From dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu Tue Mar 24 19:57:00 1992
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	["1611" "Sat" "14" "March" "1992" "17:56:28" "GMT" "Don Wells" "dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu " "<4879223 at toto.iv>" "35" "Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031417:56:28" "Unix based FITS table browsers?" (number " " mark "     Don Wells         Mar 14   35/1611  " thread-indent "\"Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?\"\n") nil]
	nil)
X-VM-VHeader: ("Resent-" "From:" "Sender:" "To:" "Apparently-To:" "Cc:" "Subject:" "Date:") nil
X-VM-Bookmark: 31
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
In-Reply-To: dirk at spacsun.rice.edu's message of Fri, 13 Mar 1992 21: 15:58 GMT
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA.
From: dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells)
Subject: Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1992 17:56:28 GMT

In article <1992Mar13.211558.5133 at rice.edu> dirk at spacsun.rice.edu
(Dirk Valk) writes:

 DV> "...   Does anyone know where I can lay hands on a UNIX based
 DV> program that will let me manipulate, search and extract subsets
 DV> of FITS tables? ..."

Dirk wants the program to be able to read FITS files directly from a
CD-ROM, without copying to disk. I am unaware of any Unix-based code
that will do this.

If someone out there wants to work on the problem, I suggest that the
best approach would be to code the application in Lisp under GNU
Emacs. The resulting application would be able to display/manipulate
FITS tables on local disk as well as CD-ROM, and would be portable to
environments ranging from DOS to VMS VAXen to Unicos Crays as well as
essentially *all* Unix boxes, because GNU Emacs implementations exist
in all of these environments, and Lisp code is portable to all of
them. The application would operate under X-windows in workstation
environments. On workstations Emacs windows can utilize a million
pixels or more, permitting examination of many columns and many rows.

The programming and window management environment of GNU Emacs is
rich, much like an operating system. There are existing applications
coded in Lisp which would be a rich source of ideas for coding the
application. 

Any takers?

--

Donald C. Wells             Associate Scientist        dwells at nrao.edu
National Radio Astronomy Observatory                   +1-804-296-0277
520 Edgemont Road                                 Fax= +1-804-296-0278
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-2475 USA            78:31.1W, 38:02.2N 

From cflatter at nrao.edu Tue Mar 24 19:57:20 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1392" "Sun" "15" "March" "1992" "22:22:35" "GMT" "Chris Flatters" "cflatter at nrao.edu " "<657321 at toto.iv>" "31" "Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031522:22:35" "Unix based FITS table browsers?" (number " " mark "     Chris Flatters    Mar 15   31/1392  " thread-indent "\"Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Reply-To: cflatter at nrao.edu
Organization: NRAO
From: cflatter at nrao.edu (Chris Flatters)
Subject: Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1992 22:22:35 GMT

In article 92Mar14125628 at azalea.cx.nrao.edu, dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells) writes:
>In article <1992Mar13.211558.5133 at rice.edu> dirk at spacsun.rice.edu
>(Dirk Valk) writes:
>
> DV> "...   Does anyone know where I can lay hands on a UNIX based
> DV> program that will let me manipulate, search and extract subsets
> DV> of FITS tables? ..."
>
>Dirk wants the program to be able to read FITS files directly from a
>CD-ROM, without copying to disk. I am unaware of any Unix-based code
>that will do this.
>
>If someone out there wants to work on the problem, I suggest that the
>best approach would be to code the application in Lisp under GNU
>Emacs. 

If the tables are ASCII tables then you should be able to knock something
together fairly easily with PERL.  If you have binary tables then both
PERL and emacs LISP are going to have problems.

A FITS table browser is an interesting idea.  I'm going to think about
that for a bit (not to be taken as a guarantee that I'll actually do anything
it).

==============================================================================
Chris Flatters				|  cflatter at nrao.edu
National Radio Astronomy Observatory	|
==============================================================================
Desperation is the raw material of drastic change --- W. S. Burroughs
==============================================================================


From dirk at spacsun.rice.edu Tue Mar 24 19:57:24 1992
Status: RO
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	["1316" "Mon" "16" "March" "1992" "16:31:31" "GMT" "Dirk Valk" "dirk at spacsun.rice.edu " "<4390404 at toto.iv>" "26" "Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031616:31:31" "Unix based FITS table browsers?" (number " " mark "     Dirk Valk         Mar 16   26/1316  " thread-indent "\"Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Reply-To: dirk at spacsun.rice.edu (Dirk Valk)
Organization: Dept. of Space Physics, Rice University, Houston TX
From: dirk at spacsun.rice.edu (Dirk Valk)
Subject: Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1992 16:31:31 GMT

In article <DWELLS.92Mar14125628 at azalea.cx.nrao.edu>, dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells) writes:
|> In article <1992Mar13.211558.5133 at rice.edu> dirk at spacsun.rice.edu
|> (Dirk Valk) writes:
|> 
|>  DV> "...   Does anyone know where I can lay hands on a UNIX based
|>  DV> program that will let me manipulate, search and extract subsets
|>  DV> of FITS tables? ..."
|> 
|> Dirk wants the program to be able to read FITS files directly from a
|> CD-ROM, without copying to disk. I am unaware of any Unix-based code
|> that will do this.
|> 

Is this any different than simply browsing a FITS file that isn't on CD-ROM?
When you mount the CD it's directories can be traversed like a normal file 
structure.  I was under the impression that the mounted CD 'looked' just 
like files on the main hard drive to the Sun OS.  As such, you wouldn't 
need a FITS browser that was specifically tailored for reading the CD-ROM,
right?  

Please correct me if I'm wrong -- we're a little out of my normal expertise.
-- 
: Dirk Valk             |"And if it doesn't work out,                      :
: Rice Univeristy       | There'll never be any doubt,                     :
: dirk at spacsun.rice.edu | That the pleasure was worth all the pain."       :
: Space Physics & Astro.|                         - Jimmy Buffett          :

From dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu Tue Mar 24 19:57:31 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1074" "Mon" "16" "March" "1992" "18:51:40" "GMT" "Don Wells" "dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu " "<1062490 at toto.iv>" "22" "Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031618:51:40" "Unix based FITS table browsers?" (number " " mark "     Don Wells         Mar 16   22/1074  " thread-indent "\"Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
In-Reply-To: dirk at spacsun.rice.edu's message of Mon, 16 Mar 1992 16: 31:31 GMT
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA.
From: dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells)
Subject: Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1992 18:51:40 GMT

In article <1992Mar16.163131.12036 at rice.edu> dirk at spacsun.rice.edu
	(Dirk Valk) writes:
   In article <DWELLS.92Mar14125628 at azalea.cx.nrao.edu>,
	dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells) writes:
   |> Dirk wants the program to be able to read FITS files directly from a
   |> CD-ROM, without copying to disk...
 Is this any different than simply browsing a FITS file that isn't
	on CD-ROM?

No. My wording was misleading; for "copying to disk" read "converting
to internal format on disk". As you pointed out in your original
posting, IRAF/ST-SDAS, MIDAS, AIPS, etc., have table manipulation
software that works on their respective internal table formats, and
the FITS file must be converted first. Lee Brotzmann's browser for DOS
works on FITS files directly, either on CD-ROM or disk.

--

Donald C. Wells             Associate Scientist        dwells at nrao.edu
National Radio Astronomy Observatory                   +1-804-296-0277
520 Edgemont Road                                 Fax= +1-804-296-0278
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-2475 USA            78:31.1W, 38:02.2N 

From landsman at stars.gsfc.nasa.gov-286-3625) Tue Mar 24 19:57:43 1992
Status: RO
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	["851" "Mon" "16" "March" "1992" "01:31:00" "GMT" "301" "landsman at stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (Wayne Landsman -286-3625)" "<3143995 at toto.iv>" "21" "Double Precision FITS keyword values" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031601:31:00" "Double Precision FITS keyword values" (number " " mark "     301               Mar 16   21/851   " thread-indent "\"Double Precision FITS keyword values\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1  
Nntp-Posting-Host: stars.gsfc.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA/GSFC-Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics
From: landsman at stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (Wayne Landsman (301)-286-3625)
Subject: Double Precision FITS keyword values
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1992 01:31:00 GMT

Section 5.3 of the FITS/NOST manual discusses the allowed fixed formats
for the value of a FITS keyword.   Apparently, double precision values
are not allowed, since the full 64 bit precision cannot be specified
within columns 11-30.   (But 20 characters IS sufficient to specify values
that are more precise than can be expressed by floating point.)

This prompts a couple of related questions:

    (1)   What is the best way to encode a double precision FITS keyword value?

    (2)   If a FITS reader encounters a numeric value with too many digits
to be expressed as floating point, should it convert this value to double
precision?   My FITS reader currently converts a FITS header value to  
double precision if it contains more than 8 numerals.

Thanks for any comments on this.   

Wayne Landsman
landsman at stars.gsfc.nasa.gov
(301)-286-3625


From pence at heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov Tue Mar 24 19:57:48 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["2241" "Mon" "16" "March" "1992" "18:15:13" "GMT" " William Pence" "pence at heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov " "<7853551 at toto.iv>" "42" "Re: Double Precision FITS keyword values" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031618:15:13" "Double Precision FITS keyword values" (number " " mark "      William Pence    Mar 16   42/2241  " thread-indent "\"Re: Double Precision FITS keyword values\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Nntp-Posting-Host: heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
From: pence at heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov ( William Pence)
Subject: Re: Double Precision FITS keyword values
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1992 18:15:13 GMT


landsman at stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (Wayne Landsman (301)-286-3625) wrote:

>Section 5.3 of the FITS/NOST manual discusses the allowed fixed formats
>for the value of a FITS keyword.   Apparently, double precision values
>are not allowed, since the full 64 bit precision cannot be specified
>?within columns 11-30.   (But 20 characters IS sufficient to specify values
>that are more precise than can be expressed by floating point.)
>
>This prompts a couple of related questions:
>
>  (1)   What is the best way to encode a double precision FITS keyword value?

The NOST document, section 5.3.1. only states that the fixed format in
column 11-30 is required for the MANDITORY keywords and is just
recommended for other keywords.  Thus, one is free to use all of
columns 11-80 if needed or desired for the value of non-manditory
keywords.   In my FITSIO interface I format a double precision value
greater than 20 characters long by beginning it in column 11 and
extending it for as many columns as necessary to write the required
number of decimal places.

In general, a FITS reader should not assume that an integer, logical,
or single precision floating point value will be right-justified in
columns 11-30.  This is not required by the FITS standard, so the
reader should be prepared to find the keyword value anywhere in columns
11-80.   In the FITSIO code the only assumption I make is that the
value field is the first non-blank token in columns 11-80 of the
keyword record.  I then assume that the comment is contained in any
remaining columns.  (Except if this is a Complex keyword value, in which
case the first token is the real part, the second token is the imaginary
part and the remainder is the comment).

>    (2)   If a FITS reader encounters a numeric value with too many digits
>to be expressed as floating point, should it convert this value to double
>precision?   My FITS reader currently converts a FITS header value to  
>double precision if it contains more than 8 numerals.

This sounds reasonable, but it rather depends on what you are
reading the FITS file into.  If the keyword value is being read into a
FORTRAN variable, for instance, the variable would have to be
dimensioned as double precision in the first place.

From leb at gsfc.nasa.gov Tue Mar 24 19:57:56 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["2871" "Mon" "16" "March" "1992" "05:12:47" "GMT" "Lee E. Brotzman" "leb at gsfc.nasa.gov " "<7122146 at toto.iv>" "51" "Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031605:12:47" "Unix based FITS table browsers?" (number " " mark "     Lee E. Brotzman   Mar 16   51/2871  " thread-indent "\"Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Nntp-Posting-Host: hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
From: leb at gsfc.nasa.gov (Lee E. Brotzman)
Subject: Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1992 05:12:47 GMT

I'm the author of the MS-DOS FITS Table Browser (FTB) program distributed with
the ADC CD-ROM.  I am now working on a Unix version of FTB "by popular demand".
However the work is proceeding just like the MS-DOS version -- slowly in my own
time on the PC in my basement, with occasional uploads and compiles on
NASA/GSFC Unix boxes.

