[AstroPy] Preliminary/beta version of PyImfit

[Peter Erwin]

Hi,

I'd like to announce the availability of a preliminary version of PyImfit, a Python wrapper 
around the C++-based galaxy-image-fitting code Imfit 

Imfit is a fast, flexible system for fitting FITS image (of galaxies or other objects) with simple or 
complex sets of models, using optional PSF convolution (including convolution of sub-regions
using oversampled PSF images) with a choice of multiple fitting algorithms algorithms and several 
different fit statistics (e.g., standard chi^2 and pure Poisson-based). For more information, see:
	http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~erwin/code/imfit/

PyImfit allows the use of Imfit models and fitting from within Python, using Numpy arrays.

The full package (for Python 3.6 or later on macOS, 3.5 or later on Linux) can be found on 
Github at 
	https://github.com/perwin/pyimfit
and can also be installed via pip:
	$ pip3 install pyimfit
(On macOS, this will install a pre-compiled binary wheel. On Linux, it may be necessary
for your version of GCC to be 5.0 or newer.)

Limited documentation (currently being expanded) can be found here:
	https://pyimfit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
This includes a Jupyter notebook which provides an example of using PyImfit with the MCMC 
package "emcee":
	https://github.com/perwin/pyimfit/blob/master/docs/pyimfit_emcee.ipynb

The documentation for Imfit will probably also be useful (e.g., currently the
only place where the image functions are described in detail):
	https://imfit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
	http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~erwin/resources/imfit/imfit_howto.pdf


Questions, bug reports, and suggestions for improvement are very welcome;
you can email me (erwin at sigmaxi.net or erwin at mpe.mpg.de) or open an 
issue at the Github site (https://github.com/perwin/pyimfit/issues).

cheers,

Peter
=============================================================
Peter Erwin                   Max-Planck-Insitute for Extraterrestrial 
erwin at mpe.mpg.de              Physics, Giessenbachstrasse
tel. +49 (0)176 2481 7713     85748 Garching, Germany
fax  +49 (0)89 30000 3495     http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~erwin