CubeFig - Publication-Ready Moment Maps in Seconds

CubeFig is a high-performance interactive tool designed for astronomers to generate publication-quality moment maps from spectral cubes with minimal effort. CubeFig streamlines the workflow from FITS cube to final figure, handling physical conversions, masking, and layout automatically.

Why CubeFig?

• 🚀 Fast Performance: Powered by a custom C backend, CubeFig calculates moments (Intensity, Velocity, Dispersion) efficiently, enabling real-time exploration of large datasets.
• 📄 Publication Ready: specific focus on generating figures that are ready for inclusion in journals (PDF/SVG support, proper physical axes, beam ellipses).
• ⚡ Efficient Workflow: Load data -> Apply Mask -> Compute Moments -> Export. Done.

Key Features

• High-Performance Moment Calculation: Compute Moment 0, 1, and 2 near-instantly using C extensions.
• Interactive Visualization: Scroll through channel maps and inspect masks in real-time.
• Smart Plotting:
  • Automatic WCS to Physical coordinate conversion (pc, kpc, Mpc).
  • Precise control over figure dimensions, margins, and overlays.
  • Toggleable Beam, Grid, and Colorbar elements.
• Session Persistence: Save your workspace and resume exactly where you left off.

Usage

Start the application using:

python app.py [arguments]

Quick Start Example

Visualize the NGC 1068 Torus CO(3-2) data:

python app.py \
  --file examples/NGC1068_torus_CO32.fits \
  --mask examples/NGC1068_torus_CO32_mask.fits \
  --title "NGC 1068 Torus (CO 3-2)" \
  --grid \
  --show-beam \
  --show-center \
  --center-coords 83 66 \
  --show-physical \
  --target-distance 14.4e6 \
  --offset-unit pc

Common Arguments

• --file: Path to FITS file to load.
• --mask: Path to FITS mask file.
• --show-physical: Enable physical distance axes.
• --target-distance: Distance to object (required for physical axes).
• --fig-width / --fig-height: Set exact figure dimensions in inches.

Gallery