FTB's source code is pretty non-platform specific.  The interface is
command-based and any commands that FTB doesn't understand internally are
simply thrown out to the OS with a system() call.  Screen manipulation was
originally done by encapsulating Borland Turbo C cursor-control calls in curses
look-alike functions, since I always planned on porting the code completely to
curses when I found a decent implementation for the PC.  Now that I have found
a good PC curses, I have replaced all of the Turbo C-specific code.

But, I have found a few little quirks with curses that have driven me to revamp
the user interface somewhat.  For instance, scrolling in curses really sucks,
especially over a modem, which is how I test the program.  I'm working now to
eliminate scrolling entirely, which isn't too hard.  Once that's out of the
way, I should be able to release a beta version 2.0. (And after I clean up the
source code so that I wouldn't be ashamed to let other people read it :-)

Unfortunately, the Unix port has taken me away from some other serious things 
on my FTB to-do list, like fixing a stupid bug in the way I skip over 
Generalized Extensions other than 'TABLE', and another more insidious bug 
caused by the Fortran origins of the TABLE field format definition.

Maybe someone out there can help me with that last one.  You see, TFORMn is
defined as a FORTRAN 77 format specification, which is fine until you try to
read floating point numbers in C.  You can read a floating point number with an
implied decimal point in Fortran with something like: 

	READ(UNIT=STRING,FMT="F9.5") FPVAL

but there is no equivalent capability in C (you can use "%9.5f" in sprintf() to
print a float, but you can't use it in sscanf() to read it, only the field
width -- the "9" in this case -- is allowed in the format specifier).  I can
try to do some pre-processing of the input numeric field so that a decimal
point exists in the proper place, but I'd really appreciate it if someone had a
generalized Fortran floating point read function in C that can handle implied
decimal points cleanly.

When I asked about this in comp.lang.c all I got was bitching about how I
shouldn't be using implied decimal points in my data, like I can control that
in a general FITS table reader.  Sheesh!


--
-- Lee E. Brotzman                    Internet:  leb at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov
-- Hughes STX                         DECNET:    NDADSA::BROTZMAN
-- National Space Science Data Center BITNET:    ZMLEB at SCFMVS
-- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

From pence at heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov Tue Mar 24 19:58:15 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["4009" "Mon" "16" "March" "1992" "17:23:19" "GMT" " William Pence" "pence at heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov " "<442130 at toto.iv>" "77" "Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031617:23:19" "Unix based FITS table browsers?" (number " " mark "      William Pence    Mar 16   77/4009  " thread-indent "\"Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Nntp-Posting-Host: heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
From: pence at heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov ( William Pence)
Subject: Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1992 17:23:19 GMT


dirk at spacsun.rice.edu (Dirk Valk) on Fri, 13 Mar 1992 21:15:58 GMT wrote:

>Does anyone know where I can lay hands on a UNIX based program that will let
>me manipulate, search and extract subsets of FITS tables?  
>
>You can sort of do it by using the IRAF package STSDAS.FITSIO.STRFITS to turn 
>the FITS file into a GEIS file, and then manipulate it with the STSDAS.TTOOLS
>package.  But this means that you end up copying the entire table onto disk 
>storage -- that's like 56Mb for some of the tables -- which negates a lot of 
>the utility of the cdrom.

The HEASARC (High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive and Research
Center) at NASA/GSFC is currently developing a set of software
utilities for manipulating FITS files (especially ASCII and Binary
tables).   I was planning to wait until this project was a little
further advanced before publicizing it, but since there seems to be
interest in this sort software it may be better to describe it sooner
to possibly avoid duplication of effort by other groups.

We are developing a suite of programs to manipulate the contents of FITS
tables.  For example, some of the more general tasks include:

      fsort    - sort the rows in a FITS table based on the contents of one
                 or more columns
      fproject - create a new FITS table from selected columns from an
                 existing FITS table
      fselect  - select rows from a table based on some logical selection
                 criteria
      fdump    - dump the contents of a FITS table to an ASCII file
      fcalc    - perform arithmetic on  table columns

The functionality of these FITS tasks is being closely modelled on the
tasks in the STSDAS TTOOLS package.  All the tasks operate directly on
FITS format files and create FITS files as output (and in a few cases,
the tasks also input or output simple ASCII files).

These utilities are being developed as part of the general HEASARC
philosophy of directly using the  FITS format as the primary data
format for archiving,  reducing and analysing data sets from past and
present high-energy astronomy missions.  These tools are being
specifically developed to process the X-Ray data that will be received
>from the Japanese/US Astro-D satellite to be launched next February,
but the tools are intended to be general enough to be useful for
manipulating any FITS format file.

Our software design philosophy is to write the main body of the code in
strict ANSI-standard Fortran-77 which is then portable to any machine
with a F77 compiler.  The FITSIO subroutine interface is used to read
and write the FITS files, which is also machine independent.  The
interface to the user (or command language) to get the input parameters
needed to run the task (e.g., the name of the input FITS table) has
also been isolated through a standard subroutine interface to make the
code more portable.  Currently we can link these tasks to 2 different
parameter interface libraries:

      1.  by linking to the F77 Interface Library for IRAF developed
          at the STScI, we produce an IRAF task.

      2.  by linking to the 'Host Interface' library developed at SAO/CfA
          we generate a standalone executable task which has the look
          and feel of an IRAF task, but in fact does not have any
          IRAF dependencies and can be envoked directly from the
          host machine operating system prompt.  (we are currently
          using a prototype version of this interface)

In both cases an IRAF-format parameter file is used as the basic mechanism
for passing parameters between the user and the tasks.

Currently we have 2+ programmers working full time on this project, and
we expect to have a significant amount of it finished later this year.
I will be giving a status report on this project at the WGAS session at
the June AAS meeting, for anyone interested in hearing more details, or
they can contact me directly.

William Pence          pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov  or  HEASRC::PENCE
(301)286-4599

From dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu Tue Mar 24 19:59:36 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1286" "Tue" "17" "March" "1992" "03:37:37" "GMT" "Don Wells" "dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu " "<6760721 at toto.iv>" "26" "Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031703:37:37" "Unix based FITS table browsers?" (number " " mark "     Don Wells         Mar 17   26/1286  " thread-indent "\"Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
In-Reply-To: bds at woim.id.macsch.com's message of Mon, 16 Mar 92 18: 40:14 GMT
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA.
From: dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells)
Subject: Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1992 03:37:37 GMT

In article <1992Mar16.184014.21997 at draco.macsch.com>
bds at woim.id.macsch.com () writes:

"...   Enclosed is a   utility that I wrote for    my   brother.  This
program.. is an executable and runs on his sun4 and my sparc2..."

I have  placed this executable in directory FITS/OSsupport/SunOS/SPARC
on fits.cx.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]:

  -rwxr-xr-x  1 dwells     172032 Mar 16 16:59 fits-bds
  -rw-r--r--  1 dwells      89711 Mar 16 16:59 fits-bds.Z
  -rw-r--r--  1 dwells       1336 Mar 16 16:58 fits-bds.txt

I confirm that SPARC-binary "fits-bds"  will execute  on a SPARC under
SunOS 4.1.1 and  OpenWindows-2, and that  it will  display FITS-format
images. It creates two small windows, one for a command menu (labelled
"FitsImaging v2.1") and the other a color map. It appears that it will
only  accept  files with names of the   form *.fits.  When   a file is
selected a   third window is   created for the image display.    It is
somewhat slow, even on our Sparcstation-2, but it does work. 
--

Donald C. Wells             Associate Scientist        dwells at nrao.edu
National Radio Astronomy Observatory                   +1-804-296-0277
520 Edgemont Road                                 Fax= +1-804-296-0278
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-2475 USA            78:31.1W, 38:02.2N 

From sla at fast.ucsc.edu Tue Mar 24 20:00:05 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["980" "" "17" "March" "92" "14:54:50" "GMT" "Steve Allen" "sla at fast.ucsc.edu " "<2394710 at toto.iv>" "17" "VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031714:54:50" "VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" (number " " mark "     Steve Allen       Mar 17   17/980   " thread-indent "\"VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Summary: run a binary I've never seen the code for?  are you kidding?
Keywords: display fits unix xwindows
Followup-To: comp.risks
Organization: UCO/Lick Observatory
From: sla at fast.ucsc.edu (Steve Allen)
Subject: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)
Date: 17 Mar 92 14:54:50 GMT

In article <1992Mar16.184014.21997 at draco.macsch.com> bds at woim.id.macsch.com writes:
>Hello all,
>Enclosed is a utility that I wrote for my brother.  ...
>This is an executable and runs on his sun4 and my sparc2....
>I request that you give me feedback on this program as to future
>-Barry
>   [followed by what appears to be a UUencoded binary for Sparc]

No offense intended, but you don't honestly expect me to put this
binary on some machine with data that I value and run it, do you?
I might do it immediately after a complete dump of all my disks, and after
unplugging that particular Sparc from the net to contain possible damage.
Be very careful about this.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Steve Allen          | That was the equation!         |   sla at helios.ucsc.edu
UCO/Lick Observatory | Existence!...Survival must     | If the UC were opining,
Santa Cruz, CA 95064 | cancel out programming! -- Ruk | it wouldn't tell me.

From cflatter at nrao.edu Tue Mar 24 20:00:11 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1823" "Tue" "17" "March" "1992" "16:54:39" "GMT" "Chris Flatters,109,238" "cflatter at nrao.edu " "<1980822 at toto.iv>" "35" "Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031716:54:39" "VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" (number " " mark "     Chris Flatters,10 Mar 17   35/1823  " thread-indent "\"Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Reply-To: cflatter at nrao.edu
Organization: NRAO
From: cflatter at nrao.edu (Chris Flatters,109,238)
Subject: Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1992 16:54:39 GMT

In article 30847 at darkstar.ucsc.edu, sla at fast.ucsc.edu (Steve Allen) writes:
>In article <1992Mar16.184014.21997 at draco.macsch.com> bds at woim.id.macsch.com writes:
>>Hello all,
>>Enclosed is a utility that I wrote for my brother.  ...
>>This is an executable and runs on his sun4 and my sparc2....
>>I request that you give me feedback on this program as to future
>>-Barry
>>   [followed by what appears to be a UUencoded binary for Sparc]
>
>No offense intended, but you don't honestly expect me to put this
>binary on some machine with data that I value and run it, do you?
>I might do it immediately after a complete dump of all my disks, and after
>unplugging that particular Sparc from the net to contain possible damage.
>Be very careful about this.

I hope that we are not going to see the free interchange of astronomical
software inhibited by virus hysteria spreading from the DOS world.  DOS
is particularly vulnerable to malicious actions since all DOS users and
DOS programs effectively have system administrator privileges.  This is
not true of a UNIX system unless the sysadmin has done some remarkably
stupid things to it.

While it is technically possible for a program to exploit bugs in the
system to get itself root privileges (as the Morris worm did) the Trojan
horse approach would not be the preferred method to do this.  If nasties
are going to get onto your machine they are much more likely to come
over the net.

