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	["5232" "Mon" " 1" "August" "1994" "15:26:20" "-0400" "William Pence" "pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<199408011926.PAA20800 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "93" "OGIP Long String Keywords" "^From:" nil nil "8" "1994080119:26:20" "OGIP Long String Keywords" (number " " mark "     William Pence     Aug  1   93/5232  " thread-indent "\"OGIP Long String Keywords\"\n") nil]
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Subject: OGIP Long String Keywords
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 15:26:20 -0400

          The OGIP Long String Keyword Convention

The OGIP FITS Working Group met recently to decide how to handle long
string keyword values in FITS files.  We urgently need such a
convention for our soon to be launched mission, so given that there is
currently no consensus within the FITS community on a standard way to
deal with this problem, we have adopted a local FITS convention for use
within our own processing environment.  Since this is not yet an agreed
upon standard, we will not use this convention for any keywords that we
would expect any external software systems would need to read or
interpret.

The following example illustrates the convention that we have adopted:

BIGSTRNG= 'This is a long string value that is continued &' / Any comments
CONTINUE  'over three keywords in the&   '                 / may be appended
CONTINUE  ' FITS header.'                           / after the quoted value.

The '&' character is used as the last non-blank character of the string
to indicate that the string is (probably) continued on the following
keyword (if the next keyword name = 'CONTINUE' as described below).  We
adopted the '&' character instead of the '\' that had been previously
proposed because of Barry Schlesinger's observation that the '\' is one
of the 10 'National Use' positions which may not be interpreted as the
same symbol by all nationalities.  Also, some Fortran compilers treat
the '\' character in a non-standard way making it difficult to write
machine-independent code that uses this character.  The '&'  seems to
be a reasonable alternative, especially since it is used as a
continuation character in Fortran 90.

Each continuation line has the keyword name = 'CONTINUE'.  We adopted
this keyword name, rather than the previous suggestion of an all blank
keyword name, in order to provide an unambiguous way of identifying any
continuation keywords even if they get separated from their parent
keyword, and to try to avoid conflicts with other FITS software that
may treat keywords with an all-blank name in a unique or special way.
Since there is no equal sign in column 9, this keyword belongs to the
same class of keywords as the COMMENT and HISTORY keywords that do not
have a defined value.   Under our convention the continuation of the
character string value is enclosed in quotes starting in column 11 (or
higher) of the 80-character record.  Any other characters (e.g. a
comment field) may optionally follow the closing quote character on any
or all of the keywords.

We also considered, but decided against, implementing a convention that
would explicitly link together all the keywords so that the correct
continuation sequence could be reconstructed even if the order of the
keywords in the header were rearranged. (Several such schemes were
suggested here on FITSBITS in the past month).  Since there is even
less consensus on the best way to implement such a scheme, or if it is
even needed, we decided to simply rely on the physical order of the
keywords in the header, which meets our own needs.  (We did confirm
with Barry Schlesinger that this reliance on the order of the keywords
in the header does conform to the FITS Standard and hence is legal to
use in a local FITS convention).  If the FITS community later decides
that a full forward and backward keyword linking capability is required
to make this convention acceptable as a Standard FITS convention, then
this can in principle be added with only minor modifications to our
convention.

Finally, we plan to add the following keywords in the header of any
FITS extension  that uses this long string convention (the exact
wording may change slightly):

LONGSTRN= 'OGIP 1.0'           / The OGIP long string convention may be used.
COMMENT   This FITS file may contain long string keyword values that are
COMMENT   continued over multiple keywords.  This convention uses the  '&'
COMMENT   character at the end of a string which is then continued
COMMENT   on subsequent keywords whose name = 'CONTINUE'.

The presence of the LONGSTRN keyword serves to indicate that long
string keywords may be present in the FITS file.  The value of this
keyword gives the name and version number of the specific convention
that is used, which in our case is the OGIP long string convention,
version 1.0.  Note that the value of this keyword is a string so that
it may be used to give the name of any other convention that the FITS
community might eventually adopt.

