From fitsbits-request  Thu Jan  4 15:15:41 1996
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	["2804" "Wed" "3" "January" "1996" "23:43:41" "-0700" "Jeff Bloch" "jbloch at alexis" "<Pine.SUN.3.91.960103231327.15449A-100000 at alexis>" "57" "Exposure info for event lists from scanning instruments" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996010406:43:41" "Exposure info for event lists from scanning instruments" (number " " mark "     Jeff Bloch        Jan  3   57/2804  " thread-indent "\"Exposure info for event lists from scanning instruments\"\n") nil]
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From: Jeff Bloch <jbloch at alexis>
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: Exposure info for event lists from scanning instruments
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 23:43:41 -0700


The concern I am addressing in this posting is related to high energy
astrophysics experiments operating in a scanning or wide-field monitoring
mode, although this same issue might arise when storing data for scanning
instruments at other wavelengths as well. 

It is straightforward to store under the current OGIP FITS conventions 
event list data from a scanning instrument. Examples of such types of 
datasets would be the EUVE and ROSAT XRT and WFC surveys. Our ALEXIS 
experiment is always in a scanning mode.

In such scanning experiments, effective exposure on a given location on
the sky changes rapidly as a function of time and position due to
vignetting and other instrumental effects. 

If one stores the event data from a sky survey experiment as photon lists,
then in order to generate rate information for an arbitrary source location
from such data one must know how to compute the exposure for that 
location in addition to selecting photons from that location.

Often, custom programs must be invoked to take into account the effects 
of deadtime, vignetting and other effects to compute the exposure. The 
OGIP memos seem to be slanted to encoding this information for one 
location on the sky in the context of pointed observations.

To recover exposure info for wide area monitoring or survey experiments, 
I would like to raise the idea of having "Exposure Token Lists" in 
parallel with the photon event lists. Each exposure token in such lists 
would have the properties of position on the sky, effective exposure per 
a fixed real time interval, and an area around the position for which 
they are valid.

In order to compute a light curve from a dataset consisting of a photon 
event list and a exposure token list, one would first select events in 
the photon list that were within a specified radius of the source 
position and then bin those events in time to get counts per real time 
interval. Then one would select exposure tokens that were nearest the 
source location and add the effective exposure increment value for each 
token in the appropriate real time bin. One would then divide the counts 
time bin array by the effective exposure time bin array to get a 
corrected count rate light curve.

If this proves to be a useful formulation, should a standard exposure 
token FITS file (looking very similar to event lists) be developed?



--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey Bloch					Office:    (505) 665-2568
Astrophysics and Radiation Measurements Group	ALEXIS SOC:(505) 665-5975
Los Alamos National Laboratory			FAX:	   (505) 665-4414
Group NIS-2, Mail Stop D436			e-mail:	   jbloch at lanl.gov
Los Alamos, NM 87545				pager:     104-8005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------



From fitsbits-request  Thu Jan  4 21:29:21 1996
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	["608" "" "4" "January" "1996" "10:07:43" "GMT" "Guy Rixon" "gtr at ast.cam.ac.uk" "<4cg8tf$84e at lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>" "14" "Describing irregular coordinates" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996010410:07:43" "Describing irregular coordinates" (number " " mark "     Guy Rixon         Jan  4   14/608   " thread-indent "\"Describing irregular coordinates\"\n") nil]
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content-length: 606
From: Guy Rixon <gtr at ast.cam.ac.uk>
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: Describing irregular coordinates
Date: 4 Jan 1996 10:07:43 GMT

How does one record an irregular axis-calibration in FITS?

I'm interested in the case of a time-series of 2D images stored as a cube.  The
reduction software wants to retrieve the calibration of the time axis from the
FITS file, but the calibration isn't linear.  In fact, it isn't necessarily
describable by any function, as the time between frames may vary randomly at a
level higher than the timing accuracy.

Clearly, one needs to record a time for each plane of the cube.  Is there any
`standard' way to do this?  Are there ways that are neater than using header
keywords TIME1, TIME2, .. , TIMEn ?



From fitsbits-request  Fri Jan  5 05:41:53 1996
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	["4234" "" "4" "January" "1996" "16:40:05" "GMT" "Brian Glendenning" "bglenden at colobus.aoc.nrao.edu" "<BGLENDEN.96Jan4094006 at colobus.aoc.nrao.edu>" "108" "FITS C++ classes" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996010416:40:05" "FITS C++ classes" (number " " mark "     Brian Glendenning Jan  4  108/4234  " thread-indent "\"FITS C++ classes\"\n") nil]
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Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
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From: bglenden at colobus.aoc.nrao.edu (Brian Glendenning)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: FITS C++ classes
Date: 04 Jan 1996 16:40:05 GMT


The AIPS++ project has released another version of its FITS classes in
C++. The only major changes are the the classes now compile with the
Sun native compiler (version 4.1), and some additional documentation
is available. Further information is available in the enclosed README:

        Brian Glendenning - National Radio Astronomy Observatory
bglenden at nrao.edu              Socorro NM               (505) 835-7347
----------cut----------cut----------cut----------cut----------cut----------ouch!
			 AIPS++ FITS Classes

There has been some interest on the part of various groups in
obtaining the C++ FITS classes which have been developed for the
AIPS++ project by Allen Farris of the Space Telescope Science
Institute. These classes deal with all the usual FITS types - Primary
Array, Image Extension, Binary Tables, ASCII tables, and Random
Groups.