==============================================================================
Chris Flatters				|  cflatter at nrao.edu
National Radio Astronomy Observatory	|
==============================================================================
Desperation is the raw material of drastic change --- W. S. Burroughs
==============================================================================


From warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov Tue Mar 24 20:00:19 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["964" "Tue" "17" "March" "1992" "17:45:00" "GMT" "Archie Warnock" "warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov " "<6517822 at toto.iv>" "16" "Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" nil nil nil "3" "1992031717:45:00" "VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" (number " " mark "     Archie Warnock    Mar 17   16/964   " thread-indent "\"Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Nntp-Posting-Host: nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
Organization: Hughes STX - NASA/NCDS
From: warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Archie Warnock)
Subject: Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1992 17:45:00 GMT

In article <1992Mar17.165439.5812 at nrao.edu>, cflatter at nrao.edu writes...
>I hope that we are not going to see the free interchange of astronomical
>software inhibited by virus hysteria spreading from the DOS world.  DOS
>is particularly vulnerable to malicious actions since all DOS users and
>DOS programs effectively have system administrator privileges.  This is

In addition, it should be pointed out that the virus threat to DOS and 
Macintosh machines is blown way, way out of proportion with reality, and 
that most virus infestations on those platforms have come from 
commercial software, rather than PD or shareware files from reputable 
BBSs.  Viruses are real, and rare.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Archie Warnock                     Internet:  warnock at nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
-- Hughes STX                         SPAN:      NSSDC::WARNOCK
-- NASA/GSFC                          "Hail To The Redskins!"

From bds at woim.id.macsch.com Tue Mar 24 20:00:26 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["483" "Tue" "17" "March" "92" "19:05:02" "GMT" "bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()" "bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()" "<5271126 at toto.iv>" "11" "Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" nil nil nil "3" "1992031719:05:02" "VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" (number " " mark "     bds at woim.id.macsc Mar 17   11/483   " thread-indent "\"Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Organization: MacNeal-Schwendler Corp.
From: bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()
Subject: Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 19:05:02 GMT

 I apologize for not putting the code on an ftp site.  To post it was a spur of the
moment decision.  The display is slow because to merge 3 images and display on 8bit
machines requires some fancy coding.

 Is this the type of program that you all out there would be interested in?
I mean, should I continue to work on it?

 By the way, the second window that has the colormap allows you to select a color
and see where in your image that color is used and what values it is.

Barry

From pmurphy at baboon.cv.nrao.edu Tue Mar 24 20:00:33 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1787" "Wed" "18" "March" "1992" "21:18:52" "GMT" "Pat Murphy" "pmurphy at baboon.cv.nrao.edu " "<3818059 at toto.iv>" "32" "Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" nil nil nil "3" "1992031821:18:52" "VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" (number " " mark "     Pat Murphy        Mar 18   32/1787  " thread-indent "\"Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
In-Reply-To: warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov's message of Tue, 17 Mar 1992 17: 45:00 GMT
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
From: pmurphy at baboon.cv.nrao.edu (Pat Murphy)
Subject: Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 21:18:52 GMT


In article <17MAR199212453081 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>
    warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Archie Warnock) writes:

   In article <1992Mar17.165439.5812 at nrao.edu>, cflatter at nrao.edu writes...
   >I hope that we are not going to see the free interchange of astronomical
   >software inhibited by virus hysteria spreading from the DOS world.  DOS
   >is particularly vulnerable to malicious actions since all DOS users and
   >DOS programs effectively have system administrator privileges.  This is

   In addition, it should be pointed out that the virus threat to DOS and 
   Macintosh machines is blown way, way out of proportion with reality, and 
   that most virus infestations on those platforms have come from 
   commercial software, rather than PD or shareware files from reputable 
   BBSs.  Viruses are real, and rare.

One simple way of spotting suspicious binaries in a case like this is
to run the unix "strings" command on the file.  In this case there is
nothing harmful visible offhand (plus it shows nicely exactly which
FITS keywords are checked :-).  On large binaries, you want to pipe
the output through more (or less).  And yes, I know someone determined
can defeat this check, but it is another firewall -- and a useful one
IMHO.
				- Pat
--
==========================================================================
| Patrick P. Murphy, Ph.D.                Scientific Programming Analyst |
| National Radio Astronomy Observatory    Net:   pmurphy at nrao.edu        |
| 520 Edgemont Road                       or:    uunet!nrao.edu!pmurphy  |
| Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475          Phone: (804) 296-0372          |
|      "I don't believe in the no-win scenario"  --- James T. Kirk       |
==========================================================================

From anthony at csd4.csd.uwm.edu Tue Mar 24 20:00:53 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1083" "Thu" "19" "March" "1992" "02:18:15" "GMT" "Anthony J Stieber" "anthony at csd4.csd.uwm.edu " "<2159204 at toto.iv>" "24" "Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031902:18:15" "VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" (number " " mark "     Anthony J Stieber Mar 19   24/1083  " thread-indent "\"Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Followup-To: comp.virus
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
From: anthony at csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Anthony J Stieber)
Subject: Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 02:18:15 GMT

I really suggest that anyone interested in finding viruses get
one of the several virus scanning programs.  F-prot, McAffee Scan,
and Virex are all good programs and are freely distributable.

Viruses do tend to be rather rare, until I started working in
a computer lab I had never seen one before.  Before we started
to actively prevent viruses from getting on the lab machines
I'd see a dozen infections a week, now it's down to about one
infection a month.  Whether you see viruses depends on who
you interact with and how careful they are.

Incidently, strings will only work on file viruses, it can't
be used on boot sector viruses like stoned or michaelangelo.
Although some viruses do have interesting strings within them
plenty of others do not, or the strings are encrypted to prevent
casual searches.

In any case, viruses are only one of many possible ways to
loose valuble information.  The best preparation is to back
up the information.

See comp.virus and archive sites like wuarchive.wustl.edu.
--
<-:(= Anthony Stieber	anthony at csd4.csd.uwm.edu   uwm!uwmcsd4!anthony

From carl at SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU Tue Mar 24 20:01:27 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1769" "Tue" "17" "March" "1992" "18:12:11" "GMT" "Carl J Lydick" "carl at SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU " "<2883339 at toto.iv>" "28" "Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" nil nil nil "3" "1992031718:12:11" "VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" (number " " mark "     Carl J Lydick     Mar 17   28/1769  " thread-indent "\"Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Nntp-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu
Reply-To: carl at SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
From: carl at SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
Subject: Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1992 18:12:11 GMT

In article <1992Mar17.165439.5812 at nrao.edu>, cflatter at nrao.edu (Chris Flatters,109,238) writes:
>I hope that we are not going to see the free interchange of astronomical
>software inhibited by virus hysteria spreading from the DOS world.  DOS
>is particularly vulnerable to malicious actions since all DOS users and
>DOS programs effectively have system administrator privileges.  This is
>not true of a UNIX system unless the sysadmin has done some remarkably
>stupid things to it.
>
>While it is technically possible for a program to exploit bugs in the
>system to get itself root privileges (as the Morris worm did) the Trojan
>horse approach would not be the preferred method to do this.  If nasties
>are going to get onto your machine they are much more likely to come
>over the net.

On UNIX systems, it is quite easy for a program to, e.g., mail a copy of
/etc/passwd to the person who wrote the program, who can then try to find
passwords that encrypt to the values for the root password and a non-privileged
user's password.  It's also quite easy for a program to delete (or worse,
corrupt) all files owned by the person who runs it.  If you value your data,
DON'T accept binary executables except from trusted sources.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL at SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXes and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.

From sysmark at helios.physics.utoronto.ca Tue Mar 24 20:01:34 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1637" "Tue" "17" "March" "1992" "18:27:48" "GMT" "Mark Bartelt" "sysmark at helios.physics.utoronto.ca " "<7168736 at toto.iv>" "34" "Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" nil nil nil "3" "1992031718:27:48" "VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" (number " " mark "     Mark Bartelt      Mar 17   34/1637  " thread-indent "\"Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Reply-To: mark at cita.toronto.edu
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
From: sysmark at helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Mark Bartelt)
Subject: Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1992 18:27:48 GMT

[ Chris Flatters ]

| I hope that we are not going to see the free interchange of astronomical
| software inhibited by virus hysteria spreading from the DOS world.  DOS
| is particularly vulnerable to malicious actions since all DOS users and
| DOS programs effectively have system administrator privileges.  This is
| not true of a UNIX system unless the sysadmin has done some remarkably
| stupid things to it.
|
| While it is technically possible for a program to exploit bugs in the
| system to get itself root privileges (as the Morris worm did) the Trojan
| horse approach would not be the preferred method to do this.  If nasties
| are going to get onto your machine they are much more likely to come
| over the net.

Well, I prefer to err on the side of excessive caution, and therefore never
install an executable that I haven't built from source myself.  Of course,
even this is no guarantee of safety; not by a long shot.  For example, let
me toss out a couple questions:

(1)  How many of you have pulled something off the net which included a
     README file that said something like

		Type "make" to build executables, then
		su to root, then
		type "make install".

(2)  Those of you who raised your hands to #1:  How many of you always look
     at the makefile to see what "make install" will actually *do*?  I do,
     but I've certainly encountered far too many people who don't bother.

Mark Bartelt                                                   416/978-5619
Canadian Institute for                                mark at cita.toronto.edu
Theoretical Astrophysics                              mark at cita.utoronto.ca

From stefan at helios.physics.utoronto.ca Tue Mar 24 20:01:41 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1072" "Tue" "17" "March" "1992" "19:57:18" "GMT" "Stefan Mochnacki" "stefan at helios.physics.utoronto.ca " "<4281679 at toto.iv>" "21" "Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" nil nil nil "3" "1992031719:57:18" "VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" (number " " mark "     Stefan Mochnacki  Mar 17   21/1072  " thread-indent "\"Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
From: stefan at helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Stefan Mochnacki)
Subject: Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1992 19:57:18 GMT

I cannot recall EVER seeing an EXECUTABLE for a Unix machine
distributed over Usenet. It is completely unnecessary, since in general
the potential users will have an appropriate compiler and the
standard libraries. That is not the case in the MS-DOS or
Mac world, where (a) there is a large proliferation of non-standard
compilers, (b) there is (was???) no standard graphical interface, and
(c) most users would not have a compiler anyway.

Thus, I would like to remind the well-meaning poster of "fits-bds"
that only SOURCE CODE should be posted to Usenet if it is for Unix
use. Anyway, many of us have non-SPARC machines, such as Sun 3's and
386i's. Usually, decent code will compile on run on many different
architectures, sometimes with a little hacking needed. 

				Stefan Mochnacki

-- 
Stefan W. Mochnacki          INTERNET - stefan at centaur.astro.utoronto.ca
Astronomy, U. of Toronto     UUCP - {uunet,pyramid}!utai!helios.physics!stefan
Ph. (416) 884-9562           BITNET - mochnacki at utorphys.bitnet 
FAX (416) 884-2672	     LOCATION - David Dunlap Observatory 

From hybl at umbc4.umbc.edu) Tue Mar 24 20:01:48 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["649" "" "18" "March" "92" "00:42:53" "GMT" "UMAB-BIOPHYS" "hybl at umbc4.umbc.edu (Dr. Albert Hybl )" "<5994347 at toto.iv>" "12" "Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" nil nil nil "3" "1992031800:42:53" "VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)" (number " " mark "     UMAB-BIOPHYS      Mar 18   12/649   " thread-indent "\"Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Organization: University of Maryland Baltimore Campus, Academic Computing Services
From: hybl at umbc4.umbc.edu (Dr. Albert Hybl (UMAB-BIOPHYS))
Subject: Re: VIRUSes (was Re: Unix based FITS table browsers?)
Date: 18 Mar 92 00:42:53 GMT

In article <1992Mar17.195718.28883 at helios.physics.utoronto.ca> stefan at helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Stefan Mochnacki) writes:
>I cannot recall EVER seeing an EXECUTABLE for a Unix machine
>distributed over Usenet. It is completely unnecessary, since in general
>the potential users will have an appropriate compiler and the
>standard libraries.
The IRAF software is distributed with binaries tuned to each
machine type.  One can also get the source and recreate the
whole system.  I'd hate to have to look for a virus in that
system--source or binaries.  As Farragut said: "Damn the
virus--full installation ahead!"

