PS MAP RA in hour

[imereu]

Data Analysis Question

How do I can construct a PS MAP figure authomatically with RA coordinate in degree and not in hour?
From this command
gta.write_model_map(model_name="model01") psmap = gta.psmap(cmap='ccube_00.fits',mmap='mcube_model01_00.fits', make_plots=True)
the standard output figures have RA expressed in hour.
Thank you!

PS my fermipy version is fermipy-0.19.0

[ndilalla]

Hi @imereu, as far as I know this feature is currently not implemented. There is already another issue #622 with the same request. It is in our to-do list, but we haven't had the time to implement it

[ndilalla]

@cursor add the functionality to allow users to build maps with RA expressed in degrees and not only hours

[cursor]

Perfect! Let me create a final summary of what has been accomplished:

Summary

I have successfully implemented the functionality to allow users to display RA coordinates in degrees instead of hours in fermipy map plots. Here's what was done:

Changes Implemented

1. Configuration Options (fermipy/defaults.py)

• Added ra_format configuration option to both plotting and psmap settings
• Default value: 'hour' (maintains backward compatibility)
• Accepted values: 'hour' or 'deg'

2. Plotting Module Updates (fermipy/plotting.py)

• Modified ImagePlotter.plot() to handle RA format setting
  • When ra_format='deg', uses ax.coords[0].set_major_formatter('d.ddd') for decimal degrees
  • Applies only to ICRS coordinate systems
• Updated ROIPlotter class to pass ra_format configuration
• Updated AnalysisPlotter methods to support ra_format:
  • make_residmap_plots()
  • make_tsmap_plots()
  • make_psmap_plots()

3. PSMap Module Updates (fermipy/psmap.py)

• Modified to pass ra_format from psmap configuration to the plotter

Usage Examples

Users can now control RA format in several ways:

# Global configuration
gta.config['plotting']['ra_format'] = 'deg'

# Per-method override
psmap = gta.psmap(cmap='ccube_00.fits', 
                  mmap='mcube_model01_00.fits',
                  make_plots=True,
                  ra_format='deg')

# YAML configuration
plotting:
  ra_format: 'deg'

Documentation & Testing

Created:

1. docs/ra_format_usage.md - Comprehensive user documentation
2. examples/ra_format_example.py - Working example code
3. CHANGES_RA_FORMAT.md - Implementation summary
4. fermipy/tests/test_ra_format.py - Unit tests

Commits Made:

1. Core implementation with configuration and plotting changes
2. Example script
3. Implementation summary
4. Unit tests

All changes have been committed and pushed to the cursor/map-ra-degrees-support-785f branch.

Backward Compatibility

• Default behavior preserved (RA in hours)
• No breaking changes
• Users can opt-in to degree format

This addresses the feature request in issue #622 and the PR comment from @ndilalla to add RA degree support.

 

[ndilalla]

This feature is now part of fermipy 1.4.1