testbed/astropy__astropy/docs/visualization/wcsaxes/ticks_labels_grid.rst

**********************************
Ticks, tick labels, and grid lines
**********************************

For the example in the following page we start from the example introduced in
:ref:`initialization`.

.. plot::
   :context: reset
   :nofigs:

    from astropy.wcs import WCS
    from astropy.io import fits
    from astropy.utils.data import get_pkg_data_filename

    filename = get_pkg_data_filename('galactic_center/gc_msx_e.fits')

    hdu = fits.open(filename)[0]
    wcs = WCS(hdu.header)

    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

    ax = plt.subplot(projection=wcs)
    ax.imshow(hdu.data, vmin=-2.e-5, vmax=2.e-4, origin='lower')

.. _coordinateobjects:

Coordinate objects
******************

While for many images, the coordinate axes are aligned with the pixel axes,
this is not always the case, especially if there is any rotation in the world
coordinate system, or in coordinate systems with high curvature, where the
coupling between x- and y-axis to actual coordinates become less well-defined.

Therefore rather than referring to ``x`` and ``y`` ticks as Matplotlib does,
we use specialized objects to access the coordinates. The coordinates used in
the plot can be accessed using the ``coords`` attribute of the axes. As a
reminder, if you use the pyplot interface, you can grab a reference to the axes
when creating a subplot::

    ax = plt.subplot()

or you can call ``plt.gca()`` at any time to get the current active axes::

    ax = plt.gca()

If you use the object-oriented interface to Matplotlib, you should already
have a reference to the axes.

Once you have an axes object, the coordinates can either be accessed by index::

    lon = ax.coords[0]
    lat = ax.coords[1]

or, in the case of common coordinate systems, by their name:

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :nofigs:

    lon = ax.coords['glon']
    lat = ax.coords['glat']

In this example, the image is in Galactic coordinates, so the coordinates are
called ``glon`` and ``glat``. For an image in equatorial coordinates, you
would use ``ra`` and ``dec``. The names are only available for specific
celestial coordinate systems - for all other systems, you should use the index
of the coordinate (``0`` or ``1``).

Each coordinate is an instance of the
:class:`~astropy.visualization.wcsaxes.coordinate_helpers.CoordinateHelper` class, which can be used
to control the appearance of the ticks, tick labels, grid lines, and axis
labels associated with that coordinate.

Axis labels
***********

Axis labels can be added using the
:meth:`~astropy.visualization.wcsaxes.coordinate_helpers.CoordinateHelper.set_axislabel` method:

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    lon.set_axislabel('Galactic Longitude')
    lat.set_axislabel('Galactic Latitude')

The padding of the axis label with respect to the axes can also be adjusted by
using the ``minpad`` option. The default value for ``minpad`` is 1 and is in
terms of the font size of the axis label text. Negative values are also
allowed.

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    lon.set_axislabel('Galactic Longitude', minpad=0.3)
    lat.set_axislabel('Galactic Latitude', minpad=-0.4)


.. plot::
   :context:
   :nofigs:

    lon.set_axislabel('Galactic Longitude', minpad=1)
    lat.set_axislabel('Galactic Latitude', minpad=1)

.. note:: Note that, as shown in :ref:`wcsaxes-getting-started`, it is also
          possible to use the normal ``plt.xlabel`` or ``ax.set_xlabel``
          notation to set the axis labels in the case where they do appear on
          the x and y axis.

.. _tick_label_format:

Tick label format
*****************

The format of the tick labels can be specified with a string describing the
format:

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    lon.set_major_formatter('dd:mm:ss.s')
    lat.set_major_formatter('dd:mm')

The syntax for the format string is the following:

==================== ====================
       format              result
==================== ====================
``'dd'``              ``'15d'``
``'dd:mm'``           ``'15d24m'``
``'dd:mm:ss'``        ``'15d23m32s'``
``'dd:mm:ss.s'``      ``'15d23m32.0s'``
``'dd:mm:ss.ssss'``   ``'15d23m32.0316s'``
``'hh'``              ``'1h'``
``'hh:mm'``           ``'1h02m'``
``'hh:mm:ss'``        ``'1h01m34s'``
``'hh:mm:ss.s'``      ``'1h01m34.1s'``
``'hh:mm:ss.ssss'``   ``'1h01m34.1354s'``
``'d'``               ``'15'``
``'d.d'``             ``'15.4'``
``'d.dd'``            ``'15.39'``
``'d.ddd'``           ``'15.392'``
``'m'``               ``'924'``
``'m.m'``             ``'923.5'``
``'m.mm'``            ``'923.53'``
``'s'``               ``'55412'``
``'s.s'``             ``'55412.0'``
``'s.ss'``            ``'55412.03'``
``'x.xxxx'``          ``'15.3922'``
``'%.2f'``            ``'15.39'``
``'%.3f'``            ``'15.392'``
``'%d'``              ``'15'``
==================== ====================

All the ``h...``, ``d...``, ``m...``, and ``s...`` formats can be used for
angular coordinate axes, while the ``x...`` format or valid Python formats
(see `String Formatting Operations
<https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting>`_) should
be used for non-angular coordinate axes.

The separators for angular coordinate tick labels can also be set by
specifying a string or a tuple.