Albert Hybl (hybl at umbc3.umbc.edu)

From sla at fast.ucsc.edu Tue Mar 24 20:01:57 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1581" "" "17" "March" "92" "21:36:51" "GMT" "Steve Allen" "sla at fast.ucsc.edu " "<611585 at toto.iv>" "23" "I HAVE to be careful (was Re: VIRUSes)" nil nil nil "3" "1992031721:36:51" "I HAVE to be careful (was Re: VIRUSes)" (number " " mark "     Steve Allen       Mar 17   23/1581  " thread-indent "\"I HAVE to be careful (was Re: VIRUSes)\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Summary: but I do not wish to offend
Keywords: VIRUSes
Followup-To: comp.risks
Organization: UCO/Lick Observatory
From: sla at fast.ucsc.edu (Steve Allen)
Subject: I HAVE to be careful (was Re: VIRUSes)
Date: 17 Mar 92 21:36:51 GMT

In article <1992Mar17.165439.5812 at nrao.edu> cflatter at nrao.edu writes:
>I hope that we are not going to see the free interchange of astronomical
>software inhibited by virus hysteria spreading from the DOS world.

I love the idea of free interchange of astronomical software, but the original
posting left too many questions unanswered.
--Who is the original poster?  I've never seen him before in this group.
He seems not to have mastered the use of the USENET yet.  How dare I endanger
the people who rely daily on the software that I own and maintain here?
How sure am I that our system managers have patched the NFS bugs or
the integer divide by zero bug on all Sparcs networked to me?
--The program says it is for Sparcs.  It is a binary.  It has no docs,
no man pages.  I would like know what version of the OS it was built under,
what shareable libraries it may try linking with.
--If it does turn out to be useful (and I expect that it does) what do I do
if I want to put it on a DecStation or a RS/6000?  Can I have the source?
Does the original poster consider this as a teaser for some future commercial
product?  Is the software copyrighted?  Am I permitted to freely redistribute
the binary or would that place me and Lick at risk for some legal action?
_______________________________________________________________________________
Steve Allen          | That was the equation!         |   sla at helios.ucsc.edu
UCO/Lick Observatory | Existence!...Survival must     | If the UC were opining,
Santa Cruz, CA 95064 | cancel out programming! -- Ruk | it wouldn't tell me.

From bds at woim.id.macsch.com Tue Mar 24 20:02:05 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["620" "Tue" "17" "March" "92" "23:35:00" "GMT" "bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()" "bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()" "<4618603 at toto.iv>" "16" "FitsImaging Version 2.1" nil nil nil "3" "1992031723:35:00" "FitsImaging Version 2.1" (number " " mark "     bds at woim.id.macsc Mar 17   16/620   " thread-indent "\"FitsImaging Version 2.1\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Keywords: Fits Imaging XWindows
Organization: MacNeal-Schwendler Corp.
Distribution: sci.astro.fits
From: bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()
Subject: FitsImaging Version 2.1
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 92 23:35:00 GMT

I have sent off the source code for the imaging utility that has taken up the
last bunch of bandwidth here.  I named the tar file bds-fitsv2.1.tar.  Whatever
happens to it after that, I don't know.  I put it on 192.33.115.8.

All I ask is that any modifications made to it somehow find there way to the 
general populace and that nobody takes this code and goes commercial-like.

This code has been designed and implemented on my own time and the Company
Macneal-Schwendler has absolutely nothing to do with this program.

I will try to write up some sort of a user guide to it when I get the chance.

Have fun!

Barry


From dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu Tue Mar 24 20:02:12 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["717" "Wed" "18" "March" "1992" "01:51:03" "GMT" "Don Wells" "dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu " "<5522003 at toto.iv>" "18" "Re: FitsImaging Version 2.1" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992031801:51:03" "FitsImaging Version 2.1" (number " " mark "     Don Wells         Mar 18   18/717   " thread-indent "\"Re: FitsImaging Version 2.1\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
In-Reply-To: bds at woim.id.macsch.com's message of Tue, 17 Mar 92 23: 35:00 GMT
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA.
Distribution: sci.astro.fits
From: dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells)
Subject: Re: FitsImaging Version 2.1
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 01:51:03 GMT

In article <1992Mar17.233500.11081 at draco.macsch.com>
bds at woim.id.macsch.com () writes: "I have sent off the source code for
the imaging utility .. named the tar file bds-fitsv2.1.tar.. put it on
192.33.115.8..."
^^^^^^^^^^^^
fits.cx.nrao.edu

It is in directory /FITS/OSsupport/Unix:

-rw-r--r--  1 dwells   vlb        122880 Mar 17 18:25 bds-fitsv2.1.tar
-rw-r--r--  1 dwells   vlb           901 Mar 17 20:36 bds-fitsv2.1.txt

--

Donald C. Wells             Associate Scientist        dwells at nrao.edu
National Radio Astronomy Observatory                   +1-804-296-0277
520 Edgemont Road                                 Fax= +1-804-296-0278
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-2475 USA            78:31.1W, 38:02.2N 

From bds at woim.id.macsch.com Tue Mar 24 20:02:31 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["795" "Thu" "19" "March" "92" "20:36:09" "GMT" "bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()" "bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()" "<3724319 at toto.iv>" "28" "Fits Imaging Notes" nil nil nil "3" "1992031920:36:09" "Fits Imaging Notes" (number " " mark "     bds at woim.id.macsc Mar 19   28/795   " thread-indent "\"Fits Imaging Notes\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Organization: MacNeal-Schwendler Corp.
Distribution: sci.astro.fits
From: bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()
Subject: Fits Imaging Notes
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 20:36:09 GMT


FitsImaging v2.1
----------------

Allows you to view FITS images on (most likely) any XWindows enironment.
I originally wrote it on an HP400 series machine and tested it on a Sun4
and Sparc2.

With it you can 
---------------

1. Merge 2 or 3 separate images and easily see where they overlap.
2. Do image processing on any of the images to highlight any sources.
3. Focus the display to enhance a range of values.
4. Interactively view the images contours by selecting a color
   from the colormap window
5. Cycle the colors in you image to 'animate' your display.
6. The code is written cleanly, so as to enable easy modifications and to
   make enhancing the program easy.

Making the program
------------------
1. tar -xvf bds-fitsv2.1.tar
2. make fits

To run it you simply type "fits"



From lip at s1.gov Tue Mar 24 20:02:41 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["812" "" "24" "March" "92" "01:27:16" "GMT" "Loren I. Petrich" "lip at s1.gov " "<5204602 at toto.iv>" "22" "FITS, GIF, TIFF, etc..." nil nil nil "3" "1992032401:27:16" "FITS, GIF, TIFF, etc..." (number " " mark "     Loren I. Petrich  Mar 24   22/812   " thread-indent "\"FITS, GIF, TIFF, etc...\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Livermore CA
Originator: lip at s1.gov
Nntp-Posting-Host: s1.gov
From: lip at s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
Subject: FITS, GIF, TIFF, etc...
Date: 24 Mar 92 01:27:16 GMT


	There were some references to public-domain code for reading
and writing FITS files. I would like to ask about similar code for
other graphics formats, like GIF, TIFF, and so on.

	I have software that can display FITS and GIF images; what I
need is software that one can call from a program that can read and
write FITS and GIF images, given an array of data to be read into or
written from. In effect, I want:

	(Data Array in Program) -> (FITS or GIF file)

	(FITS or GIF file) -> (Data Array in Program)

	I wish any such software to be callable from C; my preference
would be C, though I would accept Fortran. The hardware I intend to
run it on is Sun workstations, such as the Sun 4 and the Sparc.

	I wish to have such software because I wish to experiment on
various forms of image processing.

/Loren

From benedict at chaos.utexas.edu Sat Mar 28 16:10:52 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["585" "" "24" "March" "92" "14:04:37" "GMT" "Thomas Benedict" "benedict at chaos.utexas.edu " "<55424 at toto.iv>" "11" "FITS read and write on PC" nil nil nil "3" "1992032414:04:37" "FITS read and write on PC" (number " " mark "     Thomas Benedict   Mar 24   11/585   " thread-indent "\"FITS read and write on PC\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Distribution: sci.astro.fits
Organization: Center for Nonlinear Dynamics, University of Texas at Austin
From: benedict at chaos.utexas.edu (Thomas Benedict)
Subject: FITS read and write on PC
Date: 24 Mar 92 14:04:37 GMT

Does anyone have routines to read and write FITS format files on a PC
in C?  The undergraduate telescope at U.T. has a Star I CCD camera on
it, and with due apology to the people at Photometrics, the control
and data-reduction software is lousy.  I'm re-writing the software to
fit the needs of a specific project, but we're doing our data
reduction on IRAF and either need to write the files in IRAF format or
in FITS.  I'd personally prefer FITS, but don't want to have to go
through the FITS specification to write the routines to handle the
files if I don't have to.

Tom Benedict

From daugherty at aedc-vax.af.mil Sat Mar 28 16:11:10 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["268" "" "26" "March" "92" "15:49:00" "GMT" "Tom Daugherty A11442 x4647" "daugherty at aedc-vax.af.mil " "<5053435 at toto.iv>" "11" "Re: Fits Imaging Notes" nil nil nil "3" "1992032615:49:00" "Fits Imaging Notes" (number " " mark "     Tom Daugherty A11 Mar 26   11/268   " thread-indent "\"Re: Fits Imaging Notes\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Distribution: sci.astro.fits
Organization: Arnold Engineering Development Center
Nntp-Posting-Host: aedc-vax.af.mil
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41
From: daugherty at aedc-vax.af.mil (Tom Daugherty A11442 x4647)
Subject: Re: Fits Imaging Notes
Date: 26 Mar 92 15:49:00 GMT

In article <1992Mar19.203609.20302 at draco.macsch.com>, bds at woim.id.macsch.com writes...
> 
>FitsImaging v2.1> 

Sounds great!
 I may have missed an earlier posting, but is it available from FTP? Is it 
 public domain?

Thanks

Tom Daugherty (DAUGHERTY at AEDC-VAX.AF.MIL)

From bds at woim.id.macsch.com Sat Mar 28 16:11:29 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1074" "Fri" "27" "March" "92" "16:11:24" "GMT" "bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()" "bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()" "<3905882 at toto.iv>" "35" "Re: Fits Imaging Notes" nil nil nil "3" "1992032716:11:24" "Fits Imaging Notes" (number " " mark "     bds at woim.id.macsc Mar 27   35/1074  " thread-indent "\"Re: Fits Imaging Notes\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Organization: MacNeal-Schwendler Corp.
Distribution: sci.astro.fits
From: bds at woim.id.macsch.com ()
Subject: Re: Fits Imaging Notes
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 92 16:11:24 GMT

FitsImaging v2.1
----------------

Allows you to view FITS images on (most likely) any XWindows enironment.
I originally wrote it on an HP400 series machine and tested it on a Sun4
and Sparc2.  It is on <192.33.115.8> in /FITS/OSsupport/Unix and is called
bds-fitsv2.1.tar.

With it you can 
---------------

1. Merge 2 or 3 separate images and easily see where they overlap.
2. Do image processing on any of the images to highlight any sources.
3. Focus the display to enhance a range of values.
4. Interactively view the images contours by selecting a color
   from the colormap window
5. Cycle the colors in you image to 'animate' your display.
6. The code is written cleanly, so as to enable easy modifications and to
   make enhancing the program easy.

