Image Cutouts¶
TESSCut¶
TESSCut is MAST’s tool to provide full-frame image (FFI) cutouts from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Cutouts can be made from the Science Processing Operation’s Center (SPOC) FFI products. The cutouts are returned in the form of target pixel files that follow the same format as TESS pipeline target pixel files. This tool can be accessed in Astroquery by using the Tesscut class.
As of August 2025, the option to create cutouts using TESS Image CAlibration (TICA) full frame images was discontinued. Individual TICA full frame images remain available from the MAST TICA homepage. Cutouts using SPOC data remain available through TESSCut.
Note: TESScut limits each user to no more than 10 simultaneous calls to the service.
After the user has reached this limit TESScut will return a
503 Service Temporarily Unavailable Error.
If you use TESSCut for your work, please cite Brasseur et al. 2019 https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019ascl.soft05007B/abstract
Cutouts¶
The get_cutouts function takes a coordinate, object name (e.g. “M104” or “TIC 32449963”),
or moving target (e.g. “Eleonora”) and cutout size (in pixels or an angular quantity, default is 5 pixels)
and returns the cutout target pixel file(s) as a list of HDUList objects.
If the given coordinate/object location appears in more than one TESS sector a target pixel file will be produced for each sector. If the cutout area overlaps more than one camera or ccd a target pixel file will be produced for each one.
Requesting a cutout by coordinate or objectname accesses the MAST TESScut API and returns a target pixel file, with format described here.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Tesscut
>>> from astropy.coordinates import SkyCoord
...
>>> cutout_coord = SkyCoord(107.18696, -70.50919, unit="deg")
>>> hdulist = Tesscut.get_cutouts(coordinates=cutout_coord, sector=33)
>>> hdulist[0].info()
Filename: <class '_io.BytesIO'>
No. Name Ver Type Cards Dimensions Format
0 PRIMARY 1 PrimaryHDU 57 ()
1 PIXELS 1 BinTableHDU 281 3495R x 12C [D, E, J, 25J, 25E, 25E, 25E, 25E, J, E, E, 38A]
2 APERTURE 1 ImageHDU 82 (5, 5) int32
The following example will request SPOC cutouts using the objectname argument, rather than a set of coordinates.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Tesscut
...
>>> hdulist = Tesscut.get_cutouts(objectname="TIC 32449963", sector=37)
>>> hdulist[0].info()
Filename: <class '_io.BytesIO'>
No. Name Ver Type Cards Dimensions Format
0 PRIMARY 1 PrimaryHDU 56 ()
1 PIXELS 1 BinTableHDU 280 3477R x 12C [D, E, J, 25J, 25E, 25E, 25E, 25E, J, E, E, 38A]
2 APERTURE 1 ImageHDU 81 (5, 5) int32
Requesting a cutout by moving_target accesses the
MAST Moving Target TESScut API
and returns a target pixel file, with format described
here.
The moving_target is an optional bool argument where True signifies that the accompanying objectname
input is the object name or ID understood by the
JPL Horizon ephemerades interface.
The default value for moving_target is set to False. Therefore, a non-moving target can be input
simply with either the objectname or coordinates.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Tesscut
...
>>> hdulist = Tesscut.get_cutouts(objectname="Eleonora",
... moving_target=True,
... sector=6)
>>> hdulist[0].info()
Filename: <class '_io.BytesIO'>
No. Name Ver Type Cards Dimensions Format
0 PRIMARY 1 PrimaryHDU 54 ()
1 PIXELS 1 BinTableHDU 150 355R x 16C [D, E, J, 25J, 25E, 25E, 25E, 25E, J, E, E, 38A, D, D, D, D]
2 APERTURE 1 ImageHDU 97 (2136, 2078) int32
The download_cutouts function takes a coordinate, cutout size
(in pixels or an angular quantity), or object name (e.g. “M104” or “TIC 32449963”) and moving target
(True or False). It uses these parameters to download the cutout target pixel file(s).
If a given coordinate/object/moving target appears in more than one TESS sector, a target pixel file will be produced for each sector. If the cutout area overlaps more than one camera or ccd, a target pixel file will be produced for each one.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Tesscut
>>> from astropy.coordinates import SkyCoord
>>> import astropy.units as u
...
