SAOImage DS9: Astronomical Data Visualization Application

SAOImage DS9 is an astronomical imaging and data visualization application. DS9 supports FITS images and binary tables, multiple frame buffers, region manipulation, and many scale algorithms and colormaps. It provides for easy communication with external analysis tasks and is highly configurable and extensible.

DS9 is a stand-alone application. It requires no installation or support files. Versions of DS9 currently exist for Sun Solaris, Linux, Linux64, MacOSX, and Windows XP. All versions and platforms support a consistent set of GUI and functional capabilities.

DS9 supports advanced features such as multiple frame buffers, mosaic images, tiling, blinking, geometric markers, colormap manipulation, scaling, arbitrary zoom, rotation, pan, and a variety of coordinate systems. DS9 also supports FTP and HTTP access.

The GUI for DS9 is user configurable. GUI elements such as the coordinate display, panner, magnifier, horizontal and vertical graphs, button bar, and colorbar can be configured via menus or the command line.

DS9 is a Tk/Tcl application which utilizes the SAOTk widget set. It also incorporates the X Public Access (XPA) mechanism to allow external processes to access and control its data, GUI functions, and algorithms.

New releases of the DS9 binaries, including new features and bug fixes, are made available 3 times a year on January 15th, April 15th, and October 15th.

DS9 Version 5.7 Binaries

Solaris 10
Solaris
Linux
Linux
Linux64
MacOSX Application
for OS verison 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
for OS verison 10.5 (Leopard)
for OS version 10.4 (Tiger)
MacOSX using X11 Window System (command-line program for advanced users)
for OS version 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
for OS version 10.5 (Leopard)
for OS version 10.4 (Tiger)
Windows
Windows Vista/XP/2000/NT
Source
SAOImage DS9 source
Beta
No new beta versions are currently available.
Archive
Older archived versions of DS9 are available here.

XPA Version 2.1.10 Binaries

Solaris 10
Solaris
Linux
Linux
Linux64
MacOSX
for OS version 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
for OS version 10.5 (Leopard)
for OS version 10.4 (Tiger)
Windows
Windows Vista/XP/2000/NT

Documentation 

Reference Manual
Reference Manual (postscript)
Reference Manual (pdf)

User Manual
User Manual (postscript)
User Manual (pdf)

FAQ 
New Features
Known Issues
Release Notes
Tutorials

Contact Information

If you encounter any problems or have suggestions with SAOImage DS9,  please  contact us:  saord @ cfa.harvard.edu

William Joye
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
60 Garden St.
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

Links

SAOImage DS9 provides visualization support for a number of  popular astronomical analysis software packages, of which a few have been listed below:
CIAO: Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations
SAS: XMM-Newton Science Analysis System
IRAF: Image Reduction and Analysis Facility
fv: The Interactive FITS File Editor

Acknowledgment

SAOImage DS9 development has been made possible by funding from the Chandra X-ray Science Center (NAS8-03060) and the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Center (NCC5-568).

If you have found SAOImage DS9 to be helpful in your research, the following acknowledgment would be appreciated: "This research has made use of SAOImage DS9, developed by Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory" or reference the following paper 2003adass..12..489J