FITS Liberator
| FITS Liberator | |
|---|---|
| Original author(s) | ESA/ESO/NASA/NSF/NOIRLab/Caltech IPAC/STScI/CFA. |
| Developer(s) | David Zambrano Lizarazo, Juan Fajardo Barrero, Robert Hurt, Lars Lindberg Christensen, Javier Enciso, David de Martin, Kaspar K. Nielsen, Teis Johansen, Lars Holm Nielsen |
| Stable release | 4.0
/ 4 March 2021 |
| Repository | https://gitlab.com/noirlab/fits-liberator-gui |
| Written in | C++ / JavaScript |
| Operating system | Linux, Windows, macOS |
| License | BSD-3 license |
| Website | noirlab |
The ESA/ESO/NASA FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) Liberator is a free software program for processing and editing astronomical data in the FITS format to reproduce images of the universe. Version 3 and later are standalone programs; earlier versions were plugins for Adobe Photoshop. FITS Liberator is free software released under the BSD-3 license. The engine behind the FITS Liberator is NASA's CFITSIO library.
Although the first version of the software was a tool used mainly by professional astronomers, efforts have been made to bring the tool to the homes of educators and students. The FITS Liberator has become the industry standard for professional imaging scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It uses images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Very Large Telescope (VLT), among others, to craft astronomical images.
The first and second versions of the FITS Liberator were released in July 2004 and August 2005 respectively, the version, v3.0.1, was released in February 2012.