Making the program
------------------
1. tar -xvf bds-fitsv2.1.tar
2. make fits

To run it you simply type "fits"


If you like the program and find it usefull then please
send e-mail to my brother of whom I wrote the program for.
His adress is <SLSO%UORDB3.bitnet at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Thanks.

Barry <BDS at MACSCH.COM>

From swalton at aurora.csun.edu Sat Mar 28 19:01:57 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["730" "Sat" "28" "March" "1992" "21:44:43" "GMT" "Stephen Walton" "swalton at aurora.csun.edu " "<1148526 at toto.iv>" "14" "Re: FITS read and write on PC" nil nil nil "3" "1992032821:44:43" "FITS read and write on PC" (number " " mark "     Stephen Walton    Mar 28   14/730   " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS read and write on PC\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Distribution: sci.astro.fits
Organization: California State University, Northridge
From: swalton at aurora.csun.edu (Stephen Walton)
Subject: Re: FITS read and write on PC
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1992 21:44:43 GMT

In article <BENEDICT.92Mar24080437 at chaos.utexas.edu> benedict at chaos.utexas.edu (Thomas Benedict) writes:
>Does anyone have routines to read and write FITS format files on a PC
>in C?

Get a copy of PCVISTA.  It is a complete, small, FITS-based image processing
package for PC's from UC Berkeley.  Not sure of the current cost;  you can
e-mail Michael Richmond at richmond at bllac.berkeley.edu.  A description
of the system is in Treffers and Richmond, P.A.S.P. _101_, 725.

It comes with complete sources, including a set of subroutines for reading
and writing FITS images in C.
-- 
Stephen Walton, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Cal State Univ. Northridge
 "Anyone who remembers the sixties probably wasn't there."---Robin Williams

From dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu Sun Mar 29 00:52:47 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["15667" "Sun" "29" "March" "1992" "05:48:47" "GMT" "Don Wells" "dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu " "<5035419 at toto.iv>" "302" "Happy Birthday, FITS!   [LONG]" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992032905:48:47" "Happy Birthday, FITS!   [LONG]" (number " " mark "     Don Wells         Mar 29  302/15667 " thread-indent "\"Happy Birthday, FITS!   [LONG]\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA.
Distribution: sci
From: dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells)
Subject: Happy Birthday, FITS!   [LONG]
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1992 05:48:47 GMT


		Happy Birthday, FITS!

I consider March 28th to be the birthday for FITS, because it was on
March 28, 1979, that Eric Greisen and I completed the Basic FITS
Agreement. FITS is now a teenager -- today is its 13th birthday. 

			---*---

A file folder which I brought from Arizona to Virginia in 1981 is
labelled "Image Interchange Tape Format notes, Ron Harten (Leiden)
correspondence". That folder contains a number of documents relevant
to the early history of FITS. I reproduce many of them below as a
birthday present for FITS.

		--- Magic Numbers ---

The folder contains a memo by me dated 27 December 1976 and titled
"Word and Pixel Combinations for the proposed Universal Interchange
Format". The purpose of this memo was to document my thinking soon
after Ron Harten (NFRA [now at RCA Astroelectronics, Princeton, NJ])
had visited me at KPNO in November 1976, and had suggested that our
community needed to have an interchange format.  Ron told me that he
had used a magic record size to move Westerbork data between IBM and
CDC computers in the Netherlands; my memory is that it was 720 bytes.
The memo contains the following tables and text:

                              # words per integral # pixels per integral
# bits   prime     # words    # of pixels          # of words
per word factors   per packet 8-bit 16-bit 32-bit  8-bit 16-bit 32-bit
-------- --------- ---------- ----- ------ ------  ------ ------ ------
   6     2.3          240
   8     2.2.2        180
  12     2.2.3        120      2     4       8      3      3      3
  16     2.2.2.2       90      1     1       2      2      1      1
  18     2.3.3         80      4     8      16      9      9      9
  24     2.2.2.3       60      1     2       4      3      3      3
  32     2.2.2.2.2     45      1     1       1      4      2      1
  36     2.2.3.3       40      2     4       8      9      9      9
  48     2.2.2.2.3     30      1     1       2      6      3      3
  60     2.2.3.5       24      2     4       8     15     15     15

"The adopted packet size is 1440 bits, which is the least common
multiple of the word sizes: 2.2.2.2.2.3.3.5, or 32.9.5.  An agreed
maximum number of packets per physical record must be decided. One
suggested number is 21 packets, which is 30240 bits, and is less than
the CDC 6000/7000-series tape physical record size limit of 30720
bits. For this size the tape packing factor is about 89% for both 7
and 9-track tapes at 800 bpi, which is certainly satisfactory.  At
1600 bpi the packing factor falls to about 30% but we need to make
some compromises here for the convenience of small computers. Anyway
800 bpi tape should probably be the recommended standard as they are
the most common density."

# bits
per word  Existing Computers with this word size
--------  --------------------------------------
  12      PDP-8
  16      numerous minicomputers
  18      PDP-9
  24      Datacraft 6024 (now Harris/6)
  32      IBM 360/370-series, Interdata 7/32, 8/32
  36      DEC-10, Univac 1100-series (ones-complement!)
  48      CDC 3000-series
  60      CDC 6000/7000-series and Cyber 170-series

[Note that VAXen are not mentioned for 32 bits -- the VAX-11/780 was
not announced until October 1977, ten months after this memo]

	--- Two Prototypes ---

Ron Harten and I both built prototype formats during 1977, and
exchanged data tapes. John Dickel (UIUC) travelled back and forth
between Westerbork and KPNO during 1977 and 1978 carrying radio and
optical imagery of supernova remnants encoded in the two formats, in
order to carry out his projects to register the imagery. My folder
contains letters from Ron describing his format, and letters from me
offering technical criticism, and responses from Ron point by point.
Ron's prototype included support for world coordinate systems and for
machine-independent wide dynamic range ancillary data (he used
logarithms encoded in binary integers).

The folder also contains a copy of IPPS Technical Memo No. 3, titled
"Structure of the image interchange tapes generated by command WIT16
in the MAGTAPE menu of the IPPS", the memo that documented my
prototype. IPPS is "Interactive Image Processing System", and WIT16 is
"Write Interchange Tape 16" [bits]. WIT16 had a logical record size of
1440 bits and the headers were in binary. The typical blocking factor
was 21, 30240 bits, 3780 8-bit bytes, 5040 6-bit bytes, as discussed
in the memo reproduced above.  The "version code" of WIT16 was the
integer 19770322, which indicates when I froze the design. The format
made provision for arbitrary amounts of ancillary information encoded
in binary, it had a field for "number of images" in order to support
3-dimensional matricies, it had a blank pixel convention, and the
technical memo gives an elaborate discussion of algorithms for dealing
with word size and byte-flip variations (like FITS, WIT16 was a
Big-Endian format, whereas the popular PDP-11s were Little-Endian
[remember, this was still 6 months before the VAX]).

	--- Preparing for the Basic FITS Agreement ---

The Astronomy section of the NSF (US National Science Foundation]
organized a meeting whose primary purpose was to try to find a
strategy for making image processing computing capability more widely
available in the US astronomy community. The meeting was held at KPNO
in Tucson in January 1979. During the course of the meeting I said
something about the problem of image interchange formats, and about
our two years of experience with the prototype formats. The chairman
assigned a task force of Bob Burns (NRAO), Ed Groth (Princeton) and me
(KPNO) to work on the problem. My folder contains a copy of a
handwritten letter from me to Bob Burns dated 29 January 1979:

"I am enclosing my little writeup of the WIT16 format [IPPS Memo #3
plus the word/pixel size memo of 1976]. If I were to do it again I
would consider 1440 bytes_per_record = 18 80-character card images. I
would then suggest that the header record(s) be coded card images,
perhaps even with one parameter per line

NPIXEL =    512 (NUMBER OF PIXELS PER ROW)
NROWS  =    768 (NUMBER OF ROWS)
  etc.

so that the header would be self-documenting. Ron Harten sent out a
description of his ideas and I think Eric Greisen got a copy."

There is also a copy of a memo from Barry Clark (NRAO-VLA) to Bob
Burns; it is undated, but my copy says I received it from Burns on 09
March:

"I like the style of Don Wells' longhand remarks better than that of
the formal memo [IPPS#3, i.e. WIT16 with its binary header]. A single
physical block size of either 1440 or 2880 Bytes sounds to me like a
reasonable record length. Shorter is inefficient use of tape, longer
will encounter buffer problems in very small systems. I suggest the
header information shoud correspond to some reasonable standard, with
keywords being the main definition effort. I suggest as a standard for
the header that keywords be limited to six characters, be followed by
'=', ' = ', '= ' or ' =' and then by a single value. A string of
blanks would be equivalent to a single blank. Values would be in the
form for Fortran 77 list directed I/O...."

Barry included a page titled "Suggested List of Keywords", five of
which made it into the final Basic FITS Agreement: BSCALE, BUNIT,
OBJECT, HISTOR and COMENT (note that Barry proposed six character
keywords).

	--- The meeting at the VLA 26-29 March 1979 ---

There is a memo in the file from me to Steve Strom and Geoffrey
Burbidge (then Director of KPNO); the date is 8 March 1979 and the
subject is "Data Tape Interchange Format Standardization Effort": 

"One result of the January 26th NSF Image Analysis Meeting was the
conclusion that representatives of the major data acquisition and
processing sites, e.g. KPNO and NRAO, should endeavor to establish a
common data tape format so as to facilitate the communication of
digital data, particularly imagery, among astronomers. Peter Boyce
[then head of the national centers section of NSF Astronomy] appointed
Bob Burns (NRAO), Ed Groth (representing the Space Telescope), and me
to form a committee to begin the process. We have corresponded during
the past month in order to exchange ideas, particularly regarding my
provisional tape format (called WIT16) which KPNO has used to write
many of the image data tapes for visiting astronomers to take back to
their hime institutions since March 1977.

Bob Burns has now invited Ed Groth and me to join him and the VLA
programmers at the VLA on Wednesday, March 28th, to begin detailed
discussions of tape formats. Interchange of digital imagery among
astronomers is becoming common. I believe that it is important for
KPNO to encourage standardization agreements in this area, and so I am
asking for approval of this trip to Socorro on the 27th and 28th of
March." 

A note on my copy of the memo says "approved 12 March". Another page
has notes of a conversation with Bob Burns on 14 March, including this
action item: "will send NBS standards 1976, NATO format".

The travel voucher which I filed at KPNO [now NOAO] in April 1979 for
the trip is attached to the memo. Inflation has been substantial, of
course: the airfare cost only US$106. My travel expenses were $54.49,
which included a fancy meal in Albuquerque for $19.71, and one of
those incomparable steak dinners at the Eagle Ranch in Datil, New
Mexico, for only $8.46.

The negotiations began with a meeting with most of the VLA computing
staff.  Eric Greisen and I were charged with producing an agreement,
and we retired to the VLA conference room in the cafeteria building.
Luck was with us --- our personalities meshed well enough that we
could negotiate -- and progress was fast. We had the great advantage
of knowing the outcomes of the two prior protoyping experiments. We
had plenty of good advice from our colleagues (e.g. Barry Clark's
memo).  Finally, Ron Harten was present in the room with us, in
spirit, as I told him in a letter some weeks later:

"Eric and I missed you when we met at the VLA on March 27. But we had
your document from last year open on the table in front of us as we
struggled with the coordinate and brightness unit specifications. We
adopted your concept of the generalized coordinate scheme. Note that
our block size is the same as the one you preferred last year. We
think that alphanumeric keywords are much preferable to the numeric
codes that you and I used in our old schemes. The use of E-notation
for values eliminates the need for logarithms. We hope that you
approve of our efforts..."

