Warning

This astropy-healpix package is in an early stage of development. It should not be considered feature complete or API stable. Feedback and contributions welcome!

What is HEALPix?

HEALPix (Hierarchical Equal Area isoLatitude Pixelisation) is an algorithm for pixellizing a sphere that is sometimes used in Astronomy to store data from all-sky surveys, but the general algorithm can apply to any field that has to deal with representing data on a sphere.

More information about the HEALPix algorithm can be found here:

• http://healpix.jpl.nasa.gov/
• http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005ApJ…622..759G
• http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007MNRAS.381..865C

About this package

astropy-healpix is a new BSD-licensed implementation that is separate from the original GPL-licensed HEALPix library and associated healpy Python wrapper. See About this package for further information about the difference between this new implementation and the original libraries.

The code can be found on GitHub, along with the list of Contributors.

User documentation

• Installation
• Getting started
• Coordinate conversions
• Pixel corners and edges
• Seaching for pixels around a position (cone search)
• Interpolating values from a HEALPix map
• Performance
• Healpy-compatible interface
• Reference/API
• Changes