It needs to be emphasized that the classes are presently very poorly
documented. However, since they are useful we are releasing them on an
informal basis. They will be released with improved documentation at a
later time.

0. Contacting us

Send any bug reports, comments, requests for features, porting notes,
etc. to aips2-bugs at nrao.edu.

1. Location

The master distribution location is in the directory:
	  ftp://aips2.nrao.edu/pub/aips++/RELEASED/fits/

We anticipate that it will be cached at other FITS repositories. In
particular, it is also found at:
          ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/src/

FITS information in general may be found at http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/

2. Installation

The make system used internally to the AIPS++ project is quite
involved. A very simple set of makefiles are supplied here.
	o Retrieve and unpack the distribution
        o Choose the makefiles that are closest to your compiler. Versions
          are available for CFront and Sun native compilers. Link or copy the
          template Makefile.something to Makefile in each directory and edit
	  as necessary.
	o cd aips; make       # makes lib/libaips.a - mostly a Complex class
	o cd FITS; make       # adds FITS classes to libaips.a
        o cd test; make       # makes bin/tfits[1-5]; some small test and
                              # sample programs

Making the sample programs will also cause template instantiations to be
placed in a library for faster linking.

It will work "right out of the box" for CFront 3.0.1+ based compilers under
Solaris 2. The code also compiles under AIX with IBM's xlC compiler, and under
IRIX with the SGI native compiler. It has been compiled on PC's with Borland
in the past, but we haven't done this recently. It compiles with Sun's native
compiler, version 4.1 (available in early 1996), but not with earlier versions
of that compiler.  We are very interested in any experience you might have
porting these classes, and will endeavor to get such changes into the
mainline code.

"make distclean" from the top (aips) directory should clean out all generated
files, **including the linked or copied makefiles**.

3. Use

A more formal release will have better tutorial and reference
documentation. Until then, there is some documentation in the headers,
particularly hdu.h, and the test programs show by example how to use them.

tfits1 - Parse a FITS file
tfits2 - Create a primary array and image extension
tfits3 - Create a random groups file
tfits4 - Create a binary table
tfits5 - Convert an ASCII table to a binary table

The "doc" directory has a paper by the author in which he outlines the general
structure of the classes.

4. Known bugs and deficiencies
	o Random access is not available
        o The classes presently do not work from tape drives.
        o Null values in ASCII tables are not handled.

5. Copyright

The code is under the GNU library license. See the file aips/COPYING
for details.

6. Version

The software in these classes corresponds to AIPS++ internal distribution
5.166 (9DEC95).

7. The future.

A new version of these classes should be available in the first half of 1996
with better documentation and new features. In particular, random access will
be supported.
-- 
        Brian Glendenning - National Radio Astronomy Observatory
bglenden at nrao.edu              Socorro NM               (505) 835-7347


From fitsbits-request  Fri Jan  5 09:25:50 1996
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1928" "Fri" "5" "January" "1996" "09:24:27" "-0500" "Arnold Rots" "arots at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<199601051424.JAA25666 at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "44" "Re: Describing irregular coordinates" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996010514:24:27" "Describing irregular coordinates" (number " " mark "     Arnold Rots       Jan  5   44/1928  " thread-indent "\"Re: Describing irregular coordinates\"\n") "<4cg8tf$84e at lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>"]
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In-Reply-To: <4cg8tf$84e at lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk> from "Guy Rixon" at Jan 4, 96 10:07:43 am
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24beta]
Content-Type: text
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From: Arnold Rots <arots at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: gtr at ast.cam.ac.uk (Guy Rixon)
Cc: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: Re: Describing irregular coordinates
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 09:24:27 -0500 (EST)

> 
> How does one record an irregular axis-calibration in FITS?
> 
> I'm interested in the case of a time-series of 2D images stored as a cube.  The
> reduction software wants to retrieve the calibration of the time axis from the
> FITS file, but the calibration isn't linear.  In fact, it isn't necessarily
> describable by any function, as the time between frames may vary randomly at a
> level higher than the timing accuracy.
> 
> Clearly, one needs to record a time for each plane of the cube.  Is there any
> `standard' way to do this?  Are there ways that are neater than using header
> keywords TIME1, TIME2, .. , TIMEn ?
> 
> 

This is analogous to a problem we had in specifying axis coordinates
in XTE binary tables, using multi-dimensional vector cells.