>>> cutout_coord = SkyCoord(107.18696, -70.50919, unit="deg")
>>> manifest = Tesscut.download_cutouts(coordinates=cutout_coord,
... size=[5, 5]*u.arcmin,
... sector=9)
Downloading URL https://mast.stsci.edu/tesscut/api/v0.1/astrocut?ra=107.18696&dec=-70.50919&y=0.08333333333333333&x=0.11666666666666667&units=d§or=9 to ./tesscut_20210716150026.zip ... [Done]
>>> print(manifest)
Local Path
----------------------------------------------------------
./tess-s0009-4-1_107.186960_-70.509190_15x15_astrocut.fits
Sector information¶
To access sector information for a particular coordinate, object, or moving target there is
get_sectors.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Tesscut
>>> from astropy.coordinates import SkyCoord
...
>>> coord = SkyCoord(135.1408, -5.1915, unit="deg")
>>> sector_table = Tesscut.get_sectors(coordinates=coord)
>>> print(sector_table)
sectorName sector camera ccd
-------------- ------ ------ ---
tess-s0008-1-1 8 1 1
tess-s0034-1-2 34 1 2
tess-s0061-1-2 61 1 2
tess-s0088-1-2 88 1 2
The following example will request SPOC cutouts using the objectname argument, rather than a set of coordinates.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Tesscut
...
>>> sector_table = Tesscut.get_sectors(objectname="TIC 32449963")
>>> print(sector_table)
sectorName sector camera ccd
-------------- ------ ------ ---
tess-s0010-1-4 10 1 4
The following example requests SPOC cutouts for a moving target.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Tesscut
...
>>> sector_table = Tesscut.get_sectors(objectname="Ceres", moving_target=True)
>>> print(sector_table)
sectorName sector camera ccd
-------------- ------ ------ ---
tess-s0029-1-4 29 1 4
tess-s0043-3-3 43 3 3
tess-s0044-2-4 44 2 4
tess-s0092-4-3 92 4 3
Zcut¶
Zcut for MAST allows users to request cutouts from various Hubble deep field surveys. The cutouts can be returned as either fits or image files (jpg and png are supported). This tool can be accessed in Astroquery by using the Zcut class. The list of supported deep field surveys can be found here: https://mast.stsci.edu/zcut/
Cutouts¶
The get_cutouts function takes a coordinate and cutout size (in pixels or
an angular quantity) and returns the cutout FITS file(s) as a list of ~astropy.io.fits.HDUList objects.
If the given coordinate appears in more than one Zcut survey, a FITS file will be produced for each survey.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Zcut
>>> from astropy.coordinates import SkyCoord
...
>>> cutout_coord = SkyCoord(189.49206, 62.20615, unit="deg")
>>> hdulist = Zcut.get_cutouts(coordinates=cutout_coord, survey='3dhst_goods-n')
>>> hdulist[0].info()
Filename: <class '_io.BytesIO'>
No. Name Ver Type Cards Dimensions Format
0 PRIMARY 1 PrimaryHDU 11 ()
1 CUTOUT 1 ImageHDU 177 (5, 5) float32
2 CUTOUT 1 ImageHDU 177 (5, 5) float32
3 CUTOUT 1 ImageHDU 177 (5, 5) float32
The download_cutouts function takes a coordinate and cutout size (in pixels or
an angular quantity) and downloads the cutout fits file(s) as either fits files or image (png/jpg)
files.
If a given coordinate appears in more than one Zcut survey, a cutout will be produced for each survey.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Zcut
>>> from astropy.coordinates import SkyCoord
...
>>> cutout_coord = SkyCoord(189.49206, 62.20615, unit="deg")
>>> manifest = Zcut.download_cutouts(coordinates=cutout_coord,
... size=[5, 10],
... units="px",
... survey="3dhst_goods-n")
Downloading URL https://mast.stsci.edu/zcut/api/v0.1/astrocut?ra=189.49206&dec=62.20615&y=200&x=300&units=px&format=fits to ./zcut_20210125155545.zip ... [Done]
Inflating...
...
>>> print(manifest)
Local Path
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
./candels_gn_30mas_189.492060_62.206150_300.0pix-x-200.0pix_astrocut.fits
>>> manifest = Zcut.download_cutouts(coordinates=cutout_coord,
... size=[5, 10],
... units="px",
... survey="3dhst_goods-n",
... cutout_format="jpg")
Downloading URL https://mast.stsci.edu/zcut/api/v0.1/astrocut?ra=189.49206&dec=62.20615&y=200&x=300&units=px&format=jpg to ./zcut_20201202132453.zip ... [Done]
...