My copy of the Basic FITS Agreement is a five-page handwritten
document dated 29 March 1979, mostly in Eric Greisen's handwriting.
About half of the memo consists of specifications for the reserved
keywords of Basic FITS. The "special records convention", which is the
basis for Random Groups and Generalized Extensions, is in my
handwriting: "The set of all records associated with an image shall be
concluded by a tapemark. Note that this does not preclude new record
types being invented in the future, except that they must occur
*after* the data array records..."

There was a final meeting on March 28 in which Eric and I presented
our Agreement to the VLA computing staff, and they commented on it.
The principal business of that final session was to choose the name; a
considerable number of people from all over the world were present,
and it was agreed that "FITS" would be reasonably pronounceable and
not obscene in any of the languages known to those present. From start
to finish the negotiation process had taken about 36 hours.

	--- Test tapes, draft of the Basic FITS paper ---

There is a cover letter from me dated 10 May 1979, and addressed to
R.Harten (Westerbork), R.Burns (NRAO-Charlottesville), R.Hjellming
(NRAO-VLA-Socorro), E.Groth (Princeton), A.Moffett (CalTech), P.Crane
(ESO-Geneva [this was before ESO moved to Garching]) and R.Talbot
(Rice):

"I have prepared this initial draft of the FITS report, as instructed
by the group at the VLA on March 28. Please examine it for
misstatements,.... Eric Greisen reports that the first tapes have been
exported from NRAO to a user at another site. At KPNO we are
constructing a program to read the first FITS tape.. sent to us by
Greisen, and we will then build a program to generate a test tape to
send back to him. I will be giving a talk about FITS at the
International Workshop on Image Processing in Astronomy, to be held at
Trieste, 4-8 June 1979."

	--- FITS became the de facto standard ---

The file contains a letter from me to Eric Greisen dated 9 July 1979:

"You have done a wonderful job on my crude first draft. I have marked
a few typos and questionable details on the copy which is enclosed.
Ron Harten had a new scheme ready for Trieste, but he dropped it as
soon as he received my first draft. I think it is likely that it will
be supported by numerous sites. There was a considerable interest in
the idea at Trieste, and I have already sent out several copies of
your draft. Our FITS reading program has been operational for more
than a month, but our writing program is not yet ready because the
programmer [Jan Schwitters, now with the GONG project at NOAO] has
gone on vacation. I hope to send you a tape by about the first week of
August."

Another letter dated 2nd August 1979 is from Denis Warne (Mount
Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories) to me: "...I have given the
proposal some consideration and would like to add Stromlo's support to
FITS as an interchange format... we have decided to modify our local
format so that the astronomical description resembles your header as
described in the attached memo..." This was a very important
endorsement, because the Australian group had invested considerable
effort in the design of their own standard format, culminating in an
11-page paper dated 29 May 1979 and titled "Standard Astronomical Data
Format.." Their sophisticated proposal included the ability to
encapsulate multiple data objects in a file object, a capability which
was added to FITS by the Generalized Extensions Agreement of 1984.
They proposed to encode ancillary information using a keyword=value
mechanism, analogous to FITS.  The final paragraph of their paper
begins with the sentence "A subset of the format will come into
operation at the Stromlo Observatory during the third quarter, 1979."

My memory is that the MSSSO-format paper immediately preceded the
presentation on FITS at the Trieste meeting. NRAO and NOAO had
software in operation (my talk included slides of NRAO radio imagery
>from the first FITS tape, photographed from KPNO's IPPS display), but
MSSSO still had only a paper proposal at that moment, and so they
joined us. It could easily have happened the other way around: they
might have implemented before us, and the astronomy community would
now be using some variation on their design.  The similarities of the
two proposals presented at the Trieste meeting made it obvious that
interchange formats were an idea whose time had come.

	--- Coincidences of Historic Events ---

Afficionados of historical trivia will want to know that *three*
famous events happened on March 28, 1979:

* Birthdate of the Basic FITS Agreement

* Conservatives win British election; Margaret Thacher new Prime
	Minister

* Nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania,
	releases radioactivity
--

Donald C. Wells             Associate Scientist        dwells at nrao.edu
National Radio Astronomy Observatory                   +1-804-296-0277
520 Edgemont Road                                 Fax= +1-804-296-0278
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-2475 USA            78:31.1W, 38:02.2N 

From pence at heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov Mon Mar 30 20:57:56 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["3456" "Mon" "30" "March" "1992" "23:27:39" "GMT" " William Pence" "pence at heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov " "<1189820 at toto.iv>" "82" "FITSIO V3.20" nil nil nil "3" "1992033023:27:39" "FITSIO V3.20" (number " " mark "      William Pence    Mar 30   82/3456  " thread-indent "\"FITSIO V3.20\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Nntp-Posting-Host: heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
From: pence at heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov ( William Pence)
Subject: FITSIO V3.20
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1992 23:27:39 GMT


                        FITSIO - Version 3.20
                           30 March 1992

This is to announce that Version 3.20 of the FITSIO package is now
available.  FITSIO provides a very powerful yet simple Fortran
subroutine interface for reading and writing FITS format files.  The
great majority of the FITSIO subroutines are written in strict ANSI
standard Fortran, and a small set of machine-specific subroutines are
also provided to use FITSIO on most commonly used computers and
workstations.  FITSIO supports the FITS ASCII and binary table
extensions as well as the proposed new IMAGE extension.

This new 3.20 Version of FITSIO contains many enhancements over the
previous release, including:

 - Support for the proposed new IMAGE extension.

 - Support for bit and byte columns in binary tables.  
   Subroutines are now provided to read or write individual bits in
   these columns.

 - New capability to  dymanically increase the size of the FITS file if more
   space is needed for new keywords.  FITSIO will also recover and re-use
   space that is freed when a keyword is deleted.  These enhancements
   now make it  practical to use FITS format files in processing 
   environments where the contents of existing FITS files need to be 
   modified.

 - Improved byte-swapping algorithm in the VAX/VMS version; it is 
   about 6 times faster than before.

 - Significantly smaller executable code size obtained by decreasing
   the size of several large common blocks.

 - Several new subroutines:

     - to read or write any contiguous rectangular subset of pixels in an
       N-dimensional FITS image.
     - to modify the value and/or comment string in an existing keyword record
     - to write the current system date into a DATE keyword in dd/mm/yy format
     - to return a descriptive text string corresponding to a given status
       error number
     - to copy  an entire extension from an input FITS file to an output file

 - Several bugs in the previous version have been identified and fixed.

 - Improved documentation and more example programs to illustrate how to
   use the FITSIO library.

This new version of FITSIO is 100% upwardly compatible with the previous
3.10 version, so existing programs should run without any modification.

The FITSIO software, documentation, and example programs are available via
anonymous ftp from:

       ftp tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov
                or
       ftp 128.183.8.77

Then type the following:

        ftp>  user anonymous
        Password:               [type your username as a password]
        ftp>  cd pub/fitsio3    [to move to the version 3 subdirectory]
        ftp>  ls                [to see a list of the available files]
        ftp>  get read.me       [contains latest information about FITSIO]
        ftp>  get fitsio.doc    [complete user documentation]
        ftp>  get ...           [get any additional desired files]
        ftp>  quit

Alternatively, the FITSIO files may be copied from following SPAN node:

   NDADSA::HEASARC:[EXOSAT.XANADU.FITS.FITSIO] 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. William Pence                 (Internet)  pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov
HEASARC                           (SPAN)      LHEAVX::PENCE
Code 668                          Telephone:  (301)286-4599
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov Tue Mar 31 22:59:55 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1496" "Tue" "31" "March" "1992" "18:50:00" "GMT" "Barry Schlesinger" "bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov " "<2770262 at toto.iv>" "35" "Re: HST images of Io" nil nil nil "3" "1992033118:50:00" "HST images of Io" (number " " mark "     Barry Schlesinger Mar 31   35/1496  " thread-indent "\"Re: HST images of Io\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Summary: Four quarters, three dimensions  
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Nntp-Posting-Host: nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
From: bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry Schlesinger)
Subject: Re: HST images of Io
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 18:50:00 GMT

In article <1992Mar31.163809.9182 at elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>, baalke at kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov writes...
 >
 >I understand that the Hubble images are in a slightly different FITS format
 >than your standard FITS image.  

I would say, rather, that they are in standard FITS format, but not 
stored as a simple two-dimensional array.

 >I don't know exactly what the difference is,
 >but the Hubble FITS seems to be split into four parts,

What is happening is that a 1600x1600 image is being split into four 
pieces and stored as an 800x800x4 array.  One can merge the four 
quarters back into the original picture if one knows how it was done.

 >and seems to be
 >taking advantage some part of the FITS standard not normally used.

This particular division in four is not common usage.  But it is not
unusual for FITS primary data arrays to be of more than two
dimensions.  For multicolor maps, one frequent approach is to make
color the third dimension. 

 >Being own of the programmers of IMDISP, I was well aware that IMDISP wouldn't 
 >display the Hubble images, though it would display other FITS images 
 >... 

I can't speak to IMDISP specifically, but many of the packages that
convert FITS arrays to pictures can't handle arrays of more than two
dimensions (NAXIS>2).  Even for those that can, the best one could
reasonably expect would be four quarter pictures, as a general package
would not recognize the particular Hubble organization.

				Barry Schlesinger
				NSSDC/NOST FITS Support Office

From uk1 at spacsun.rice.edu Tue Mar 31 23:00:31 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1216" "" "31" "March" "1992" "19:51:57" "GMT" "Paul A. Scowen" "uk1 at spacsun.rice.edu " "<156196 at toto.iv>" "27" "Re: HST images of Io" nil nil nil "3" "1992033119:51:57" "HST images of Io" (number " " mark "     Paul A. Scowen    Mar 31   27/1216  " thread-indent "\"Re: HST images of Io\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Reply-To: uk1 at spacsun.rice.edu (Paul A. Scowen)
Organization: Dept. of Space Physics, Rice University, Houston TX
From: uk1 at spacsun.rice.edu (Paul A. Scowen)
Subject: Re: HST images of Io
Date: 31 Mar 1992 19:51:57 GMT

The HST images available on the s.a.h. anonymous archive were provided by Ed 
Groth of the Princeton group, and are in GIF format.  Several viewers exist for
this type of image including xv and xloadimage.  For your info, the available
images and accompanying file are:

crsplit.ps.Z	compressed Postscript file containing a paper on Cosmic-Ray
		rejection in WFPC images, by Ed Groth at Princeton.

eta_carina.gif	public domain image of the Eta Carina Nebula (GIF format)

hstori*		public domain emission line image of the Orion Nebula, and
		accompanying documentation explaining the format of the image

jupiter.gif	public domain image of Jupiter

n1275.gif	PD image of NGC 1275

satws*		several PD images of the storm observed on the surface of Saturn
		by the Space Telescope, together with explanatory notes (.doc)

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul A. Scowen					INTERNET: uk1 at spacsun.rice.edu
Department of Space Physics & Astronomy		DECnet:   RICE::SCOWEN
Rice University, P.O. Box 1892			Tel:      (713) 527-8101 x2433
Houston, TX 77251-1892				FAX:      (713) 285-5143
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov Tue Mar 31 23:01:10 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1050" "" "31" "March" "92" "21:32:00" "GMT" "Archie Warnock" "warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov " "<532499 at toto.iv>" "17" "Re: HST images of Io" "^From:" nil nil "3" "1992033121:32:00" "HST images of Io" (number " " mark "     Archie Warnock    Mar 31   17/1050  " thread-indent "\"Re: HST images of Io\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Organization: Hughes STX - NASA/NCDS
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41
Nntp-Posting-Host: nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
From: warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Archie Warnock)
Subject: Re: HST images of Io
Date: 31 Mar 92 21:32:00 GMT

In article <1992Mar31.094131.1 at vaxr.sscl.uwo.ca>, stooke at vaxr.sscl.uwo.ca writes...
>SAOIMAGE on a DECstation.  The other images, one a 'fake' and the other two
>the HST images after reconstruction, could not be displayed in either
>IMDISP or SAOIMAGE.  Can anybody who has looked at these images indicate
>to me how I might be able to display them?  Thanks....

