULATOR section: the expected simple binary operations ( $+$ , $-$ , $\times$ , $\div$ ) can be applied to the current displayed image. After selecting the operation, the user must choose if the corresponding operation will make use of a constant or an image as the second element.

Area B

This is the interface area where the current image is shown. The axes indicate the displayed pixel region. The image is labeled (center of the upper part label) with the name of the FITS file. The minimum and maximum pixel values in the image are also provided (left and right part of the upper label). These numbers should not be confused with the background and foreground values employed to display the image (which appears in the buttons in the area F).

Area C

Relevant messages for the user of the program appear in this area.

Area D

Image statistical results. The statistical computation normally refers to the image displayed in area B, except when the user is manually selecting image regions (after clicking the [m]easure button in area A). In both cases, two columns with statistical data are displayed. The yellow column corresponds to the statistical summary computed when using exclusively the pixels with values in the range from background to foreground, whereas the green column provides the same summary using all the pixels (i.e., without any clipping based on the pixel value).

The pixel summary provides the number of pixels used to compute the statistics Npixels, the mean Mean, the standard deviation Std.Dev., and median Median.

Area E

Auxiliary image display. When the user has zoomed the main image in area B, in this auxiliary display the program shows the whole image and the limits of the zoomed region as a green rectangle. On the other hand, while the user is taking measurements after clicking the [m]easure button in area A, this auxiliary display shows exclusively the measured region. In this case the pixels outside the [background, foreground] interval are marked with crosses.

Area F

Background and foreground handlers. The current values are displayed in the buttons on the left side of this area. Their values can be easily modified clicking the corresponding button. In addition, the user can establish as background and foreground the minimum and maximum values in the displayed image by clicling the Min[,]Max button. Finally, the background and foreground values can be chosen over the image histogram showed in area G after clicking as background and foreground the minimum and maximum values in the displayed image by clicling the Min[,]Max button. Finally, the background and foreground values can be chosen over the image histogram showed in area G after clicking as background and foreground the minimum and maximum values in the displayed image by clicling the Min[,]Max button. Finally, the background and foreground values can be chosen over the image histogram showed in area G by clicking first the button [h]istog..

Area G

Image histogram. The minimum and maximum values in the horizontal axis correspond to the current background and foreground values.

Typical program usage

After starting the program by executing

$ ucmima

the user must load a FITS image by pressing the button [l]oad. Immediately, the image will be displayed in area B. The automatically computed background and foreground values can be easily modified using the buttons that appear in area F. The image histogram appears in area G.

The displayed image region can be easily modified by zooming in and out using the corresponding buttons located in area A.

When the user is ready to start taking measurements, the button [m]easure in area A must be selected. From this moment, the user must click of the image displayed in area B in order to indicate the region where the statistical measurements are going to be obtained. The results appear in area D as well as in the console. To exit the measurement mode the user must click the cancel button of the mouse (or press the uppercase X key).

Simple arithmetical manipulations can be carried out using the CALCULATOR buttons that appear in area A. The image resulting from this mathematical manipulation will become the current image displayed in area B. This modified image can be saved into an external FITS file by selecting the [s]ave button in area A.

The user can exit the program by clicking e[x]it.