New Features

The list below summarizes major additions and changes to recent versions of Mira. Also see the README document provided with the Mira installation.

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Version 8.83

• Script Language: Many new features were added to the script language. See the Mira Pro x64 Script User's Guide.

Version 8.82

• Script Language: The Script Manager Pane attaches to Image Windows, Plot Windows, and Report Windows for creating, opening, and running scripts directly from view windows.

• Script Manager Pane: The Script Manager Pane attaches to Image Windows, Plot Windows, and Report Windows for creating, opening, and running scripts directly from the window. This pane is intended for running scripts that use the window's data, although general scripts can also be executed. This pane opens from the Scripts > Script Manager Pane command in the top menu bar for Image Windows, Plot Windows, and Report Windows.

• Auto close Main Message Pane: Added this option to the General Properties dialog (Ctrl+R). If checked (true), the Main Message Pane is automatically closed when Mira starts, regardless of its state when Mira last closed.

Version 8.81

• Enhanced Marker Drawing: Several marker options were added to existing drawing packages, including aperture photometry, polygon markers (points, lines, angles, and regions), and others. New options allow for changing the font, color, thickness, and line style.

• Script Language: Added marker drawing classes using the new CShape class. See the Mira Pro x64 Script User's Guide.

• Added a tutorial showing how to perform a complex analysis using both user interface tools and scripting. See Tutorial: Using FITS Keywords to Analyze Image Data.

Version 8.80

This is a major software update containing many new features in both the program and the script language. For script language updates, see the Mira Pro Script User’s Guide.

• Extended FITS Format: Mira now supports FITS files containing multiple images as FITS extensions. Originally, FITS format contained one Header-Data Unit (“HDU”) consisting of a header and an image array. Extended FITS format allows a single FITS file to contain more than one HDU, often consisting of a set of related images bundled into a single file. When opening a FITS extension file, Mira opens the new FITS File Summary window to list HDU properties. FITS format supports 3 types of FITS extension; currently, Mira only supports the IMAGE type extension. See FITS Format Overview.

• FITS Images with Multiple Data Planes: FITS images withNAXIS > 2 are often called “data cubes,” even if NAXIS = 4 or higher. When a data cube is encountered, Mira opens the FITS File Summary window to select the planes to open. Images with NAXIS up to 999 are supported. For details, see FITS Format Overview, FITS File Summary, and Image Windows.

• Open FITS File: The new File > Open FITS File command opens FITS files including simple FITS images, FITS files containing multiple HDU’s, and File Lists containing FITS files. This dialog also provides a Palette option for opening images using palettes in addition to the standard grayscale.

• Open: This standard command in the File menu remains available for opening all supported file types files except for FITS files containing multiple HDU’s (for these files, use the new Open FITS File command instead).

• FITS File Summary: This new window is used for selecting HDU's and data planes to be opened for FITS files that have more than one HDU or any HDU with NAXIS > 2.

• Save a File List: This new command in the Save Image Set submenu saves the images of the image set and creates a File List for them.

• Save as FITS Extension File: This new command in the File > Save Image Set submenu saves all images in the target Image Window to a complex FITS file with multiple HDUs.

• Save all Image Windows: Added this command to the Files menu for images. This command saves all images from all Image Windows to their files.

• FITS Header Pane: This existing feature in the Edit menu opens the FITS header in a docking pane. It has been updated to use one column for each keyword and its value and comment. Previously, the keyword, date, and comment used 3 separate columns. The new design makes the FITS header easier to view and edit. It also adds safety by not directly editing Header-Data. A “Find” tool is also provided for locating specific keywords or values.

• List FITS File Header: This command was replaced by the View and Search FITS Header command.

• View and Search FITS Header: This new command displays the header of a FITS Format and provides text search within keywords, data, and comments. Also see the FITS Header Editor and FITS Header Pane commands.

• Transfer Functions: Improved the Transfer Function docking panes and the Autoscale algorithm. The new design adds Contrast andOffset properties for setting the automatic contrast parameter and shifting the median gray level brighter or darker. Also see the Transfer Function Properties and Transfer Function topics in the Mira Pro x64 User’s Guide.

• Image Bar: Added a 5th line at the bottom of the Image Bar to show image comments added by Mira during image display and other operations. A Select Comment Properties button was also added beside the Comments field to set display options for Image Bar comments.

• Open File List as Image Set: Added this checkbox to the General Properties dialog. This option applies when externally opening a File List by double-clicking in Windows Explorer or dropping its icon onto Mira. When opening files directly using a dialog (e.g., Open FITS File), the Open as Image Set option is taken from the checkbox in the dialog.

• Plot Image Set option: Previously, this option was available from an Image Bar button and the “View > Image Window” dialog. This option can now be changed in the drop menus for the following toolbar button plotting commands: Row Profile, Column Profile, Line Profile, Radial Profile, Histogram, and Surface Plot.