Mystery apparently solved via E-mail.  Phil tells me that the other 
images have BITPIX=-32, indicating they are floating point data, under 
the IEEE agreement.  IMDISP doesn't do floating point images - at least, 
not yet.  We're working on a (hopefully) rational approach to scaling 
them down to 8-bit integers for display, particularly in the absence of 
scale factors in the header.  Any suggestions?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Archie Warnock                     Internet:  warnock at nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
-- Hughes STX                         SPAN:      NSSDC::WARNOCK
-- NASA/GSFC                          "Hail To The Redskins!"

From warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov Tue Mar 31 23:01:44 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["869" "Tue" "31" "March" "1992" "17:46:00" "GMT" "Archie Warnock" "warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov " "<1620142 at toto.iv>" "14" "Re: FITS read and write on PC" nil nil nil "3" "1992033117:46:00" "FITS read and write on PC" (number " " mark "     Archie Warnock    Mar 31   14/869   " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS read and write on PC\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Nntp-Posting-Host: nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
Organization: Hughes STX - NASA/NCDS
Distribution: sci.astro.fits
From: warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Archie Warnock)
Subject: Re: FITS read and write on PC
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 17:46:00 GMT

In article <1992Mar28.214443.28076 at csun.edu>, swalton at aurora.csun.edu (Stephen Walton) writes...
>Get a copy of PCVISTA.  It is a complete, small, FITS-based image processing
>package for PC's from UC Berkeley.  Not sure of the current cost;  you can

Unless the I/O has been extensively modified from the version documented 
in PASP, it's hardly complete.  It has/had a number of restrictions on 
the types of data it handled, the keywords present in the header and the 
names of the files it would access.  It does, however, include an 
impressive number of image processing functions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Archie Warnock                     Internet:  warnock at nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
-- Hughes STX                         SPAN:      NSSDC::WARNOCK
-- NASA/GSFC                          "Hail To The Redskins!"

From dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu Thu Mar  5 07:38:31 1992
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["20574" "Thu" "5" "March" "1992" "05:59:57" "GMT" "Don Wells" "dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu " nil "356" "RESULT:  sci.astro.fits passes 311:14" "^From:" nil nil "3" nil nil nil nil]
	nil)
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,sci.astro,sci.space,alt.sci.astro.fits,sci.astro.hubble
Followup-To: news.groups
Nntp-Posting-Host: cs.rpi.edu
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA.
From: dwells at azalea.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells)
Subject: RESULT:  sci.astro.fits passes 311:14
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1992 05:59:57 GMT

Name:	sci.astro.fits

Status:	Unmoderated

Charter:

  This newsgroup will provide a forum for the discussion of all topics
  concerning the FITS [Flexible Image Transport System] data format.
  The newsgroup will be interfaced to the Email exploder
  fitsbits at fits.cx.nrao.edu so that traffic originating on either the
  newsgroup on the exploder will be automatically transmitted to the
  other. This new newsgroup will replace existing newsgroup
  alt.sci.astro.fits.  

Reference Entry:

  sci.astro.fits	Issues related to FITS [Flexible Image Transport System]

This newsgroup received 311 YES votes and 14 NO votes during the
voting period (11 February to 23:59_EST 02 March 1992). As the excess
of YES votes over NO votes was more than 100, and more than 2/3 of the
votes were YES, this newsgroup should be created.

