A Quick Start Guide of Makali`i
by Bunji SUZUKI (original)

2004-02-10

by Reiko FURUSHO (revised) 2007-01-06
by T.Handa (into English)

2010-07-30

Among several image processing software, Makali`i is tuned for astronomical images in FITS format. FITS is aworldwide format of images to make astronomical researches. A FITS image is uncompressed and keeps exact
information of all pixels such as position and intensity, although some image formats used as an output of popular
digital cameras like jpeg do not keep them. Almost all data released for scientific research from NationalAstronomical Observatory of Japan and other institutions are recorded in FITS format. Other observatories for public
education will release images in FITS format in near future.

Table of Content■ Installation ·································································································································· p. 2
■ Start up & set up the environment ······························································································ p. 2
■ Open an image ·························································································································· p. 3
■ Modify the view (1)····················································································································· p. 4
■ Modify the view (2)····················································································································· p. 4
■ Show the FITS header ················································································································· p. 5
■ Use a brink function ···················································································································· p. 5
■ Draw a profile ····························································································································· p. 6
■ Draw a contour map ···················································································································· p. 7
■ Image calculation ························································································································ p. 7
■ Save the results & quit Makali`i ·································································································· p. 9
■ Other functions···························································································································· p. 9
■ References··································································································································· p. 10©PAOFITS WG

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A Quick Start Guide of Makali`i■ Installation
Just

executionof“MklSetup.exe”

downloadedfromthe（ http://makalii.mtk.nao.ac.jp/index.html.en ）makes

official

site

installation
Icon of the installer

automatically.
Click an icon appeared after the setup, the software start up.
You can get an official installation manual (PDF; in Japanese) from the following website.
An official installation manual of Makali`i

Icon of the Makali`i

http://paofits.nao.ac.jp/Makalii/manual/Mkl_inst.pdf■ Start up & set up the environment
Click [File] in the menu bar and choose [preference...] from the pull-down menu and check the “FITS file”. With
this setup and after restart the Makali`i the files with extension “fits”, “fit” or “fts” are associated to the software.
Although this setup is not required to use Makali`i, you can start the software only make a double click on a FITS file.
If you want to use automatic start with a double click on an image file, you can choose other types of image formats
from this panel. Option “Maximize Makalii and images when they are opened.” is another convenient option.
Another option “FITS format is read bottom-up” is also important. It is checked as a default. With this choice, theorigin of the image is set to the bottom-left corner, which is the official definition of FITS format, although some
images violate this definition).

startuppreference

associate FITS files

Set a full-page mode at start.

Pixel order is set to bottom to top.

2

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A Quick Start Guide of Makali`i■ Open an image
Click [File] in the menu bar and choose [Open...] or click an icon of [Open]. You can find a folder which contains
your FITS images in a dialog of [Open image file]. Point the files you want to read and click the button [Open].
Usually only files in FITS format are shown in the dialog. If you want to read files in another format, click [file Type]tab and change the file type to show. It is convenient that all images you want to process are opened at once. Just after
reading, only a part of the image is shown on the screen.

Open an image
Just after open

Show files only in FITS format as default

show in the one-to-one scale at first
When you move the mouse on an active window, which is known by color change of the window bar, the (x, y)
coordinates are shown in the information bar. When you check the option “FITS format is read bottom-up” in thepull-down menu of [preference...] in the menu bar [File] (default setup), the origin of the coordinates (x, y) is the left
bottom corner of the image.

Information of the image

yThe (x, y) coordinates and apixel value at the mouse
cursor are shown on theinformation bar.

xThe origin of thecoordinates©PAOFITS WG

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A Quick Start Guide of Makali`i■ Modify the view (1)When the default image size is too small or large to display in the Makali`i window, you can scale up or down theimage using the “loupe” icon.
If you want to change the alignment of images, click the [Window] in the menu bar, you can choose one from threeautomatic alignment styles: [Cascade], [Tile], [Tile Vertically].
You can arrange the display color of the image. When you check the box for “log”, an image with wide range inbrightness can be shown properly. The white and black triangles on the slide-bar show the maximum and minimum
brightness of the image to show. You can change the range with dragging these triangles. By this tuning you can see
the detail structure of the image. You can input the numbers from keyboard in the boxes in both sides of the slide-bar.

