#fits #astronomy #celestial #coordinates #wcs

celestial-wcs

Pure Rust implementation of World Coordinate System (WCS) transformations

1 unstable release

new 0.1.1-alpha.1 Feb 1, 2026

#607 in Algorithms


Used in celestial-images

MIT/Apache

3.5MB
25K SLoC

Celestial

CI License: MIT License: Apache 2.0

Pure Rust astronomical computation library. No runtime FFI.

Crates

celestial-core

Low-level astronomical calculations: IAU 2000/2006 nutation/precession models, rotation matrices, angle handling, geodetic conversions.

[dependencies]
celestial-core = "0.1"

celestial-time

8 astronomical time scales (UTC, TAI, TT, UT1, GPS, TDB, TCB, TCG) with nanosecond-precision Julian Dates, leap second support, and IAU-standard sidereal time.

[dependencies]
celestial-time = "0.1"

celestial-coords

Type-safe coordinate frame transformations (ICRS, CIRS, GCRS, TIRS, ITRS, Galactic, Ecliptic, Topocentric) with aberration, light deflection, and Earth orientation support.

[dependencies]
celestial-coords = "0.1"

celestial-ephemeris

Planetary and lunar ephemerides using VSOP2013 and ELP/MPP02 theories. JPL SPK kernel support.

[dependencies]
celestial-ephemeris = "0.1"

celestial-images

FITS, XISF, and SER image format support with compression (Gzip, Rice), binary/ASCII tables, and Bayer demosaicing.

[dependencies]
celestial-images = "0.1"

celestial-wcs

World Coordinate System (WCS) transformations for FITS images. Pixel to celestial coordinate mapping with distortion support.

[dependencies]
celestial-wcs = "0.1"

Development

Early stage. API will change. Each crate has its own README with detailed documentation.

Requirements

Rust 1.70 or later.

License

Licensed under either Apache 2.0 or MIT.

Dependencies

~3–4.5MB
~85K SLoC