• Tick label formatting: added this option to the Plot X-Axis Properties and Plot Y-Axis Properties pages of the Plot Properties dialog.

• Auto-save Pane Layout: Added this checkbox to the General Properties dialog. This option automatically saves the layout of persistent Docking Panes that are open when the view window is closed. Note that non persistent panes that mostly contain measurements are never saved. If this option is unchecked, the pane layout is saved using theDocking Panes > Save Pane Layout menu command or the Save Panes button.

• Grid Properties: Added this item to the right-click menu of the FITS Header Editor window. Use it to change the fonts in the FITS Header Editor. This is the same tool used by measurement grids and grid panes.

• Clean Image Set: Added the Save rejected pixels to a file option. This sends the output messages to a text file. You may use t with or without the List rejected pixels option.

• Mira Tip of the Day: Updated the Tips dialog to include text markup (highlighting and formatting). The Mira User's Guides may also be opened from the Tips dialog.

Version 8.77

• Moved several menu entries in the View and Window pull-down menus.

• Moved the Cursor menu from theView > Cursor submenu to a top level menu.

• Added shortcuts for single keystroke commands, like V for Vertical Plot, to the Measure andPlot pull-down menus. These shortcuts appear in menus using brackets, like[V]. Click the arrow pointer inside the window to use the single keystroke commands.

• Added the [B] ("bar") keystroke command for opening or closing the Image Bar and Plot Bar. Click the arrow pointer inside the window to use the single keystroke commands.

• Added the [K] ("keystrokes") keystroke command for opening or closing the Image Keys Pane and Plot Keys Pane. Click the arrow pointer inside the window to use the single keystroke commands.

• Fixed a drawing bug for the profile fit when the radial profile was plotted in world coordinate mode.

Version 8.76

• Fixed several minor bugs.

Version 8.75

• Applied the version 8.74 bug for writing images of exactly 64 MB in size to reading images exactly 64 MB in size.

• Fixed a Plot Window bug for long plot captions that drew on 1 line when the window width was too narrow for one line.

Version 8.74

• Added many functions and class methods to the scripting language. See the Mira Pro x64 Script User's Guide.

• Fixed a bug that caused a crash when saving images of exactly 64 MB in size.

Version 8.73

• Added a Default Zoom option to the Default Image Window Properties dialog. Checking this option forces images to open in new Image Windows using a specified zoom value. Unchecking it allows Mira to choose the zoom based on the window and image size, which is the traditional Mira setting. Also removed the Show Image Toolbar checkbox since this should be selected using menu commands or theDocking Panes toolbar.

• Fixed a caption bug when creating light curve plots from the Aperture Photometry Toolbar.

• Fixed an aperture photometry bug that tracked photometry markers using pixel coordinates even when the images have World Coordinate System ("WCS") calibration.

• Increased the speed of aperture photometry table updating during marker tracking by at least an order of magnitude.

• Script Language: Added CMeasurePlotPoints andCMeasurePlotLines classes to the Mira Pro Script module.

Version 8.72

• Added the Plot Point Data Pane to Plot Windows. This pane dynamically displays a line of text containing information about the marker or line data under the mouse pointer. This pane toggles open and closed using the newView > Query Point Data menu command for Plot Windows. This command also uses the Q ("Query") window keystroke (see the Plot Keys Pane).

• Fixed the Scale parameter error that failed to be set by the Print Properties dialog for printing images.

• Changed the behavior of the Main Message Pane for listing Apphot messages so that it does not flash open as each star is marked.

Version 8.71

• Added the Stack Plots at Right command to the Plot menu of the Image Window. When enabled, Plot Windows are opened and stacked immediately to the right of the current Image Window. There are also two related commands: The Plot > Stop Stacking Plots at Right command disables stacking so that new Plot Windows are cascaded form the upper left like other view windows. The Plot > Reset Stacked Plot Origin command resets the stack origin to the top of the Image Window.

• Added Close all [Type] Windows command to theFile menu for the following Types of view windows: Image Windows, Plot Windows, 3D Plot Windows, Report Windows, Text Windows, and Script Windows.

• Updated the Transfer Function Properties dialog to include properties for the bounding rectangle where pixels are sampled to compute the transfer function.

• Added the Capture Cursor to TF command for setting the transfer function sampling region rectangle.

• Added the Reset Bars and Menus command to the mainframe menu (active when no view window is open). This removes all of your custom changes to command bars, toolbars, and menus.

• Added the Reset Docking Panes command to the mainframe menu (active when no view window is open). This removes all of your custom changes to the position, size, and status of docking panes.

• Added the Corner Pixels option for background calculation in source extraction by the MExtract Module. See the Background Properties page.