[Our general solution for specifying those coordinates, as you may
recall from an earlier post, was to use the "Cxxxxiii" keywords
defined for primary extensions (such as CRVAL999) and modify them to
"iCxxxnnn"; nnn is the column number here, the maximum number of coordinate
axes is restricted to 9, and "xxxx" has one character taken out.]

For irregularly spaced data we invented the keyword "iCPIXnnn" which
value is a string containing comma-separated values.  [There are some
other conventions in the syntax of this keyword, too, such as the use
of the tilde to indicate ranges: "0~4,5,6,7~255" would indicate four
coordinate values, the first covering the range 0 through 4, then 5,
then 6, and finally the range 7 through 255; needless to say that we
are dealing with histograms, here.]

It isn't necessarily pretty, but it's simple and very general.  We do
use the "long string convention" outlined in an earlier post, since
obviously 68 characters aren't always enough.

Anyway, this could be adapted to primary array use, doing the inverse
of what's described above: introduce a keyword "CPIXLiii".

Would this solve your problem?

  - Arnold Rots


From fitsbits-request  Sat Jan  6 00:27:28 1996
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	["3640" "" "5" "January" "1996" "19:50:50" "GMT" "Steve Allen" "sla at umbra.ucolick.org" "<4cjveq$nem at darkstar.UCSC.EDU>" "81" "more WCS Draft issues" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996010519:50:50" "more WCS Draft issues" (number " " mark "     Steve Allen       Jan  5   81/3640  " thread-indent "\"more WCS Draft issues\"\n") nil]
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Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
content-length: 3638
From: sla at umbra.ucolick.org (Steve Allen)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: more WCS Draft issues
Date: 5 Jan 1996 19:50:50 GMT

Last October Arnold Rots (arots at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov) started a
discussion about the WCS Draft proposal for a new keyword MJD-OBS and
the requirement that it be specified in TAI.

In article <9510260727.AA04917 at grus.rp.CSIRO.AU>
Mark Calabretta (mcalabre at atnf.CSIRO.AU) wrote:

> In the context of section 3, MJD-OBS is provided as a timestamp for the
> observation as a whole, in particular for the calculation of proper motion in
> maps taken at two epochs.

In the context of section 3 the MJD-OBS keyword is required to do two
different tasks.  First of all it is used to replace the century-bound
DATE-OBS keyword in specifying the time of the observation.  This
establishes the epoch for proper motion.  However MJD-OBS is required
simultaneously to specify the epoch at which RADECSYS = 'GAPPT ' is
valid.  This is overloading the meaning of MJD-OBS in a fashion that
may not be desirable.

Might it be better to require that when RADECSYS = 'GAPPT ' there be
an additional keyword MJD-WCS ?  MJD-WCS could supply the "of date"
value implicit in "Geocentric, Apparent, Of Date".  Since most
coordinate systems vary rather slowly it would not be a problem to
require that MJD-WCS be specified as TAI.  Extrapolations into the
pre-atomic-clock age could be done simply and to all necessary
accuracy using a constant offset from Ephemeris Time and/or tablulated
deviations of UT.

The WCS Draft states that it does not address coordinates such as
time.  MJD-WCS would allow the coordinate system epoch to be detangled
from the observation time.  It would also allow the issues of a
permanent replacement for DATE-OBS to be delayed pending greater
agreement on issues raised by Arnold Rots.

Two (mostly) new issues:

1) Topocentric, Apparent, Of Date Coordinates

In various software scenarios (those of automated fiber or slit
positioning for multiple object spectrographs) I find it useful to
write out a star catalog in "Topocentric, Apparent, Of-Date"
coordinates.  This means that, in addition to the annual terms found
in GAPPT, diurnal aberration, diurnal parallax, and atmospheric
refraction have been added.  If RADECSYS = 'TAPPT' were added to the
list of possible frames it would have to be accompanied by additional
keywords for HA, observatory location, and observed wavelength.

Is there significant demand for software to need to distinguish
this particular type of coordinate system in a standard fashion?
Would refracted and non-refracted versions be desired?

2) Non-coaxial distortions

The WCS Draft provides for a large range of azimuthal projections.
Unfortunately the real world of optics almost always produces images
which have more complicated coordinate systems.

The equations for describing the distortion caused by corrector plates
can be found in, e.g.:
Murray, MNRAS 154, 429 (1971)
Herbig & Jones, AJ 86(8), 1232 (1981)

In these treatments there is a radial polynomial distortion caused by
the corrector plate which is not assumed to be coaxial with the
tangent plane projection.  There are other instances where a camera
with distortion is decidedly not aimed coaxially on a telescope with
distortion.

Do these scenarios happen often enough that a formal specification
describing their WCS would be desirable?

This issue looks sufficiently complicated that it should not delay
publication of the WCS draft.  The results can be added later as
additional types of CTYPEn projections.

