astropy.io.fits.convenience

Convenience functions for working with FITS files.

Convenience functions

The functions in this module provide shortcuts for some of the most basic operations on FITS files, such as reading and updating the header. They are included directly in the 'astropy.io.fits' namespace so that they can be used like

astropy.io.fits.getheader(...)

These functions are primarily for convenience when working with FITS files in the command-line interpreter. If performing several operations on the same file, such as in a script, it is better to not use these functions, as each one must open and re-parse the file. In such cases it is better to use astropy.io.fits.open and work directly with the astropy.io.fits.HDUList object and underlying HDU objects.

Several of the convenience functions, such as getheader and getdata support special arguments for selecting which HDU to use when working with a multi-extension FITS file. There are a few supported argument formats for selecting the HDU. See the documentation for getdata for an explanation of all the different formats.