Modify the view (1)Image magnification

Color coding & log scale

Image window alignment
Color coding range■ Modify the view (2)You can modify the view of the image also using [Contrast…] on the pull-down menu under [View] in the menubar. A histogram of the image brightness is shown in a new window and you can change the coded range using a
black and a white triangle. You can drag them or input by number. The histogram can be scaled up and down. Thisfunction helps you to modify the view.

Modify the view (2)Histogram of pixel brightness

Range to display

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change the histogram range

A Quick Start Guide of Makali`i

When you change the view, the pixel values of the FITS data are not affected. The software only affects the view
with these operations. You try to change the view without any worry about giving the damage to the image data.
■ Show the FITS header
A FITS data file is composed of two parts: one part is called as “header” which has additional information about theimage. The other part is the pixel values itself. Software which can read a FITS file uses the header to display theimage.
The additional information contains such as observation date, the coordinates of the image, telescope name, a color
filter to observe the image, history of image processing, etc. The format and entries of the header are defined by theInternational Astronomical Union.
You can read the FITS header with choosing [FITS Header…] on the pull-down menu under [Image Info…] menu,
or with clicking icon “FITS header”.

Show the FITS header

FITS header
dialogAn example of information stored in the FITS header
BITPIX =-32

A pixel value is stored as a 32 bit floating value(16 means 16 bit integer)

NAXIS

=

2

The number of axes. “2” is for 2 dimensional data or ausual image on a plane.

NAXIS1 =450

The number of pixels along the first axis, which is usually
the horizontal size of the image.

NAXIS2 =450

The number of pixels along the second axis, which is usually
the vertical size of the image.

■ Use a blink function
The function “blink” switches some images quickly.
If you want to find an asteroid or a variable star including a supernova, you must compare the several images taken
at the different epoch. In such cases the “blink” is very helpful.
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A Quick Start Guide of Makali`i

Choose [Blink…] under [Processing] on the menu bar or click the [Blink] icon activates the blink function. Assignthe images from the file list, click the start button. You can shift the relative position of each image in real time withblinking using the “Image shift: move” cursor buttons. This function helps to estimate the relative shift between two
images: using the estimated value with this function and apply it with [Move…] under [Image] on the menu bar.

BlinkA file list to assign

Position shift■Draw a profile
One of outstanding functions of Makali`i is the [Graph] function. To use this function, choose [Graph] under[Processing] on the menu bar or click the [Graph] icon.
To draw a graph of brightness, which is called a “profile”, point the start position on the image and drag the mouseto the end position. During the dragging a line can be modified its length and direction before release the mousebutton. After releasing the button, “a graph of brightness along the line” or “a profile” is shown on the [graph] dialog
window. When you click on the profile, the vertical line is shown on the profile and its brightness and coordinates areshown at the left top part of the dialog. When you drag the vertical line, a mark at the corresponding position is shownon the image. It is helpful to know the relative position on the profile and the image. Although the horizontal andDraw a profile
Brightness and coordinates

When you click on the profile, avertical line appears on theprofile and a cross mark will beshown at the corresponding
position the image.

Scale of the axes of the profile

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Close the extension partA Quick Start Guide of Makali`i

vertical axes are scaled automatically, you can fix it using [Horizontal Magnification] and [Vertical Scale] functions.
The data of the resultant profile can be written in the CSV or plain text format. Most of spread sheet software, suchas Excel, can read it.

■ Draw a contour map
A contour is a line connecting pixels with the same value. A topographical map and weather chart are usuallydrawn as a contour map. To draw a contour map of the image, choose [Contour…] under [Processing] on the menu
bar or click the [Contour] icon.
The number of contour levels are initially set to 10. Each contour level is set to be the same interval step between
max and min assigned by setting of the color coding range (see a black and white triangles in “Modify the view (1)”).
You can change the number of contour levels. Using these functions you can set any contour levels as you like.