--
Steve Allen          UCO/Lick Observatory       Santa Cruz, CA 95064
sla at ucolick.org      Voice: +1 408 459 3046     FAX: +1 408 454 9863
WWW: http://www.ucolick.org/~sla                PGP public keys:  see WWW


From fitsbits-request  Tue Jan  9 14:01:30 1996
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["2921" "Tue" "9" "January" "1996" "13:59:39" "-0500" "Arnold Rots" "arots at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<199601091859.NAA27867 at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "67" "Re: more WCS Draft issues" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996010918:59:39" "more WCS Draft issues" (number " " mark "     Arnold Rots       Jan  9   67/2921  " thread-indent "\"Re: more WCS Draft issues\"\n") "<4cjveq$nem at darkstar.UCSC.EDU>"]
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In-Reply-To: <4cjveq$nem at darkstar.UCSC.EDU> from "Steve Allen" at Jan 5, 96 07:50:50 pm
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Content-Type: text
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From: Arnold Rots <arots at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: sla at umbra.ucolick.org (Steve Allen)
Cc: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: Re: more WCS Draft issues
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 13:59:39 -0500 (EST)

Steve Allen wrote:

> 
> Last October Arnold Rots (arots at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov) started a
> discussion about the WCS Draft proposal for a new keyword MJD-OBS and
> the requirement that it be specified in TAI.
> 
> In article <9510260727.AA04917 at grus.rp.CSIRO.AU>
> Mark Calabretta (mcalabre at atnf.CSIRO.AU) wrote:
> 
> > In the context of section 3, MJD-OBS is provided as a timestamp for the
> > observation as a whole, in particular for the calculation of proper motion in
> > maps taken at two epochs.
> 
> In the context of section 3 the MJD-OBS keyword is required to do two
> different tasks.  First of all it is used to replace the century-bound
> DATE-OBS keyword in specifying the time of the observation.  This
> establishes the epoch for proper motion.  However MJD-OBS is required
> simultaneously to specify the epoch at which RADECSYS = 'GAPPT ' is
> valid.  This is overloading the meaning of MJD-OBS in a fashion that
> may not be desirable.
> 
> Might it be better to require that when RADECSYS = 'GAPPT ' there be
> an additional keyword MJD-WCS ?  MJD-WCS could supply the "of date"
> value implicit in "Geocentric, Apparent, Of Date".  Since most
> coordinate systems vary rather slowly it would not be a problem to
> require that MJD-WCS be specified as TAI.  Extrapolations into the
> pre-atomic-clock age could be done simply and to all necessary
> accuracy using a constant offset from Ephemeris Time and/or tablulated
> deviations of UT.
> 

I do like MJD-WCS, if only because it expresses more clearly what it's
for.

I am still uncomfortable with the implied-TAI requirement; for two reasons.

1. It formally invalidates many existing FITS files which are UTC-based.
Granted, it doesn't make much difference for the coordinates, but that
argument can also be turned around: why insist that it _has_ to be TAI
when it really doesn't matter?

2. Considering the emphasis on its use for coordinate epochs, it would
seem more logical to assume that the time is given in ET (or its successor
TT).

In trying to come up with a standard that serves the entire astronomical
community as best as possible, with a minimum of assumptions, and minimal
restrictions on what we may want to decide on time conventions in the
future, I would like to propose the following:

a. The time system to be used for interpreting MJD-OBS (and/or MJD-WCS)
should be specified by the keyword TIMESYS that can have at least these
legal values: TAI (since 1956), UTC, ET (prior to 1977), TDT (1977-1991),
TT (since 1977).

b. If TIMESYS is absent, the time system used is formally unknown.  One
may assume in this situation that it does not matter which of the systems
mentioned under (a) is used.  The user is free to use whatever (s)he
likes, but it is suggested that ET/TT would be the logical choice.  Prior
to 1977 ET should be used; between 1977 and 1992, TDT would be considered
synonymous with TT.


  - Arnold Rots


From fitsbits-request  Thu Jan 11 05:08:09 1996
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	["765" "" "10" "January" "1996" "00:25:00" "GMT" "Sky Coyote" "sky at intergalact.com" "<4cv10s$c7a at shellx.best.com>" "23" "FITS files and wavelets for PowerMac?" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996011000:25:00" "FITS files and wavelets for PowerMac?" (number " " mark "     Sky Coyote        Jan 10   23/765   " thread-indent "\"FITS files and wavelets for PowerMac?\"\n") nil]
	nil)
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Organization: Intergalactic Reality
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Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
content-length: 763
From: Sky Coyote <sky at intergalact.com>
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: FITS files and wavelets for PowerMac?
Date: 10 Jan 1996 00:25:00 GMT

I'm doing some market research, and am curious as to whether anyone 
would be interested in the following software:

  * A wavelet analysis package which can read and write very large 
    (100 - 1000 Mb) FITS files, and is native-compiled for the Power 
    Macintosh.

Comments?  Please respond via email.