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    lon.set_separator(('d', "'", '"'))
    lat.set_separator(':-s')


Tick/label spacing and properties
*********************************

The spacing of ticks/tick labels should have a sensible default, but you may
want to be able to manually specify the spacing. This can be done using the
:meth:`~astropy.visualization.wcsaxes.coordinate_helpers.CoordinateHelper.set_ticks` method. There
are different options that can be used:

* Set the tick positions manually as an Astropy :class:`~astropy.units.quantity.Quantity`::

      from astropy import units as u
      lon.set_ticks([242.2, 242.3, 242.4] * u.degree)

* Set the spacing between ticks also as an Astropy :class:`~astropy.units.quantity.Quantity`::

      lon.set_ticks(spacing=5. * u.arcmin)

* Set the approximate number of ticks::

      lon.set_ticks(number=4)

In the case of angular axes, specifying the spacing as an Astropy
:class:`~astropy.units.quantity.Quantity` avoids roundoff errors. The
:meth:`~astropy.visualization.wcsaxes.coordinate_helpers.CoordinateHelper.set_ticks` method can also
be used to set the appearance (color and size) of the ticks, using the
``color=`` and ``size=`` options.

The :meth:`~astropy.visualization.wcsaxes.coordinate_helpers.CoordinateHelper.set_ticklabel` method can be used
to change settings for the tick labels, such as color, font, size, and so on::

    lon.set_ticklabel(color='red', size=12)

In addition, this method has an option ``exclude_overlapping=True`` to prevent
overlapping tick labels from being displayed.

We can apply this to the previous example:

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    from astropy import units as u
    lon.set_ticks(spacing=10 * u.arcmin, color='white')
    lat.set_ticks(spacing=10 * u.arcmin, color='white')
    lon.set_ticklabel(exclude_overlapping=True)
    lat.set_ticklabel(exclude_overlapping=True)

Minor ticks
***********

WCSAxes does not display minor ticks by default but these can be shown by
using the
:meth:`~astropy.visualization.wcsaxes.coordinate_helpers.CoordinateHelper.display_minor_ticks`
method. The default frequency of minor ticks is 5 but this can also be
specified.

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    lon.display_minor_ticks(True)
    lat.display_minor_ticks(True)
    lat.set_minor_frequency(10)

Tick, tick label, and axis label position
*****************************************

By default, the tick and axis labels for the first coordinate are shown on the
x-axis, and the tick and axis labels for the second coordinate are shown on
the y-axis. In addition, the ticks for both coordinates are shown on all axes.
This can be customized using the
:meth:`~astropy.visualization.wcsaxes.coordinate_helpers.CoordinateHelper.set_ticks_position` and
:meth:`~astropy.visualization.wcsaxes.coordinate_helpers.CoordinateHelper.set_ticklabel_position` methods, which each
take a string that can contain any or several of ``l``, ``b``, ``r``, or ``t``
(indicating the ticks or tick labels should be shown on the left, bottom,
right, or top axes respectively):

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    lon.set_ticks_position('bt')
    lon.set_ticklabel_position('bt')
    lon.set_axislabel_position('bt')
    lat.set_ticks_position('lr')
    lat.set_ticklabel_position('lr')
    lat.set_axislabel_position('lr')

We can set the defaults back using:

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    lon.set_ticks_position('all')
    lon.set_ticklabel_position('b')
    lon.set_axislabel_position('b')
    lat.set_ticks_position('all')
    lat.set_ticklabel_position('l')
    lat.set_axislabel_position('l')

On plots with elliptical frames, three alternate tick positions are supported:
``c`` for the outer circular or elliptical border, ``h`` for the horizontal
axis (which is usually the major axis of the ellipse), and ``v`` for the
vertical axis (which is usually the minor axis of the ellipse).


Hiding ticks and tick labels
****************************

Sometimes it's desirable to hide ticks and tick labels. A common scenario
is where WCSAxes is being used in a grid of subplots and the tick labels
are redundant across rows or columns. Tick labels and ticks can be hidden with
the :meth:`~astropy.visualization.wcsaxes.coordinate_helpers.CoordinateHelper.set_ticklabel_visible`
and :meth:`~astropy.visualization.wcsaxes.coordinate_helpers.CoordinateHelper.set_ticks_visible`
methods, respectively:

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    lon.set_ticks_visible(False)
    lon.set_ticklabel_visible(False)
    lat.set_ticks_visible(False)
    lat.set_ticklabel_visible(False)
    lon.set_axislabel('')
    lat.set_axislabel('')

And we can restore the ticks and tick labels again using:

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    lon.set_ticks_visible(True)
    lon.set_ticklabel_visible(True)
    lat.set_ticks_visible(True)
    lat.set_ticklabel_visible(True)
    lon.set_axislabel('Galactic Longitude')
    lat.set_axislabel('Galactic Latitude')


Coordinate grid
***************

Since the properties of a coordinate grid are linked to the properties of the
ticks and labels, grid lines 'belong' to the coordinate objects described
above. For example, you can show a grid with yellow lines for RA and orange lines
for declination with:

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    lon.grid(color='yellow', alpha=0.5, linestyle='solid')
    lat.grid(color='orange', alpha=0.5, linestyle='solid')

For convenience, you can also simply draw a grid for all the coordinates in
one command:

.. plot::
   :context:
   :include-source:
   :align: center

    ax.coords.grid(color='white', alpha=0.5, linestyle='solid')

.. note:: If you use the pyplot interface, you can also plot the grid using
          ``plt.grid()``.