Version 8.7

This is a significant upgrade because of the following feature:.

• Added the Mira Project Interface for automated processing of dialog command sequences.

• Modified 64 immediate command dialogs by adding a Profile Control for use by the Mira Project Interface. This makes a total of 133 command dialogs available through the Mira Project Interface.

• Added the Histogram Plot at Cursor command. There are now two histogram plotting commands: Histogram Plot at Cursor ('I' keystroke) calculates the histogram for pixels inside the Image Cursor, whereas Histogram Plot ('J' keystroke) calculates the histogram for all image pixels. This new Histogram Plot at Cursor command renames the old Histogram Plot command which used pixels inside the image cursor. Use the new version of Histogram Plot to plot all image pixels.

• Moved the Plot Series Pane from a dialog to a docking pane and renamed the menu command accordingly.

• Modified the procedure for adding additional parallel lines in the Line Measurements and Line Profile Plot commands.

• Improved the Merge RGB Images and Merge LRGB Images commands to use a docking pane instead of a command dialog.

Version 8.67

• Added the Ap Sum column to the photometry output table. This lists the sum of values inside the object aperture, including the background signal. It allows the magnitude to be manually calculated using an alternative background value. This required revising some of the text in the photometry topics; see Magnitude Calculations and Photometric Measurement Definitions.

• Added the Calibrate Linear Scale command to apply a linear world coordinate calibration based on a mouse-drawn line. This is also a button on the top-level Measurements Toolbar.

Fixed Plot Window bugs:

• The Plot Window copy + paste always set the minimum x value to 0.0 after pasting, instead of using the minimum X value of all plots.

• The Plot Animation Bar trackbar and counter field did not update to indicate the current plot series in animation mode.

Version 8.66

• Added the Boost option to the Transfer Function Panes and Setup Transfer Function dialogs. The Boost option enhances the transfer function settings by identifying and expanding compressed ranges of pixel value without saturating bright regions of the image. In astronomical images, contrast expansion is typically beneficial for revealing subtle details where an object merges into the background. See the description in Choosing Transfer Function Properties and an example in Using the Boost Transfer Function Option.

Version 8.65

This is a significant upgrade because of the new window-level connections into the Mira Pro x64 User's Guide as described below:

• Added numerous help buttons that directly open the specific help topic in the online User's Guide. See the Getting Mira Help topic in the online User’s Guide for a description of how to open help for commands, windows, and toolbars.

• Implemented a Process Image Set on Immediate Mode Dialogs. The new checkbox opens with the processing status from the top-most Image Window. Set the checkbox as desired for the current processing. The Image Bar Processing button will be updated when the immediate mode dialog closes. This new checkbox replaces the previous use of a status message that specified the Image Window's processing state but did not allow overriding it.

• Fixed minor bugs in the user interface.

Version 8.624

• Plot Measurements: Added this topic which summarizes the tools used for quantifying data in a Plot Window.

• Point Measurements: Removed testing code that was accidentally retained in version 8.623.

• Fixed several minor bugs.

Version 8.623

• Marker Properties page of the Star Removal package: Added a checkbox that controls centroiding for the target star position. Uncheck this box to prevent centroid "hopping" when the target star has a nearby companion.

• List COMMENT Keywords: Added minor changes to the output and improved the documentation.

• List HISTORY Keywords: Added minor changes to the output and improved the documentation.

• List Statistics Keywords: Added minor changes to the output and improved the documentation.

• List WCS Keywords: Added listing of the WCS status and projection type to the output and improved the documentation.

• World Coordinate System: Added a description of WCS projection types to the topic.

 Version 8.622

• Go to Object: This new command sends the image cursor to the world coordinates saved in theOBJCTRA and OBJCTDEC header keywords.

• Screen Capture: Some minor changes were made to this command, including adding an instructional message in the dialog and an improved search for a unique file name for saving.

Version 8.621

• Save Window Position: This new dialog sets the offset and size for opening windows of a given view type, such as as Script Editor Windows, Plot Windows, Report Windows, etc.

• Calculate Julian Date: Added option to save the calculated Julian Date with a non-standard keyword name.

Version 8.62

• Plot Bar: Added World Coordinate System ("WCS") readout to the existing (x,y) coordinate readout. The world coordinates refer to the plot coordinates in the source image, if the plot was created from an image.

• Plot Bar: Added live pixel readout of image pixels in the source image data, if the plot was created from an image. Both the plotted Y value and the actual "Z" value in the image are listed.

• Plot Point Measurements: This plot window tool was added in version 8.60. It now includes the image world coordinates and pixel value, if the plot was created from an image. The world coordinates and value are listed in the Notes section of the Measurements pane.

• Statistics Properties: Added the following options to the dialog:

•      Standard Error of the Mean added to the estimator options.