Thanks very much,

--Sky

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Sky Coyote                 Scientific data analysis and visualization.
Intergalactic Reality           WWW and CGI site creation and support.
sky at intergalact.com                   Contracted programming services.
http://www.intergalact.com/sky.html              (C) Sky Coyote, 1996.
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *




From fitsbits-request  Sat Jan 13 02:01:51 1996
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	["1320" "" "12" "January" "1996" "00:36:38" "GMT" "Steve Allen" "sla at umbra.ucolick.org" "<4d4aem$doq at darkstar.UCSC.EDU>" "27" "Re: more WCS Draft issues" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996011200:36:38" "more WCS Draft issues" (number " " mark "     Steve Allen       Jan 12   27/1320  " thread-indent "\"Re: more WCS Draft issues\"\n") "<199601091859.NAA27867 at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov>"]
	nil)
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References: <199601091859.NAA27867 at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
content-length: 1318
From: sla at umbra.ucolick.org (Steve Allen)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: Re: more WCS Draft issues
Date: 12 Jan 1996 00:36:38 GMT

Last week in article <4cjveq$nem at darkstar.UCSC.EDU> I noted that
the proposed MJD-OBS keyword is required to perform more than one task.
I suggested adding a keyword like MJD-WCS to alleviate the duplicity.

I did not mention that this idea comes from looking at the application
of the WCS draft to FITS tables containing catalogs of objects.
For a catalog constructed from many observations the keyword MJD-OBS
becomes confusing.  MJD-WCS much more clearly describes the intent
of the catalog maker, and it seems equally appropriate as a WCS keyword
in FITS images.

In the context of one instrument at Lick Observatory (MOS) I have a
specification of the implementation of catalogs which are to be stored
as extension HDUs along with the primary image HDU.  This can be seen
as http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/mos/dataprod.html

--
Steve Allen          UCO/Lick Observatory       Santa Cruz, CA 95064
sla at ucolick.org      Voice: +1 408 459 3046     FAX: +1 408 454 9863
WWW: http://www.ucolick.org/~sla                PGP public keys:  see WWW
Santa Cruz -- home of Unix since 1995           It's a girl!
--
Steve Allen          UCO/Lick Observatory       Santa Cruz, CA 95064
sla at ucolick.org      Voice: +1 408 459 3046     FAX: +1 408 454 9863
WWW: http://www.ucolick.org/~sla                PGP public keys:  see WWW


From fitsbits-request  Sat Jan 13 11:15:50 1996
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["328" "Fri" "12" "January" "1996" "15:40:21" "-0600" "Xinjian Lu" "xlu at ncsa.uiuc.edu" "<30F6D545.1943 at ncsa.uiuc.edu>" "16" "FITS Browser web page" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996011221:40:21" "FITS Browser web page" (number " " mark "     Xinjian Lu        Jan 12   16/328   " thread-indent "\"FITS Browser web page\"\n") nil]
	nil)
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Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits,sci.data.formats
content-length: 326
From: Xinjian Lu <xlu at ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: FITS Browser web page
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 1996 15:40:21 -0600

The NCSA HDF group has set up a FITS Browser web page at:
          http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu:4321/fits/

This page contains:

  . The features of the FITS Browser.
  . Installation
  . How to use the FITS Browser.
  . Downloading
  . Test files

If interested please check it out and have a try!

-xinjian (xlu at ncsa.uiuc.edu)


From fitsbits-request  Mon Jan 15 16:00:35 1996
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["2643" "" "15" "January" "1996" "21:00:26" "GMT" "Bill Cotton" "bcotton at nrao.edu" "<DWELLS.96Jan15160026 at fits.cv.nrao.edu>" "66" "A Family of FITS viewers for Windows, Apple, X-Windows" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996011521:00:26" "A Family of FITS viewers for Windows, Apple, X-Windows" (number " " mark "     Bill Cotton       Jan 15   66/2643  " thread-indent "\"A Family of FITS viewers for Windows, Apple, X-Windows\"\n") nil]
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From: bcotton at nrao.edu (Bill Cotton)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: A Family of FITS viewers for Windows, Apple, X-Windows
Date: 15 Jan 1996 21:00:26 GMT


         A Family of FITS viewers for Windows, Apple, X-Windows
			   January 15, 1996

   This is to announce the availability of a family of FITS viewers
for a variety of computing platforms.   These viewers feature
manipulation of the display (brightness, contrast, pseudo color), zoom
and scroll, blinking images for comparison, displaying 3-D images as a
"movie", and determining the celestial position and brightness of
features in the image.  Celestial positions are determined using world
coordinate projections (WCS).  All defined FITS data types are
supported (8, 16, 32 bit integers and 32 and 64 bit IEEE), as are
blanked pixels.  Two and three dimensional simple FITS images are
supported.  In addition, gzip compressed files may be read directly.
The MS-Windows version (FITSview) has been in use since 1994.
Extensive online documentation is included.  

