FITS Liberator
NOIRLab FITS Liberator 5 launches a new era of innovation accessible to scientists, educators, and astronomy enthusiasts worldwide. The FITS Liberator has long served as the bridge between complex astronomical data and the stunning space images seen by the public. The NOIRLab FITS Liberator Version 5 marks the software’s most significant leap forward since its original release two decades ago, incorporating new workflows, a modernized interface, and vastly enhanced performance.
FITS Liberator converts data stored in the astronomical FITS format — used by telescopes around the world — into visual images that can be opened and refined in standard graphics software. The tool allows users to adjust contrast, brightness, and scaling to reveal hidden structures in raw telescope data, combining multiple filters to create scientifically accurate and visually compelling images.Version 5.0 new features
- Real-time interactive stretch: Instantly explore the faintest structures in your astronomical data with powerful histogram stretch and preview controls.
- Extreme scalability: Open FITS files of virtually any size, even tens of gigabytes and multi-gigapixel mosaics, with optimized memory usage.
- Dynamic range compression: Flexible non-linear transformations and advanced compression to make every detail stand out.
- Export to TIFF: Save your processed images in 32, 16, or 8-bit TIFF format (including BigTIFF for very large files) without loss of quality.
- Cross-platform: Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux (standalone, no installation required).
Requirements
Minimum requirements:
- Windows 10 (64-bit) or later OR
- macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later OR
- Linux (modern 64-bit distribution)
- Display: Screen resolution of 1366 × 768 pixels or higher. Full HD (1920 × 1080 pixels) or higher is strongly recommended.
- 8 GB RAM memory minimum
- 16 GB recommended for typical astronomical images
- 32 GB or more strongly recommended for very large files (>20 GB)
Downloading and Installing
Binaries for each operating system can be downloaded from NORLab Applications Archive, you will find the installers for Windows, MacOSX and Linux. Command line interface is included with the installed version. For installation instructions please see Chapter 2 in the NOIRLab FITS Liberator 5 User’s Guide.
After installation, open FITS Liberator and go to Tools → Check for Updates… to ensure you have the latest version.
The FITS Liberator 5 team
The team behind the NOIRLab FITS Liberator 5:
- Software Developer: Davide De Martin
- Scientific Support & Testing: Mahdi Zamani & Lars Lindberg Christensen
- Project Manager: Davide De Martin
- Project Executive: Lars Lindberg Christensen
The team that produced the NOIRLab/IPAC/ESA/STScI/CfA FITS Liberator 4 consisted of:
- Developers, CLI and GUI development: Juan Fajardo & David Zambrano
- Scientific, technical support and testing: Robert Hurt
- Technical Project Manager: Javier Enciso
- Project Executive: Lars Lindberg Christensen
The team that produced the ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator 3 were
- Technical Project Manager: Lars Holm Nielsen
- Developers: Kaspar K. Nielsen & Teis Johansen
- Scientific, technical support and testing: Robert Hurt & Davide de Martin.
- Project originators: Lars Lindberg Christensen & Robert Hurt
- Project Executive: Lars Lindberg Christensen
Acknowledgements
FITS is an abbreviation for Flexible Image Transport System and has been a standard since 1982 and is recognized by the International Astronomical Union.
The NOIRLab FITS Liberator 5 uses the following Python libraries: Astropy FITS file handling Numpy Numerical computing Matplotlib Histogram visualization Scipy Scientific computing Tifffile TIFF export Opencv-python Image processing PySide6 GUI framework (includes WebEngine)
We kindly ask users to acknowledge the use of this plug-in in publicly accessible products (web, articles, books etc.) with the following statement: "This image was created with the help of the NOIRLab FITS Liberator".