       Standard Error of the Mean - Clipped added to the estimator options.

       Save Statistics to Header option saves the statistics results as keywords in the FITS image header.

• Remove Statistics Keywords: This new command removes all statistics keywords from the image header. It was added to the Image Window Measure > Statistics submenu.

• List Statistics Keywords: This new command lists all statistics keywords from the headers of an image or image set. It was added to the Image Window menu in the Edit > List Keyword Types submenu and theMeasure > Statistics submenu.

• Calculate Julian Date: This new command calculates 4 types of Julian Date and add the result to the image header. This was added to the global Processing > Utilities menu and theProcess > Utilities menu for Image Windows. This feature also continues in the Aperture Photometry package.

• Calculate Airmass: Added option to calculate a table of airmass for a range of date and time. The original action of calculating it for only one of date & time remains available.

• Tutorial: Added Using FITS Keywords to Analyze Image Data which illustrates both user interface methods and a script to create a scatter plot of image sky brightness versus Modified Julian Date.

Version 8.60

Mira Pro x64 version 8.60 is a major upgrade with dozens of new and improved features and a vast expansion of its scripting capabilities.

• Script Interface: Added direct script execution capability for several Mira view window types. This makes it trivial to execute scripts on data contained in the window:

•      Image Windows

       Plot Windows

       Report Windows

       Measurement Panes

       Grid Controls

• Script Samples: Added numerous sample scripts for showing execution directly from the view windows and controls listed above. These are named"Execute.... .lua" and are referenced within this document.

• Grid Controls: Added plotting, charting, Open in Excel, Execute Script, and other analysis commands to the pop-up menu of most grid controls.

• Create Pixel Mask command: Added some options including export to text file.

• Plot Windows

•      Plot Bar: The button commands for zooming, panning, plot scaling and drawing were enhanced. Also added 4 new buttons for the commands below.

       Statistics Measurement and Statistics Properties commands. These provide 17 statistical estimators and parameters for characterizing the plot series. Both commands are available from the Measure > Statistics pull-down menu and the Plot Bar.

       Plot Point Measurements package: Added for Plot Windows to the Measure > Lines pull-down menu and the Plot Bar.

       Plot Line Measurements package: Added for Plot Windows to the Measure > Points pull-down menu and the Plot Bar.

       Go to Source Image command: For Plot Windows generated from displayed images, this commands selects the source Image Window from the window stack and then displays the source image and pixel coordinates used to generate the plot. This command is available from the View > Go to Source Image pull-down menu and the Plot Bar.

       Statistics docking pane: Shows plot statistics measurements for plot series in the Plot Window.

       Mark Statistic command: Added to the Statistics measurements pane to draw a selected statistic in the Plot Window.

• Aperture Photometry package: Added several new options added to the Apphot Properties > Other page:

•      Import Photometry Catalog: Added support for world coordinates specified in (degrees, degrees) to the existing option for (hms, dms) and (column,row) pixel coordinates. See Import Photometry Catalog

       Photometric Zero Point: added option to use the zero point from the image header rather than calculate it.

       Airmass: added option to use the airmass from the image header rather than calculate it.

• Go To Coordinates command for Image Windows: Added support for world coordinates specified in (degrees, degrees) was added to the existing options for (hms,dms) and (column,row) pixel coordinates. See Go To Coordinates.

• Toolbars converted to Docking Panes: Converted 17 toolbars used for measurement and analysis packages to docking pane toolbars. The new docking panes can be opened, closed, tabified, and stacked. All markers and measurements are retained if the toolbar is closed and re-opened. The following toolbars were converted:

•      Points

       Lines

       Angles

       Regions

       Apphot

       Astrometry

       Star Removal

       Source Extraction

       Interactive Repair

       Distance and Angle

       Image Registration

       Line Profile

       Labels

       Contour Plot

       Interactive Contour Plot

       Plot Points (new package added)

       Plot Lines (new package added)

• Angle "snap" was added to the Lines, Distance & Angle, and Line Profile packages for the Image Window and the Lines package for the Plot Window. Snapping to integral angles is implemented by holding the SHIFT key while drawing the line. A 45 degree snap is available for Image Windows and a 90 degree snap is available for Plot Windows.

• Shape Properties: This new page was added to the Marker Properties dialog for Plot Point Measurements. Use it to select the style and size of the point markers drawn in Plot Windows.

• General Properties dialog: New options were added

•      Default line is stepped line

       Open file tabs toward the left

       Open docking panes on hover

       Default max cell width

Script Language

• The Mira Pro x64 Script library adds several new classes and methods, plus dozens of new functions. See "New Features" in the Mira Pro x64 Script User's Guide.

Related Topics

Contents

Mira Pro x64 8.83 User's Guide, Copyright Ⓒ 2026 Mirametrics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.