# Mapping Julia’s Astronomy Package Ecosystem: Bridging Gaps and Highlighting Strengths

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/mapping-julia-s-astronomy-package-ecosystem-bridging-gaps-and-highlighting-strengths/128249>\
**Category:** Astro/Space\
**Created:** [April 20, 2025, 3:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/mapping-julia-s-astronomy-package-ecosystem-bridging-gaps-and-highlighting-strengths/128249 "2025-04-20T15:13:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![gcalderone](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gcalderone/32/1539_2.png) [@gcalderone](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gcalderone)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 8:44am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/mapping-julia-s-astronomy-package-ecosystem-bridging-gaps-and-highlighting-strengths/128249/42 "2025-04-28T08:44:49Z")

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Should [SortMerge.jl](https://github.com/gcalderone/SortMerge.jl/) be in the list?  
It is not as polished as FlexiJoins.jl but its performance are very good (e.g. it can cross-match 2 catalogs each with 10^6 entries in ~2 sec, [example here](https://github.com/gcalderone/SortMerge.jl/?tab=readme-ov-file#match-arrays-of-geographical-coordinates)).

Also, @barrettp, is the JuliaAstro Zoom meeting open to anyone?  
I would really like to participate… 😉

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**Author:** ![barrettp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/barrettp/32/18259_2.png) [@barrettp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/barrettp)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 1:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/mapping-julia-s-astronomy-package-ecosystem-bridging-gaps-and-highlighting-strengths/128249/43 "2025-04-28T13:43:44Z")

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The JuliaAstro meetings are open to anyone. All are welcome.

They are normally on the fourth Wednesday of every month. However, the April meeting was postponed by one week.

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**Author:** ![mbauman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mbauman/32/31082_2.png) [@mbauman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mbauman)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 3:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/mapping-julia-s-astronomy-package-ecosystem-bridging-gaps-and-highlighting-strengths/128249/44 "2025-05-02T15:12:14Z")

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8 posts were split to a new topic: [FlexiJoins vs SortMerge (particularly in astronomy workflows)](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/flexijoins-vs-sortmerge-particularly-in-astronomy-workflows/128632)

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**Author:** ![icweaver](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/icweaver/32/45764_2.png) [@icweaver](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/icweaver)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 8:29am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/mapping-julia-s-astronomy-package-ecosystem-bridging-gaps-and-highlighting-strengths/128249/45 "2025-04-30T08:29:24Z")

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Cool, will wait for more feedback from folks

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**Author:** ![icweaver](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/icweaver/32/45764_2.png) [@icweaver](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/icweaver)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 8:47am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/mapping-julia-s-astronomy-package-ecosystem-bridging-gaps-and-highlighting-strengths/128249/46 "2025-04-30T08:47:47Z")

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Update: The [comparison tables](https://juliaastro.org/home/comparison/) have been cleaned up a bit now. Please keep these awesome package suggestions coming =]

We’ve also started updating our [list of aero/astro talks](https://juliaastro.org/home/#Talks-and-Presentations), so please also feel free to leave a suggestion if you have more in mind!

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**Author:** ![xiaoxi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a9adbd/32.png) [@xiaoxi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/xiaoxi)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/mapping-julia-s-astronomy-package-ecosystem-bridging-gaps-and-highlighting-strengths/128249/47 "2025-04-30T16:17:19Z")

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I wonder if it would make sense for JuliaAstro at this point to have a blog that talks about major package updates, like the Tidyverse website has.

> **[Posts](https://www.tidyverse.org/blog/)**
>
> The tidyverse is an integrated collection of R packages designed to make data science fast, fluid, and fun.

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**Author:** ![icweaver](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/icweaver/32/45764_2.png) [@icweaver](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/icweaver)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/mapping-julia-s-astronomy-package-ecosystem-bridging-gaps-and-highlighting-strengths/128249/48 "2025-04-30T17:34:08Z")

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Oh, word. If that’s something that folks think would be useful, I’d be happy to start writing something up once things have settled on our end a bit

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**Author:** ![icweaver](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/icweaver/32/45764_2.png) [@icweaver](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/icweaver)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 11:31pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/mapping-julia-s-astronomy-package-ecosystem-bridging-gaps-and-highlighting-strengths/128249/50 "2025-04-30T23:31:37Z")

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Hi Giorgio, nice meeting you today! Thanks for offering to include your package. Looking back over things again, would it make sense to move both FlexiJoins.jl and SortMerge.jl over to the `astropy.table` row? It seems like they have similar functionality to [`astropy.table.join_distance`](https://docs.astropy.org/en/stable/api/astropy.table.join_distance.html) and friends, but I am not familiar with either package

Also, I really need to add a version of our [draft ecosystem contributor guide](https://github.com/JuliaAstro/JuliaAstro.github.io?tab=readme-ov-file#contributing) for updating our [comparisons page](https://juliaastro.org/home/comparison/). I’m currently dropping down to raw html to get the nested table lists working, but I’m sure that there is a better way. The dream would be getting something like [CommonMark.jl support in Documenter.jl working](https://github.com/JuliaDocs/Documenter.jl/issues/2519), but I am all ears if folks have other suggestions!

Update: [contributor docs](https://github.com/JuliaAstro/JuliaAstro.github.io/tree/source?tab=readme-ov-file#juliaastrogithubio) are now up

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**Author:** ![aplavin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/aplavin/32/222056_2.png) [@aplavin](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/aplavin)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/mapping-julia-s-astronomy-package-ecosystem-bridging-gaps-and-highlighting-strengths/128249/53 "2025-05-01T21:27:58Z")

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> [@icweaver](#):
>
> Looking back over things again, would it make sense to move both [FlexiJoins.jl](https://juliaregistries.github.io/General/packages/redirect_to_repo/FlexiJoins) and [SortMerge.jl](https://juliaregistries.github.io/General/packages/redirect_to_repo/SortMerge) over to the `astropy.table` row? It seems like they have similar functionality to [`astropy.table.join_distance`](https://docs.astropy.org/en/stable/api/astropy.table.join_distance.html) and friends, but I am not familiar with either package

I’m personally not familiar with astropy tools for this, so feel free to put FlexiJoins.jl wherever you find reasonable.

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