>>> print(manifest)
Local Path
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
./hlsp_3dhst_spitzer_irac_goods-n_irac1_v4.0_sc_189.492060_62.206150_10.0pix-x-5.0pix_astrocut_0.jpg
./hlsp_3dhst_spitzer_irac_goods-n-s2_irac3_v4.0_sc_189.492060_62.206150_10.0pix-x-5.0pix_astrocut_0.jpg
./hlsp_3dhst_spitzer_irac_goods-n-s1_irac4_v4.0_sc_189.492060_62.206150_10.0pix-x-5.0pix_astrocut_0.jpg
./hlsp_3dhst_spitzer_irac_goods-n_irac2_v4.0_sc_189.492060_62.206150_10.0pix-x-5.0pix_astrocut_0.jpg
./hlsp_3dhst_mayall_mosaic_goods-n_u_v4.0_sc_189.492060_62.206150_10.0pix-x-5.0pix_astrocut_0.jpg
./hlsp_3dhst_subaru_suprimecam_goods-n_rc_v4.0_sc_189.492060_62.206150_10.0pix-x-5.0pix_astrocut_0.jpg
./hlsp_3dhst_subaru_suprimecam_goods-n_v_v4.0_sc_189.492060_62.206150_10.0pix-x-5.0pix_astrocut_0.jpg
./hlsp_3dhst_subaru_suprimecam_goods-n_ic_v4.0_sc_189.492060_62.206150_10.0pix-x-5.0pix_astrocut_0.jpg
./hlsp_3dhst_subaru_suprimecam_goods-n_zp_v4.0_sc_189.492060_62.206150_10.0pix-x-5.0pix_astrocut_0.jpg
./hlsp_3dhst_subaru_suprimecam_goods-n_b_v4.0_sc_189.492060_62.206150_10.0pix-x-5.0pix_astrocut_0.jpg
Survey information¶
To list the available deep field surveys at a particular location there is get_surveys.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Zcut
>>> from astropy.coordinates import SkyCoord
...
>>> coord = SkyCoord(189.49206, 62.20615, unit="deg")
>>> survey_list = Zcut.get_surveys(coordinates=coord)
>>> print(survey_list)
['candels_gn_60mas', 'candels_gn_30mas', 'goods_north']
HAPCut¶
HAPCut for MAST allows users to request cutouts from various Hubble Advance Products (HAPs). The cutouts can be returned as fits files (image files are not currently supported). This tool can be accessed in Astroquery by using the Hapcut class. Documentation for the supported HAPCut API can be found here: https://mast.stsci.edu/hapcut/
Cutouts¶
The get_cutouts function takes a coordinate and cutout size (in pixels or
an angular quantity) and returns the cutout FITS file(s) as a list of HDUList objects.
If the given coordinate appears in more than one product, a FITS file will be produced for each.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Hapcut
>>> from astropy.coordinates import SkyCoord
...
>>> cutout_coord = SkyCoord(351.347812, 28.497808, unit="deg")
>>> hdulist = Hapcut.get_cutouts(coordinates=cutout_coord, size=5)
>>> hdulist[0].info()
Filename: <class '_io.BytesIO'>
No. Name Ver Type Cards Dimensions Format
0 PRIMARY 1 PrimaryHDU 754 ()
1 SCI 1 ImageHDU 102 (5, 5) float32
2 WHT 1 ImageHDU 56 (5, 5) float32
The download_cutouts function takes a coordinate and cutout size (in pixels or
an angular quantity) and downloads the cutout fits file(s) as fits files.
If the given coordinate appears in more than one product, a cutout will be produced for each.
>>> from astroquery.mast import Hapcut
>>> from astropy.coordinates import SkyCoord
...
>>> cutout_coord = SkyCoord(351.347812, 28.497808, unit="deg")
>>> manifest = Hapcut.download_cutouts(coordinates=cutout_coord, size=[50, 100])
Downloading URL https://mast.stsci.edu/hapcut/api/v0.1/astrocut?ra=351.347812&dec=28.497808&x=100&y=50&units=px to ./hapcut_20221130112710.zip ... [Done]
Inflating...
...
>>> print(manifest)
Local Path
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
./hst_cutout_skycell-p2007x09y05-ra351d3478-decn28d4978_wfc3_ir_f160w_coarse.fits
./hst_cutout_skycell-p2007x09y05-ra351d3478-decn28d4978_wfc3_ir_f160w.fits
./hst_cutout_skycell-p2007x09y05-ra351d3478-decn28d4978_wfc3_uvis_f606w.fits
./hst_cutout_skycell-p2007x09y05-ra351d3478-decn28d4978_wfc3_uvis_f814w.fits