Getting Started¶

A word on notation: All example code preceded by a $ is to be run on your terminal, while >>> indicates that this code should be run in a python interpreter or a python script.

Installation¶

classy is available on the python package index as space-classy. To get the complete package and all dependencies, run

$ pip install space-classy[gui]  # install complete version

The feature detection and preprocessing modules of classy require the pyqtgraph and pyside6 packages, which depend on the large (in terms of filesize) Qt library. You might want to opt out of these installs if you do not intend to make use of these parts of classy (though usage will be quite limited). In this case, you can run

$ pip install space-classy  # install lite version

The minimum python version is 3.8.

After installing, the classy command is available on your command line. If you run it without argument, the help text will appear, as shown below. Typically, you will later add an argument such as status, spectra, or classify, which are explained in later parts of this documentation. In python, you can import the classy module after installation.

Command Line

$ classy

Usage: classy [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  CLI for minor body classification.

Options:
  --version  Show the version and exit.
  --help     Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  add       Add a local spectra collection.
  classify  Classify spectra in classy index.
  docs      Open documentation in browser.
  features  Run interactive feature detection for selected spectra.
  smooth    Run interactive smoothing for selected spectra.
  spectra   Search for spectra in classy index.
  status    Manage the index of asteroid spectra.

python

>>> import classy

Adding Spectra¶

classy revolves around reflectance spectra. To get started, you can retrieve all public asteroid spectra by running the following command on your terminal:

$ classy status

At the shown prompt, type 2 and hit Enter to download public spectra.[1]

$ classy status

Contents of /home/max/.cache/classy:

    0 asteroid reflectance spectra from 0 sources

Choose one of these actions:
[0] Do nothing [1] Manage the cache [2] Retrieve all spectra (0): 2

Alternatively, you can add you own observations. Once you have populated the classy database, you can start exploring it.