pywwt Reference Documentation
=============================
The pywwt package is the official toolkit for visualizing astronomical data in
Python using `WorldWide Telescope`_ (WWT), a free, open-source astronomy
visualization system. WWT includes a sophisticated 4D WebGL rendering engine and
a cloud-based web service for sharing and visualizing terabytes of astronomical
data. To learn more about WWT, visit `the WWT homepage`_ or `the WWT
documentation hub`_.
Here's a **live, interactive** copy of the WWT research app that lets you
explore `a 25-gigabyte mosaic of the Andromeda galaxy
`__ atop the `Pan-STARRS 3pi dataset
`__ with sources from the `Gaia DR2 catalog
`__ overlaid:
.. _WorldWide Telescope: https://worldwidetelescope.org/home
.. _the WWT homepage: https://worldwidetelescope.org/home
.. _the WWT documentation hub: https://docs.worldwidetelescope.org/
.. raw:: html
pywwt enables you to include this app in `Jupyter notebooks`_ and control it
programmatically from Python, overlaying your own imagery and catalogs. pywwt
also lets you build desktop Qt_ applications using the same interfaces, control
running instances of the WWT Windows application, and more!
.. _Jupyter notebooks: https://jupyter.org/
.. _Qt: https://www.qt.io/
Quick start
-----------
The quickest way to see what the pywwt can do is to try it out live, which you
can do straight in your browser with our cloud-based Jupyter notebooks. Here
are some examples:
* `Visualize Tabular Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
`__
* `Visualize Imagery of W5 and SN2011fe
`__
To browse the complete collection of live example notebooks, go to `the index
page
`__.
*Note: it is usually fast to launch these notebooks, but if the code has been
recently updated, you may have to wait a few minutes for the backing software
images to be rebuilt.*
To browse the Python commands that can be used to control WWT once you've opened
it up, see the documentation of the :class:`~pywwt.core.BaseWWTWidget` class.
Table of Contents
-----------------
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2
installation
opening
controlling
API Reference
-------------
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 1
api/pywwt
api/pywwt.annotation_
api/pywwt.app
api/pywwt.core
api/pywwt.data_server
api/pywwt.imagery
api/pywwt.instruments
api/pywwt.jupyter
api/pywwt.jupyter_relay
api/pywwt.jupyter_server
api/pywwt.layers
api/pywwt.logger
api/pywwt.qt
api/pywwt.solar_system
api/pywwt.traits
api/pywwt.utils
api/pywwt.windows
api/pywwt.windows.client
api/pywwt.windows.layer
api/pywwt.windows.misc
api/pywwt.windows.mods
api/pywwt.windows.utils
Getting help
------------
If you run into any issues when using pywwt, please open an issue `in the
pywwt repository `_ on
GitHub. We also encourage you to consider asking a question on `the WWT
discussion forum`_ site.
.. _the WWT discussion forum: https://wwt-forum.org/
Acknowledgments
---------------
Work on the WorldWide Telescope system has been supported by the `American
Astronomical Society`_ (AAS), the `.NET Foundation`_, and other partners. See `the
WWT user website`_ for details.
.. _American Astronomical Society: https://aas.org/
.. _.NET Foundation: https://dotnetfoundation.org/
.. _the WWT user website: https://worldwidetelescope.org/about/acknowledgments/