SEXTRACTOR(1)

📦
version 2.28.2 · 4 versions
, in epel 10, epel 9

💅 SEXTRACTOR(1) — bestie's guide to sex 💅

okay so real talk: this is the SEXTRACTOR(1) man page, from the User Commands section, and yes the command is literally called sex and no we're not gonna be weird about it, it's an astronomy thing, iykyk 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

sex — extract a source catalogue from an astronomical FITS image 🌌

like, you give it a picture of the sky, it gives you back a list of everything in it. main character energy fr.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

sex image [-c configuration-file]
       [-parameter1 value1 -parameter2 value2 ...]

sex image_detect image_measure [-c configuration-file]
       [-parameter1 value1 -parameter2 value2 ...]

sex -d

so you've got three whole moods, bestie:

  1. single-image mode — sex + image, plus optionally a config file via -c configuration-file, plus however many -parameter1 value1 -parameter2 value2 ... pairs you wanna throw at it 💫
  2. two-image mode — sex + image_detect + image_measure, same optional -c configuration-file and the same -parameter1 value1 -parameter2 value2 ... situation. one image to find stuff, one image to measure it 👑
  3. the lonely sex -d — no image, just dump the defaults 💅

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

SExtractor is a program that builds a catalogue of objects from an astronomical image. it's particularly oriented towards reduction of large scale galaxy-survey data (slay), but ngl it also performs rather well on moderately crowded star fields — so it's not a one-trick pony, it's giving range 🌈

more deets over at http://astromatic.net/software/sextractor if you're obsessed (you will be).

🔥 Operation modes 🔥

  • -h, --help — print this help, then exit. your "what does anything do" button, bless 🙏
  • -V, --version — print version number, then exit. for when you need to know exactly which era of this software you're in ⭐
  • -d, --dump — dump a default configuration file. honestly iconic, it just hands you a starting point 🎀

📖 MANUAL 📖

The full documentation for SExtractor is maintained as a PDF manual available at http://astromatic.net/software/sextractor. it's the whole lore, go read it 🧚

💀 REPORTING BUGS 💀

Please report bugs to the SExtractor software forum at http://astromatic.net/forum. be nice, be specific, drop the details 🙈

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

eye(1), missfits(1), psfex(1), scamp(1), sky(1), stiff(1), stuff(1), swarp (1), ww(1)

the whole astromatic friend group honestly 💜 (and yes, swarp (1) has a space in it in the original, we're keeping it exactly like that, no cap)

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Written by Emmanuel Bertin (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris). legend behaviour ✨

🎀 LICENSE 🎀

SExtractor is licensed under the terms of the General Public License (GPL), version 3. share responsibly bestie 🍓

This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

okay this one's serious for a sec — no warranty, not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. if it eats your data, it eats your data, and that's on the license 😭

✨ and that's the whole page, you ate that✨

signed, sealed, delivered: SExtractor 2.28.2, November 2025 — that's the source/version and the date, mwah 💋

📦 where this page comes from