Transforming Between Systems¶

astropy.coordinates supports a rich system for transforming coordinates from one frame to another. While common astronomy frames are built into Astropy, the transformation infrastructure is dynamic. This means it allows users to define new coordinate frames and their transformations. The topic of writing your own coordinate frame or transforms is detailed in Defining a New Frame, and this section is focused on how to use transformations.

The full list of built-in coordinate frames, the included transformations, and the frame names are shown as a (clickable) graph in the coordinates API documentation.

The simplest method of transformation is shown below:

>>> import astropy.units as u
>>> from astropy.coordinates import SkyCoord
>>> gc = SkyCoord(l=0*u.degree, b=45*u.degree, frame='galactic')
>>> gc.fk5  
<SkyCoord (FK5: equinox=J2000.000): (ra, dec) in deg
    ( 229.27251463, -1.12844288)>

While this appears to be simple attribute-style access, it is actually syntactic sugar for the more general transform_to() method, which can accept either a frame name, class or instance:

>>> from astropy.coordinates import FK5
>>> gc.transform_to('fk5')  
<SkyCoord (FK5: equinox=J2000.000): (ra, dec) in deg
    ( 229.27251463, -1.12844288)>
>>> gc.transform_to(FK5)  
<SkyCoord (FK5: equinox=J2000.000): (ra, dec) in deg
    ( 229.27251463, -1.12844288)>
>>> gc.transform_to(FK5(equinox='J1980.0'))  
<SkyCoord (FK5: equinox=J1980.000): (ra, dec) in deg
    ( 229.0146935, -1.05560349)>

As a convenience it is also possible to use a SkyCoord object as the frame in transform_to(). This allows easily putting one coordinate object into the frame of another:

>>> sc = SkyCoord(ra=1.0, dec=2.0, unit='deg', frame=FK5, equinox='J1980.0')
>>> gc.transform_to(sc)  
<SkyCoord (FK5: equinox=J1980.000): (ra, dec) in deg
    ( 229.0146935, -1.05560349)>

Additionally, some coordinate frames (including FK5, FK4, and FK4NoETerms) support “self transformations”, meaning the type of frame doesn’t change, but the frame attributes do. Any example is precessing a coordinate from one equinox to another in an equatorial frame. This is done by passing transform_to a frame class with the relevant attributes, as shown below. Note that these frames use a default equinox if you don’t specify one:

>>> fk5c = SkyCoord('02h31m49.09s', '+89d15m50.8s', frame=FK5)
>>> fk5c.equinox
<Time object: scale='utc' format='jyear_str' value=J2000.000>
>>> fk5c  
<SkyCoord (FK5: equinox=J2000.000): (ra, dec) in deg
    ( 37.95454167,  89.26411111)>
>>> fk5_2005 = FK5(equinox='J2005')  # String initializes an astropy.time.Time object
>>> fk5c.transform_to(fk5_2005)  
<SkyCoord (FK5: equinox=J2005.000): (ra, dec) in deg
    ( 39.39317639,  89.28584422)>

You can also specify the equinox when you create a coordinate using an Time object:

>>> from astropy.time import Time
>>> fk5c = SkyCoord('02h31m49.09s', '+89d15m50.8s',
...                 frame=FK5(equinox=Time('J1970', scale='utc')))
>>> fk5_2000 = FK5(equinox=Time(2000, format='jyear', scale='utc'))
>>> fk5c.transform_to(fk5_2000)  
<SkyCoord (FK5: equinox=2000.0): (ra, dec) in deg
    ( 48.023171,  89.38672485)>

The same lower-level frame classes also have a transform_to() method that works the same as above, but they do not support attribute-style access. They are also subtly different in that they only use frame attributes present in the initial or final frame, while SkyCoord objects use any frame attributes they have for all transformation steps. So SkyCoord can always transform from one frame to another and back again without change, while low-level classes may lose information and hence often do not round-trip.

Transformations and Solar-system ephemerides¶

Some transformations (e.g. the transformation between ICRS and GCRS) require the use of a Solar-system ephemeris to calculate the position and velocity of the Earth and Sun. By default, transformations are calculated using built-in ERFA routines, but they can also use more precise ones using the JPL ephemerides (which are derived from dynamical models).

To use the JPL ephemerides, use the solar_system_ephemeris context manager, as shown below:

>>> from astropy.coordinates import solar_system_ephemeris
>>> from astropy.coordinates import GCRS
>>> with solar_system_ephemeris.set('jpl'): 
...     fk5c.transform_to(GCRS(obstime=Time("J2000"))) 

For locations at large distances from the Solar system, using the JPL ephemerides will make a negligible difference, on the order of micro-arcseconds. For nearby objects, such as the Moon, the difference can be of the order of milli-arcseconds. For more details about what ephemerides are available, including the requirements for using JPL ephemerides, see Solar System Ephemerides.

Navigation

Transforming Between Systems¶

Transformations and Solar-system ephemerides¶