   The FITSview family includes the following products:

FITSview 1.0

   FITSview runs on Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 and uses any multicolor
(or multiple gray level) display although 256 color displays give the best
results.  This is an upgrade of the previous release. 

MacFITSView 1.0

   MacFITSview runs on Apple Macintosh computers and should run under
System 7.0 and later.  256 color displays give the best results.

XFITSview 0.1 (beta)

   XFITSview runs on Unix/X-Windows systems and requires the use of
Motif.  This version is distributed as source with binaries for
selected systems. 


   All of these are available at no cost via anonymous ftp server
fits.cv.nrao.edu:

 FITSview for Windows:
    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/os-support/ms-windows/
    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/os-support/ms-windows/fitsv10.txt
    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/os-support/ms-windows/fitsv10.zip

 MacFITSview:
    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/os-support/mac-os/macfitsview
    The executable for the Power PC is MacFITSview.PPC and for older
    Macs is MacFITSview.68k.  Test FITS files are also included.
    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/os-support/mac-os/macfitsview.MacFITSview.PPC
    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/os-support/mac-os/macfitsview.MacFITSview.68K

 XFITSview:
    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/os-support/unix/xfitsview/
    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/os-support/unix/xfitsview/XFITSview0.1.tar.gz
    This gzipped tar archive contains the source for building XFITSview.

bcotton at nrao.edu

--
  Donald C. Wells         Associate Scientist         dwells at nrao.edu
                    http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/~dwells
  National Radio Astronomy Observatory                +1-804-296-0277
  520 Edgemont Road,   Charlottesville, Virginia       22903-2475 USA


From fitsbits-request  Sun Jan 21 18:29:24 1996
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["469" "" "21" "January" "1996" "22:25:37" "GMT" "Eric J. Ostrander" "ejo at pha.jhu.edu" "<4dueh1$c38 at news.jhu.edu>" "17" "Re: FITS Browser web page" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996012122:25:37" "FITS Browser web page" (number " " mark "     Eric J. Ostrander Jan 21   17/469   " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS Browser web page\"\n") "<30F6D545.1943 at ncsa.uiuc.edu>"]
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Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits,sci.data.formats
content-length: 467
From: ejo at pha.jhu.edu (Eric J. Ostrander)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: Re: FITS Browser web page
Date: 21 Jan 1996 22:25:37 GMT

Dear sci.data.formats readers,

  Does anyone out there know how to convert .fit format
to .ps format non-interactively?  Ultimately, is there
a way to print a .fit format image on my printer?  I'm
running SunOS4.1.3

Thank you for your time. 

                           Eric J. Ostrander
                           ejo at mds.pha.jhu.edu
                           JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
                           PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
                           



From fitsbits-request  Mon Jan 22 18:52:08 1996
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["727" "Mon" "22" "January" "1996" "14:54:14" "+0000" "Andy Loan" "aloan at ast.cam.ac.uk" "<3103A516.72C0 at ast.cam.ac.uk>" "18" "Re: FITS Browser web page" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996012214:54:14" "FITS Browser web page" (number " " mark "     Andy Loan         Jan 22   18/727   " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS Browser web page\"\n") "<4dueh1$c38 at news.jhu.edu>"]
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Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits,sci.data.formats
content-length: 725
From: Andy Loan <aloan at ast.cam.ac.uk>
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: Re: FITS Browser web page
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 14:54:14 +0000

>   Does anyone out there know how to convert .fit format
> to .ps format non-interactively?  Ultimately, is there
> a way to print a .fit format image on my printer?  I'm
> running SunOS4.1.3

You could try 'fitstopgm' followed by 'pnmtops' assuming you have the
relevant commands available. 

I have not actually tried this, and I have no idea whether the results 
will look any good. If you are worried about how good the results look, 
you should probably use a proper interactive graphics package, like IDL.

-- 
+-----Andy Loan (aloan at ast.cam.ac.uk)---tel: +44 1223 337502-------+
+  Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HA, UK  |
+------<a href="http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~aloan/">me</a>-----------+


From fitsbits-request  Tue Jan 23 03:11:26 1996
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["447" "Tue" "23" "January" "1996" "09:15:54" "+0100" "Lucio Chiappetti" "lucio at ifctr.mi.cnr.it" "<Pine.3.89.9601230930.A15158-0100000 at poseidon.ifctr.mi.cnr.it>" "15" "Re: FITS Browser web page" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996012308:15:54" "FITS Browser web page" (number " " mark "     Lucio Chiappetti  Jan 23   15/447   " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS Browser web page\"\n") "<3103A516.72C0 at ast.cam.ac.uk>"]
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content-length: 445
From: Lucio Chiappetti <lucio at ifctr.mi.cnr.it>
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: Re: FITS Browser web page
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 09:15:54 +0100 (MET)

On Mon, 22 Jan 1996, Andy Loan wrote in reply to ???? asking :

> >   Does anyone out there know how to convert .fit format
> > to .ps format non-interactively?  Ultimately, is there
> > a way to print a .fit format image on my printer?  I'm
> > running SunOS4.1.3
> 
> You could try [...]
> you should probably use a proper interactive graphics package, like IDL.