The following 311 people voted YES:
                                    adelmans at citadel.bitnet
                                    anderson at atnf.csiro.au
                                    anw at anwsun.phya.utoledo.edu
                                    bob at ipac.caltech.edu
                                    bpirenne at eso.org
                                    bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
                                    c1796 at slvaxa.umsl.edu
                                    cbiemes at noao.edu
                                    cguirao at eso.org
                                    chipman at grossc.gsfc.nasa.gov
                                    collierm at astro.byu.edu
                                    colorado at stars.gsfc.nasa.gov
                                    davidsen at crdos1.crd.ge.com
                                    dreher at bkyast.berkeley.edu
                                    ed at astro.umd.edu
                                    fitz at noao.edu
                                    fmurtagh at eso.org
                                    francois at simbad.u-strasbg.fr
                                    gondwana at athena.mit.edu
                                    hmadorf at eso.org
                                    howard at ssl.msfc.nasa.gov
                                    jjk at astro.umd.edu
                                    jlovell at physvax.phys.utas.edu.au
                                    jmcgaha at pimacc.pima.edu
                                    joycemr%cfa8.decnet at harvard.harvard.edu
                                    ke at laban.uu.se
                                    kemper at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
                                    marschal at cc.gettysburg.edu
                                    mary at jach.hawaii.edu
                                    mh563x1d at ducvax.auburn.edu
                                    m_hayden at pluto.cc.gettysburg.edu
                                    nafia at chimay.cma.fr
                                    neff at stars.gsfc.nasa.gov
                                    ovdluhe at eso.org
                                    pdierckx at eso.org
                                    pgrosbol at eso.org
                                    phys218 at csc.canterbury.ac.nz
                                    pshuang at athena.mit.edu
                                    pwb at isaac.phys.unsw.oz.au
                                    ralbrech at eso.org
                                    repalmer at oread.cc.ukans.edu
                                    rhook at eso.org
                                    rick at ipac.caltech.edu
                                    sysevm%nsrvan.uucp%clark.uucp at clark.edu
                                    varsik at suncub.bbso.caltech.edu
                                    w3whw at scfmvs.bitnet
                                    weiland at aruba.gsfc.nasa.gov
                                    whb at hoh-2.att.com
                                    wls at astro.umd.edu
              Lenny Abbey           labbey at gtri01.gatech.edu
              Steve Abrams          abrams%cfa0 at harvard.harvard.edu
              David Adler           dadler at negra.aoc.nrao.edu
              Moani Akana           akana at cfht.hawaii.edu
             Miguel Albrecht        malbrech at eso.org
            Michael Albrow          phys170 at csc.canterbury.ac.nz
              Steve Allen           sla at helios.ucsc.edu
              Scott Allendorf       sca at space.physics.uiowa.edu
              Shaun Amy             samy at atnf.csiro.au
           Keith M. Andress         andress at igor.siemens.com
              Keith Arnaud          kaa at rosserv.gsfc.nasa.gov
              Carlo Baffa           baffa at arcetri.astro.it
              Bruce Balick          balick at tahoma.phys.washington.edu
                Tom Bania           bania at buast4.bu.edu
            Timothy Banks           bankst at kauri.vuw.ac.nz
              Klaus Banse           kbanse at eso.org
          Jeannette Barnes          jbarnes at noao.edu
               dave barrett         dbb at riscy.nyo.dec.com
               Paul Bartholdi       bartho at scsun.unige.ch
              Fritz Benedict        fritz at dorrit.as.utexas.edu
               Mark Birkinshaw      mb1%cfarg2.decnet at harvard.harvard.edu
               Jeff Bloch           103283 at sstdp1.lanl.gov
                Uwe Bonnes          bon at lte.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de
       Michael Eric Boschat         andromed at atm.dal.ca
     Jeffrey Oliver Breen           job at cfa236.harvard.edu
             Daniel Briggs          dbriggs at zia.aoc.nrao.edu
        Lawrence E. Brown           elwin at gamma.phys.clemson.edu
                Liz Bryson          bryson at cfht.hawaii.edu
             Markus Buchhorn        markus at merlin.anu.edu.au
               Mike Buckles         buckles at cfht.hawaii.edu
           Sinclair Budd            cmaae50 at cc.ic.ac.uk
              Frank Bull            bull%pyrrus.uucp at noao.edu
           Dave Van Buren           dave at tapir.caltech.edu
                Ann Burgess         aburgess at atnf.csiro.au
                Bob Burns           bburns at polaris.cv.nrao.edu
             Howard Bushouse        bushouse at iuegtc.dnet.nasa.gov
               Mark Calabretta      mcalabre at macabre.cv.nrao.edu
              Hulya CalIskan        jk017 at triuvm11.bitnet
               Bill Carson          brighton%phuket.uucp%pixar.uucp at next.com
              Carol Christian       carolc at ssl.berkeley.edu
              Chris Churchill       starglob at helios.ucsc.edu
              Chris Clark           chris at cfht.hawaii.edu
               Rick Coates          rick at ateq.com
            Bruce C Cogan           bcc900 at cscgpo.anu.edu.au
             Judith Cohen           jlc at deimos.caltech.edu
                Jim Cole            jimc at 3cpu.rain.com
               Mike Collins         mcollins at phx.mcd.mot.com
            Mark E. Cornell         cornell at puck.as.utexas.edu
               Bill Cotton          bcotton at gorilla.cv.nrao.edu
               Carl Covatto         ccovatto at jupiter.nmt.edu
             Dennis Crabtree        crabtree at dao.nrc.ca
         Malcolm J. Currie          cur at starlink.rutherford.ac.uk
           Chris J. Davis           chris at airdata.socal.com
               Mike Davis           davis at naic.edu
            Lindsey Davis           davis at noao.edu
            Carl A. Dobson          cad at ssl.berkeley.edu
                Art Dong            atos at cac.washington.edu
          Elwood C. Downey          e_downey at hwking.cca.cr.rockwell.com
              Frank Drake           drake at dragon.ulowell.edu
              Chris Dudley          dudley at galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu
                    Dying           vesper%luna.decnet at indiana.edu
                Ron Ekers           rekers at atnf.csiro.au
               Rick Ellis           rick at ofa123.fidonet.org
           Albrecht Ernst           ernst at infpav4.kfk.de
                Ian Evans           evans at fos.stsci.edu
             Martin Ewing           ewing-martin at cs.yale.edu
              Allen Farris          farris at stsci.edu
            Eric D. Feigelson       edf at astro.psu.edu
               Tony Ferro           tony at quasar.la.asu.edu
              david fisher          fish at helios.ucsc.edu
              Chris Flatters        cflatter at greystoke.cv.nrao.edu
             Murray Forbes          forbesmc at matai.vuw.ac.nz
            Thierry Forveille       forveill at gag.observ-gr.fr
                Per Friberg         friberg at jach.hawaii.edu
          Priscilla Frisch          frisch at galadriel.uchicago.edu
              Terry Gaetz           gaetz at julian.uwo.ca
                Bob Garwood         bgarwood at sngldsh.cv.nrao.edu
              FRANK GHIGO           fghigo at lodestar.gb.nrao.edu
                    Gilligan        pcp2g at karma.astro.virginia.edu
              Frank Giovane         fgiovane at nhqvax.dnet.nasa.gov
               John Glaspey         glaspey at cfht.hawaii.edu
              Brian Glendenning     bglenden at colobus.cv.nrao.edu
              Orhan GOKCOL          ucgokcol at tritu.bitnet
             Daniel Golombek        golombek at stsci.edu
           James P. Goltz           frost at helix.nih.gov
              Steve Grandi          grandi at noao.edu
             Andrew Gray            agray at atnf.csiro.au
           James T. Green           jgreen at nike.calpoly.edu
               Eric Greisen         egreisen at polaris.cv.nrao.edu
              Gerry Grieve          grieve at geop.ubc.ca
             Gaston Groisman        gaston at cpsc.ucalgary.ca
          Edward J. Groth           groth at pupgg.princeton.edu
                Bob Hanisch         hanisch at stsci.edu
              Wendy Harrison        harrison at cfht.hawaii.edu
              Booth Hartley         booth at ipac.caltech.edu
               Jeff Hayes           hayes at stsci.edu
               Greg Hennessy        gsh7w at fermi.clas.virginia.edu
               Tony Hewitt          hewitt at aslpet.med.ge.com
             Coleen Hickman         hickman at cfht.hawaii.edu
               Mike Hicks           hicksm at lpl.arizona.edu
          ROBERT S. HILL            bhill at stars.gsfc.nasa.gov
                Tom Hocking         starman at unc.bitnet
               Phil Hodge           hodge at stsci.edu
           Bradford Holden          holden at helios.ucsc.edu
               John Horne           horne at cfht.hawaii.edu
            Julie A Hovencamp       zbsy at cornellc.cit.cornell.edu
             Victor Hughes          hughesv at qucdn.queensu.ca
            Stephen Hulbert         hulbert at stsci.edu
             Gareth Hunt            ghunt at nrao.edu
         Dr. Albert Hybl            hybl at umbc4.umbc.edu
            Takashi Isobe           ti at space.mit.edu
           Peter D. Jackson         jackson at cobecl.dnet.nasa.gov
             Markku Jaeaeskelaeinen t89mja at lucifer.tdb.uu.se
               Dave Jenner          davej at phast.phys.washington.edu
               Diab Jerius          dj at pelf.harvard.edu
             Justin Jonas           phjj at ruchem.ru.ac.za
             Dean C Josephson       dean at cfht.hawaii.edu
            Joel C. Justen          joel%crpi.uucp at uunet.uu.net
            Sheldon Kay             shelly at iscnvx.lmsc.lockheed.com
          Markus G. Kempf           kempf at rhrk.uni-kl.de
               John Kerr            john at cfht.hawaii.edu
                Bob Kibrick         kibrick at helios.ucsc.edu
              james kiley           jkiley at andy.bgsu.edu
             Edward King            eking at herca.jpl.nasa.gov
             N PAUL KUIN            kuin at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
                Tom Kuiper          kuiper at kuiper.jpl.nasa.gov
            Krishna Kunchithapadam  krisna at cs.wisc.edu
              Lukas Labhardt        labhardt at urz.unibas.ch
           Francois Lacoursiere     d353426 at uqam.bitnet
               Glen Langston        glangsto at saips.cv.nrao.edu
MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER LAPAGLIA        m953618 at mcdonald.nadn.navy.mil
           Robin C. LaPasha         ruslan%ecsvax.uucp at uncecs.edu
            Charles Lawrence        crl at eccles.caltech.edu
               D.A. Leahy           leahy at iras.ucalgary.ca
             Zoltan Levay           levay at stsci.edu
               Paul Leyland         pcl at oxford.ac.uk
               Greg Lindahl         gl8f at fermi.clas.virginia.edu
              Peter Linde           peter at astro.lu.se
                Bob Link            link at cfht.hawaii.edu
         Joseph St. Lucas           stlucas at gdwest.gd.com
               Lars Lundahl         lundahl at oso.chalmers.se
            William Lupton          william at keck.hawaii.edu
               Dyer Lytle           lytle at noao.edu
             Barney Magrath         magrath at cfht.hawaii.edu
             nakano makoto          mnakano at oita-cc.cc.oita-u.ac.jp
               Eric Mandel          eric at cfa242.harvard.edu
              Ralph Marson          rmarson at rp.csiro.au
             George Martin          gmartin at zia.aoc.nrao.edu
               Mark McCaughrean     mjm at as.arizona.edu
               Rick McGonegal       mcgonegr at noao.edu
            Stephen Meatheringham   sjm at merlin.anu.edu.au
              David Mehringer       dmehring at zia.aoc.nrao.edu
                Tom Metcalf         metcalf at maile.ifa.hawaii.edu
                Ken Mighell         mighell at merlin.anu.edu.au
          Eugene F. Milone          milone at acs.ucalgary.ca
             Stefan Mochnacki       stefan at vela.astro.utoronto.ca
              David Moffett         dpm at cs.purdue.edu
             Luis E Montenegro      luis at sci.ccny.cuny.edu
     Christopher B. Moore           cmoore at alioth.mit.edu
        Christopher Mullins         cfm2h at fulton.seas.virginia.edu
              J. R. Munoz_Peiro     jmunoz at estsaa.dnet.nasa.gov
            KAYLENE MURDOCH         phys166 at csc.canterbury.ac.nz
                Dan Murphy          dpm at dtalk.cwa.com
                Pat Murphy          pmurphy at nrao.edu
              Steve Murray          ssm at cfa244.harvard.edu
             Robert Mutel           rlm at sunlight.physics.uiowa.edu
         Matthew J. Nelson          nelson at larry.sal.wisc.edu
               Mike Newberry        newberry at as.arizona.edu
               Dave Newman          daven at notable.com
         Patrick L. Nolan           pln at egret1.stanford.edu
                Ray Norris          rnorris at atnf.csiro.au
            Michael Olberg          olberg at oso.chalmers.se
              Nancy Oliversen       noliversen at iuegtc.dnet.nasa.gov
            Eric C. Olson           ericco at ssl.berkeley.edu
              Bruce Oneel           oneel at arupa.gsfc.nasa.gov
           Patricio Ortiz           ortiz at vela.astro.utoronto.ca
               Paul Palmer          palmerp at math.orst.edu
           Aliza R. Panitz          buglady at silver.lcs.mit.edu
              Scott Paswaters       paswater at pele.colorado.edu
              Harry Payne           payne at stsci.edu
                Tim Pearson         tjp at eccles.caltech.edu
         Jeffrey A. Pedelty         pedelty at jansky.gsfc.nasa.gov
            William Pence           pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov
          George D. Phillies        phillies at wpi.wpi.edu
           The Daft Pict            mclean at shadow.stsci.edu
                Joe Plassmann       joep at asgard.lpl.arizona.edu
        Jose Daniel Ponz            jdp at vilspa.dnet.nasa.gov
               Tony Putman          tonyp at ucthpx.uct.ac.za
              Ernst Raimond         exr at nfra.nl
              Kavan Ratnatunga      kavan at merlin.anu.edu.au
              Somak Raychaudhury    somak at cfa203.harvard.edu
               Gail Reichert        reichert at rosgip.gsfc.nasa.gov
          Mike "IR" Ressler         ressler at galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu
              Brian Reynolds        reynolds at fsg.com
         GUENTER R. RIEGLER         griegler at nasamail.nasa.gov
P. von Ballmos-E. del Rio           pvb at cix.cict.fr
            Greg N. Roberts         roberts at orion.arc.nasa.gov
            Andreas Roemer          andi at comet.gold.sub.org
              Chris Rogers          crogers at drao.nrc.ca
              Steve Rooke           rooke at noao.edu
             Arnold Rots            arots at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov
             Robert Rutledge        rutledge at space.mit.edu
             Gustaf Rydbeck         gustaf at oso.chalmers.se
               Skip Schaller        skip at as.arizona.edu
              ERWIN SCHMERLING      eschmerling at nasamail.nasa.gov
            Juergen Schmidt         p137jsm at mpirbn.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
            Paul A. Scowen          uk1 at spacsun.rice.edu
                Rob Seaman          seaman at noao.edu
               Ajai Sehgal          ajai at sce.carleton.ca
              Nigel Sharp           sharp at vela.tuc.noao.edu
          Nishimura Shiro           rnishim at c1.mtk.nao.ac.jp
               Dave Shone           dshone at nrao.edu
             Steinn Sigurdsson      steinly at topaz.ucsc.edu
             Michal Simon           msimon at ccmail.sunysb.edu
           Jhs John Simonetti       jhs at astro.phys.vt.edu
              Bobby Song            song at cfht.hawaii.edu
           Ignatios Souvatzis       souva at 28.808.dnet.nasa.gov
          Robert W. Spiker          rws3n at astsun9.astro.virginia.edu
               Ralf Stephan         hagbard at ark.abg.sub.org
            Carolyn Stern           stern at jasra.harvard.edu
           Peter B. Stetson         stetson at dao.nrc.ca
               Mark Stevens         stevens at stsci.edu
             Thomas Stingl          stingl at gate.fzi.de
              Cliff Stoll           stoll at ocf.berkeley.edu
               Jose Suarez          suarez at as.arizona.edu
              Denis Sullivan        sullivan at emf.vuw.ac.nz
              Ralph Sutherland      ralph at merlin.anu.edu.au
              Peter Teuben          teuben at astro.umd.edu
            William Thompson        thompson at serts.gsfc.nasa.gov
               Rich Thomson         rthomson at dsd.es.com
         Michael H. Tipping         greywolf at vesta.unm.edu
               Doug Tody            tody at noao.edu
             Tanabe Toshihiko       ltanabe at c1.mtk.nao.ac.jp
               Dean Tucker          tucker at helios.ucsc.edu
              Tasso Tzioumis        atzioumi at atnf.csiro.au
              Frank Valdes          valdes at noao.edu
               Dirk Valk            dirk at spacsun.rice.edu
                Tas van.Ommen       tas at tasman.cc.utas.edu.au
    Any noun can be verbed          warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
             Edward Vielmetti       emv at msen.com
           WOLFGANG VOGES           whv at mpe.dnet.nasa.gov
               P.T. Wallace         ptw at starlink.rutherford.ac.uk
            Stephen Walton          swalton at solaria.csun.edu
               Alan Watson          alan at uwast.astro.wisc.edu
          George M. Weaver          weaver at astro.psu.edu
                Don Wells           dwells at fits.cx.nrao.edu
               Mark Wieringa        mwiering at atnf.csiro.au
                Dan Wilcox          wilcox at cfht.hawaii.edu
               Tony Willis          twillis at drao.nrc.ca
        Christopher Willmer         cnaw at helios.ucsc.edu
                rob woiccak         rewoicc at erenj.bitnet
              Donna Womble          womble at cass05.dnet.nasa.gov
                 Al Wootten         awootten at polaris.cv.nrao.edu
              Diana Worrall         dmw at cfa246.harvard.edu
                Guy Worthey         worthey at helios.ucsc.edu
                Jim Wright          jwright at cfht.hawaii.edu
            Ryan J. Wyatt           rjw at regulus.rice.edu
               Bill Wyatt           wyatt at cfa214.harvard.edu
              Peter Yee             yee at spectre.arc.nasa.gov
                 A. Young           ayoung at eso.org
             Nelson Zarate          nelson at stsci.edu
            Yun Fei Zhang           zhang at buast0.bu.edu

The following 14 people voted NO:
                                    snielsen at computer-science.strathclyde.ac.uk
           James C. Barrett         barrett at cc.gatech.edu
                    BI08000         bi08 at utep.bitnet
               P.J. Boulay          pjb4288 at ultb.isc.rit.edu
           Paulo da Costa           dacosta at prl.philips.nl
              Helge Hauglin         helgeha at ifi.uio.no
             Roland Kaltefleiter    kaltef at theo-physik.uni-kiel.dbp.de
              Brian Kenney          kenney at hsi86.hsi.com
            Quincey Koziol          koziol at ncsa.uiuc.edu
                 Ed McGuire         emcguire at ccad.uiowa.edu
              a. m. rushton         rushton at stsci.edu
            Dave V. Schaller        schaller at hsi86.hsi.com
            Paul J. Schinder        schinder at leprss.gsfc.nasa.gov
                    SNEERINGER      acs97393 at zach.fit.edu
-- 
Donald C. Wells             Associate Scientist        dwells at nrao.edu
National Radio Astronomy Observatory                   +1-804-296-0277
520 Edgemont Road                                 Fax= +1-804-296-0278
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-2475 USA            78:31.1W, 38:02.2N