diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index cf5db13..1194da7 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ before_install:
   - sudo ln -s /run/shm /dev/shm
 
 install:
-  - conda install --yes pip numpy cython astropy setuptools pillow
+  - conda install --yes pip numpy=1.8 cython astropy setuptools
   - pip install --use-mirrors pytest coveralls pytest-cov pyfits
   - pip install --upgrade pillow
   - (pip install --use-mirrors healpy && python -c "import healpy") || echo "could not install healpy"
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ea36d15..5098427 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,11 +10,11 @@ Library to build WorldWide Telescope TOAST tiles.
 
 ### Dependencies
  * Required: python (2.6, 2.7, 3.2, or 3.3), numpy, cython, Pillow/PIL
- * Optional: astropy, healpy (for astronomy); pytest (for testing)
+ * Optional: astropy (for FITS IO), healpy (for HEALPIX data), pytest (for testing)
 
 ### Usage
 
-```
+```python
 from toasty import toast
 toast(sampler, depth, directory)
 ```
@@ -33,6 +33,59 @@ Toasty provides a few basic sampler functions:
   * **cartesian_sampler** for sampling from cartesian-projections
   * **normalizer** for applying an intensity normalization after sampling
 
+### Examples
+
+To toast an all-sky, Cartesian projection, 8 byte image:
+
+```python
+from toasty import toast, cartesian_sampler
+from skimage.io import imread
+
+data = imread('allsky.png')
+sampler = cartesian_sampler(data)
+output = 'toast'
+depth = 8  # approximately 0.165"/pixel at highest resolution
+toast(sampler, depth, output)
+```
+
+To apply a log-stretch to an all sky FITS image:
+
+```python
+from toasty import toast, cartesian_sampler, normalizer
+from astropy.io import fits
+
+data = fits.open('allsky.fits')[0].data
+vmin, vmax = 100, 65535
+scaling = 'log'
+contrast = 1
+sampler = normalizer(cartesian_sampler(data), vmin, vmax
+                     scaling, bias, contrast)
+output = 'toast'
+depth = 8
+toast(sampler, depth, output)
+```
+
+To perform a custom transformation
+
+```python
+from toasty import toast
+from astropy.io import fits
+
+data = fits.open('allsky.fits')[0].data
+
+def sampler(x, y):
+    """
+    x and y are arrays, giving the RA/Dec centers
+    for each pixel to extract
+    """
+    ... code to extract a tile from `data` here ...
+
+output = 'toast'
+depth = 8
+toast(sampler, depth, output)
+```
+
+
 See ``toasty.tile`` for documentation on these functions.
 
 
@@ -49,4 +102,4 @@ This will start a web server, probably at [http://0.0.0.0:8000](http://0.0.0:800
 For more information about using WorldWide Telescope with custom image data,
 see [the official documentation](http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Docs/worldwidetelescopedatafilesreference.html). The function `toasty.gen_wtml` can generate the wtml information for images generated with toasty.
 
-For an example of tiles generated with Toasty (originally from [Aladin healpix images](http://alasky.u-strasbg.fr/cats/SIMBAD/)), see [The ADS All Sky Survey](http://adsass.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/). The code used to generate these images is [here](https://github.com/ChrisBeaumont/adsass/blob/master/toast/toast.py).
+For an example of tiles generated with Toasty (originally from [Aladin healpix images](http://alasky.u-strasbg.fr/cats/SIMBAD/)), see [The ADS All Sky Survey](http://adsass.org/wwt). The code used to generate these images is [here](https://github.com/ChrisBeaumont/adsass/blob/master/toast/toast.py).