  Any common astronomical package like ESO MIDAS or NOAO IRAF will do
  that.



From fitsbits-request  Tue Jan 23 12:03:37 1996
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1891" "" "22" "January" "1996" "21:01:23" "-0700" "Mike Fitzpatrick" "fitz at noao.edu" "<4e1mij$58s at tucana.tuc.noao.edu>" "37" "Re: FITS Browser web page" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996012304:01:23" "FITS Browser web page" (number " " mark "     Mike Fitzpatrick  Jan 22   37/1891  " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS Browser web page\"\n") "<3103A516.72C0 at ast.cam.ac.uk>"]
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Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits,sci.data.formats
content-length: 1889
From: fitz at noao.edu (Mike Fitzpatrick)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: Re: FITS Browser web page
Date: 22 Jan 1996 21:01:23 -0700

From article <3103A516.72C0 at ast.cam.ac.uk>, by Andy Loan <aloan at ast.cam.ac.uk>:
>>   Does anyone out there know how to convert .fit format
>> to .ps format non-interactively?  Ultimately, is there
>> a way to print a .fit format image on my printer?  I'm
>> running SunOS4.1.3
> 
> You could try 'fitstopgm' followed by 'pnmtops' assuming you have the
> relevant commands available. 
> 
> I have not actually tried this, and I have no idea whether the results 
> will look any good. If you are worried about how good the results look, 
> you should probably use a proper interactive graphics package, like IDL.

    You actually have a little more control if you also use the other
filters in PBMplus to do the color quantization, gamma correction, scaling,
etc.  Still you may have to crank out a few before you get something you're
happy with.
    For a single task have a look at the 'convert' program in ImageMagick,
it handles simple FITS, PS, PS Level II, and lots more.  There are also 
options to quantize, scale, blur, etc.
    For a "proper" package my personal favorite is the EXPORT task in IRAF
(in the IMCNV external package, ftp://iraf.noao.edu/iraf/extern/imcnv.tar.Z).
IRAF V2.11 will contain a FITS image kernel so you can operate on the FITS
files directly (a preliminary FITS kernel is available from STScI now),
but for now it's still easy to convert to IRAF format first.  EXPORT has 
an expression parameter that allows you to compute an optimal 8-bit inten-
sity scale without looking at the image first, mosaic multiple images 
onto a single page, combine frames to form a pseudocolor image, apply 
any arithmetic function, or any combination of these.  A number of formats
besides EPS are also supported.  Contact iraf at noao.edu for more information.
    As for printing, once you get the PS file just use 'lpr'....

Mike Fitzpatrick
NOAO/IRAF Group
fitz at noao.edu


From fitsbits-request  Tue Jan 23 22:36:42 1996
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["6260" "" "23" "January" "1996" "15:58" "EDT" "Barry M. Schlesinger" "bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<23JAN199615583377 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "177" "Sources of FITS Information" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996012319:58:00" "Sources of FITS Information" (number " " mark "     Barry M. Schlesin Jan 23  177/6260  " thread-indent "\"Sources of FITS Information\"\n") nil]
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Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits,sci.answers,news.answers
content-length: 6258
From: bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry M. Schlesinger)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: Sources of FITS Information
Date: 23 Jan 1996 15:58 EDT


Archive-name: astronomy/fits/info-sources
Last-modified: 1996/01/23


--------
		Sources of FITS Information 

Preface 	

This material on sources of Flexible Image Transport System (FITS)
information is posted and updated periodically by the FITS Support
Office at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).  It discusses
where general FITS information, including some answers to frequently
asked questions, can be found, and provides sources for detailed
information on FITS software and documentation. 

-------

FITS Support Office

The FITS Support Office maintains a library of FITS information
accessible from http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/astro.fits/fits_home.html or
ftp://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/fits/.  The material available includes

o	"Definition of FITS," a codification of FITS for the 
	NASA/Science Office of Standards and Technology (NOST),
	available in LaTeX, uncompressed PostScript, compressed 
	PostScript and (usually) ASCII text
	(The ASCII text version may not be available for a short 
	while after the announcement of a new version.)

o	"A User's Guide to FITS", published by the FITS Support Office, 
	in LaTex, and compressed and uncompressed PostScript 

o	Revisions to version 1.0 of the "Definition of FITS" covering the
	specification of units, that were incorporated 
	into version 1.1 (text)

o	A current list of the extension type (structure) names
	registered with the International Astronomical Union FITS
	Working Group (IAUFWG) (text)

o	Rules for physical blocking on various media adopted by
	the IAUFWG (text)  

In the same directory, but accessible directly via 
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/astro/fits/basics_info.html is the FITS
Basics and Information that used to be regularly posted to
sci.astro.fits and sci.data.formats under the heading of FITS Basics
and Information.  It continues to be revised to reflect current FITS
developments.  It contains the following material: 

o	An overview of FITS

o	A list of FITS documents  

o	A list of software packages that support FITS, 
		including FITS-image converters for various platforms

o	A list of on-line FITS resources

o	A description of the FITS Support Office 

The hypertext version provides links to many of the documents, 
software, and network locations listed.  The text version provides 
information on how to obtain much of this material.