Draw contours

A contour mapthe number of contour levels, andother setting■ Image calculation
You can add, subtract, multiply, or divide one or two images and get a resultant image using [Image] in the menubar. These calculations are done for each pixel in the image.
Choose one in the pull-down menu, a dialog window appears. When you choose [Subtract…] in the pull-down
menu, a subtraction dialog appears. You can select the subtraction image from three options; [a constant], [an openimage], or [an image file]. If you check the [Preview], a result is shown in real time. You can also shift the image
before subtraction. In many cases a resultant image is uniformly white or black. This is due to improper setting of theview and an actual image may not be uniform.
When you click the [OK] button, the original image on the computer memory is overwritten by the resultant image.
So, the original image file is replaced by the resultant image, if you “save” the image after this process. In many cases,
you should use [Save As…] in the pull-down menu under [File] in the menu bar instead of using “Save” icon.
The following is an example of two images of the same galaxy before and after appearing a supernova. The author
got it according to the following procedure.
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A Quick Start Guide of Makali`iImage calculation (subtract)

Set for calculation method and fileselection
Shift the relative position
A result is shown in real time, if you

Preview image

check the “preview”• Download the following two FITS files from web page of PAOFITS WG (http://paofits.nao.ac.jp/) orsample files in this sample set. .
 N5194_01.fts ·························An image of M51 taken at 22 March 2004
 N5194_02.fts ·························An image with SN2005cs taken at 30 June 2005
• Open the both files. After opening, align two images using [Tile Vertically] under [Window] in the menu bar.
• Focus the window of “N5194_02.fts” and click [Subtract…] under [Image] in the menu bar. Check the [an openimage], and choose [N5194_01.fts] from the pull-down menu. It gives subtraction the image without SN2005csImage calculation (subtract)
The view is improper, because
the resultant image has different
distribution of brightness fromthe original. [Auto Contrast] in[View] is helpful in such cases.

These images are courtesy of Mr.
SN2005cs!! You can find it.

Yasuo Sano who lives in Nayoro,
Hokkaido, Japan.

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A Quick Start Guide of Makali`ifrom the image with SN2005cs.
• With checking [Preview], N5194_02.fts is replaced by the resultant image.
• Adjust the relative position of the second image. The author found the best parameters are X=-0.6, Y=-0.2,
Rotate=0.6degrees.
• After setting the parameters, click [OK] button to execute the calculation.
• The resultant image should be uniformly black because of improper setting for the view. Click [Auto Contrast]
under [View] in the menu bar, or modify the view manually.

■ Save the results & quit Makali`i
After processing the image, you should save it as the different name from the original. Click [Save As…] under[File] in the menu bar, and give a new name as you like.
During the data save procedure, the system asks you the data format and bit width; real or integer, from 8 to 64 bits.
In most cases, 32 bit real is good.
To quit Makali`i, click [Exit] under [File] in the menu bar, which is the same as other Windows application
softwares, or click [Exit] icon.

■ Other functions♦ Print…

Printout the image♦ Image
Flip Vertically

Flip the image upside down

Flip Horizontally

Flip the image left to right

Rotate…

Rotate the image with any angle

Image Size…

Resize the image with least

Batch - Composite…

Automatic composition of many images♦ Processing
Trim

Trim a part of the image by a rectangular windowPhotometory…

Measure the intensity of a star or a point like source. Subtract thebackground sky level using an apparture.

Astrometory…

Measure the position of a star or a point like source only with mouseclicking.

♦ Image Reduction
Bias Frame/Dark Frame/Flat field…
The first stage reduction for digital images taken with a digital
cameraFile formats which Makali`i can open.
Makali`i can open a file in FITS, BMP, GIF, JPEG, TIFF, RAW and other formats as an output from major CCD©PAOFITS WG

9A Quick Start Guide of Makali`icameras. But it has some restriction to read and write. For example, Makali`i can read a file in JPEG format but
cannot write it in FITS format. This is because the JPEG format is a deformed image and improper to export as
FITS to avoid misunderstanding at the scientific measurements.

■ References* Makali`i official web site
http://makalii.mtk.nao.ac.jp/
Distribute, registration, user support, etc.
* PAOFITS WG
http://paofits.nao.ac.jp/
Some FITS data files, Official installation manual (in Japanese), some textbooks which use FITSfiles* Japanese FITS committee
http://www.fukuoka-edu.ac.jp/~kanamitu/fits/
The latest definition of FITS format and other information on FITS itself, some softwares toaccess the FITS files* Japan Association for Hands-On Universe (JAHOU)
http://www.jahou.org/10©PAOFITS WG