Tools built for the astronomical community — free, open-source, and maintained on
GitHub.
TESSreduce
Transient-focused TESS data reduction
The go-to pipeline for extracting transient signals from NASA TESS space telescope data.
Handles background subtraction, image differencing, PSF and aperture photometry,
and flux calibration to physical units via PS1 and SkyMapper cross-matching.
Supports direct download via TESScut and MAST. Widely adopted across the
time-domain community.
Python
TESS
Photometry
Transients
MIT License
starkiller
IFU stellar & satellite contamination removal
Forward-modeling pipeline for subtracting stars and satellite streaks from
integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopic datacubes. Uses Gaia DR3 for source
identification, extracts PSFs from the data itself, matches stellar spectra
against the CK library, and applies Gaia photometry for flux calibration.
Essential for studying extended sources embedded in crowded stellar fields.
Python
IFU Spectroscopy
Gaia
Satellites
MIT License
calibrimbore
Photometric calibration via PS1 composite filters
Creates composite Pan-STARRS 1 filters to calibrate any optical photometric
system to the PS1 standard. Calculates linear combinations of PS1 grizy
bandpasses with cubic colour corrections, retrieves reference stars via Vizier,
accounts for extinction using stellar locus regression, and exports
transformation coefficients in ASCII or CSV. Makes cross-system photometric
comparison straightforward.
Python
Photometry
Pan-STARRS
Calibration
MIT License
tessellate
Untargeted TESS transient survey pipeline
TESS Extensive Lightcurve Logging and Analysis of Transient Events. A dedicated
pipeline for performing systematic, untargeted searches for all variable phenomena
in TESS data — without pre-selecting targets. Searches to ~magnitude 17, integrates
with TESSreduce for data reduction, and is optimised for SLURM supercomputer
deployment. Enables community-scale transient surveys across the whole TESS sky.
Python
TESS
Transient Survey
HPC / SLURM
Pouakai
Image reduction pipeline for Mt John Observatory
Image reduction and calibration pipeline for the University of Canterbury's
Ōtehīwai | Mt John Observatory. Automates the full data reduction workflow
from raw frames to science-ready calibrated images, enabling routine and
time-critical observations from Tekapō.
Python
Imaging
Mt John Observatory
power_scan
Variable star detection via power spectrum analysis
Searches for variable stars in time-series photometric data using power spectrum
analysis. Identifies periodic signals — from pulsating stars to compact binaries —
that might be missed by simple amplitude thresholding. Lightweight and MIT-licensed,
designed to complement TESS-based survey pipelines.
Python
Variable Stars
Power Spectrum
MIT License
SynDiff
Bayesian forward-modelled difference imaging for TESS
Next-generation difference imaging pipeline for TESS, forward-modelling
high-resolution ground-based reference images to produce optimal TESS
light curves. Funded by a NASA Astrophysical Data Analysis Program grant
($400K USD). Currently in active development.
Python
Bayesian
TESS
NASA Funded
In Development