There is also a hypertext version of the List of Registered 
Extensions.

Links from the Web page and subdirectories of the ftp directory 
contain
	
o	Software developed by the FITS Support Office.  

o	Error test files, primary HDUs useful for testing the ability
	of software designed to read FITS files to cope with files that 
	have errors or are non-standard.  These files should be 
	downloaded in binary form.

Printed copies of the material in the FITS directory can be obtained
from the Coordinated Request and User Support Office (CRUSO):  

(Postal) Coordinated Request and User Support Office
         Code 633
	 National Space Science Data Center
	 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
	 Greenbelt MD 20771 USA

(Electronic mail) request at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov

(Telephone)  +1-301-286-6695 8:00 A. M. - 4:30 P.M. U. S. Eastern Time
(-0500 from the last Sunday in October through the first Saturday in
April; -0400 the remainder of the year) 
	When no one is available, messages can be left on voice mail. 
(FAX) +1-301-286-1635

-------

National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)

A FITS Archive can be found at URL http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/ or 
at ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits, located at NRAO.  This machine supports a
WAIS server named nrao-fits which has an index of all of the
FITS-related text files in the archive; the file nrao-fits.src is
available at think.com and at
ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/wais-sources/nrao-fits.src.  

Some of the more noteworthy materials in this archive are 

o	Drafts of proposed additions to the FITS standard and other 
	drafts that may in the future be formally proposed

o	Text of any detailed proposals currently being discussed by 
	the FITS committees

o	A collection of documents on World Coordinate Systems, 
	including the current draft proposal

o	Conventions specific to particular projects or disciplines

o	Software packages for display of FITS images on Windows, 
	Macintosh, and Unix/X-Windows

o 	Other code for various environments and Usenet postings about
	code 

o	Sample data and special test files designed to measure the
        ability of a FITS reader to handle a wide variety of FITS files

o	Archives of traffic on FITS-related newsgroups and exploders

-------

HEASARC
	The NASA/Goddard High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive
Research Center (HEASARC) Web server at 
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/fits.html 
and the anonymous ftp access through
ftp://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_info/ provide FITS material.  HEASARC
has developed a the FITSIO package of software routines for easily
reading and writing FITS files, in FORtRAN with a C interface
available, portable to a wide variety of machines.  There is also the
FTOOLS collection of software tools and the VERIFITS FITS conformance
verifier. HEASARC software is available directly through
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/tech_res_software.html or
ftp://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_info/software/ .

The HEASARC server also provides information from the OGIP/HEASARC
FITS Working Group, (HFWG) the internal legislative body on
FITS-related matters within the Office of Guest Investigator Programs
(OGIP) at NASA/GSFC, at
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/heasarc/ofwg/ofwg_intro.html or
ftp://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_info/ . The HFWG has developed a
number of FITS conventions that are more specific than the
requirements of the FITS standards. Proposed conventions are
publicized to the FITS community as a whole, with the goal of
collaborative development of a set of conventions that will be
accepted throughout the community as well as within OGIP/HEASARC. 

-------

Direct questions about this posting to 
				Barry M. Schlesinger
				Coordinator,
				FITS Support Office

Electronic mail: fits at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
Telephone:       +1-301-441-4205		

The FITS Support Office is operated under the guidance of the
NASA/GSFC Astrophysics Data Facility.




From fitsbits-request  Sat Jan 27 15:30:19 1996
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	["311" "" "27" "January" "1996" "20:12:46" "GMT" "Immanuel Freedman" "immanuel at mother.com" "<4ee0vu$8jg at tucana.tuc.noao.edu>" "18" "Draft FITS Data Compression Proposal" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1996012720:12:46" "Draft FITS Data Compression Proposal" (number " " mark "     Immanuel Freedman Jan 27   18/311   " thread-indent "\"Draft FITS Data Compression Proposal\"\n") nil]
	nil)
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From: "Dr. Immanuel Freedman" <immanuel at mother.com>
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Subject: Draft FITS Data Compression Proposal
Date: 27 Jan 1996 20:12:46 GMT

Hi!

This is just to state that I am preparing a *draft* proposal for FITS Data

Compression along the lines discussed at ADASS V.  Please feel free to email or

post any appropriate professional comments.

Thanks,

Dr. Immanuel Freedman
8677 Villa La Jolla drive, S. 1119
La Jolla, CA 92037

(619) 642 1837