Support for this long string convention will be built into the next
release of the FITSIO library for anyone else who may wish to
experiment with using it.  The FITSIO routines that read or delete
string keywords will transparently support this convention, but the
string keyword writing subroutines will not, by default, write strings
longer than will fit on a single keyword.  FITSIO programmers will have
to invoke a special FITSIO subroutine to write these long strings, to
prevent unsuspecting users or programmers from creating these long
string keywords unintentionally.  Details on this will be provided in
the next version of the FITSIO library  which is due to be released in
the next month.

                             - The OGIP FITS Working Group

From fitsbits-request  Thu Aug  4 19:10:41 1994
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	["4706" "" " 4" "August" "1994" "11:52" "EDT" "BARRY M. SCHLESINGER" "bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<4AUG199411522920 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "91" "Re: OGIP Long String Keywords" "^From:" nil nil "8" "1994080415:52:00" "OGIP Long String Keywords" (number " " mark "     BARRY M. SCHLESIN Aug  4   91/4706  " thread-indent "\"Re: OGIP Long String Keywords\"\n") "<199408011926.PAA20800 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov>"]
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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: Re: OGIP Long String Keywords
Date: 4 Aug 1994 11:52 EDT

In article <199408011926.PAA20800 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov>, William Pence <pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> writes...
>          The OGIP Long String Keyword Convention
> 
>The OGIP FITS Working Group ....
>We urgently need such a convention ... given that there is
>currently no consensus within the FITS community on ... 
>this problem, we have adopted a local FITS convention .... 
>Since this is not yet an agreed
>upon standard, we will not use this convention for any keywords that we
>would expect any external software systems would need to read or
>interpret.
> 
>The following example illustrates the convention that we have adopted:
> 
>BIGSTRNG= 'This is a long string value that is continued &' / Any comments
>CONTINUE  'over three keywords in the&   '                 / may be appended
>CONTINUE  ' FITS header.'                           / after the quoted value.
> 
>The '&' character is used as the last non-blank character of the string
>to indicate that the string is (probably) continued on the following
>keyword (if the next keyword name = 'CONTINUE' as described below)....  
> 
>Each continuation line has the keyword name = 'CONTINUE'.  We adopted
>this keyword name... 
>in order to provide an unambiguous way of identifying any
>continuation keywords even if they get separated from their parent
>keyword, and to try to avoid conflicts with other FITS software that
>may treat keywords with an all-blank name in a unique or special way.
>Since there is no equal sign in column 9, this keyword belongs to the
>same class of keywords as the COMMENT and HISTORY keywords that do not
>have a defined value.... 
> 
>We also considered, but decided against, implementing a convention that
>would explicitly link together all the keywords so that the correct
>continuation sequence could be reconstructed even if the order of the
>keywords in the header were rearranged....  Since there is even
>less consensus on the best way to implement such a scheme, or if it is
>even needed, we decided to simply rely on the physical order of the
>keywords in the header, which meets our own needs.  (We did confirm
>with Barry Schlesinger that this reliance on the order of the keywords
>in the header does conform to the FITS Standard and hence is legal to
>use in a local FITS convention).  

I want to be sure that what I said is interpreted with the proper
connotation.  What OGIP plans is not a violation of the rules of FITS.
I would say that it is analogous to the use of a local extension, one
that conforms to the rules of the Generalized Extensions paper and
whose name is properly registered with the IAU Working Group.  The
presence of such a FITS file will not prevent an properly written FITS
reader from reading the primary HDU and standard extensions on such a
file. It will be able to skip the unknown extension using the size 
information in the header.  But if the unknown extension contains 
information important to the scientific interpretation of the 
remainder of the file, then the readers will have difficulty in using 
the data they can read.  So the file will have failed in that sense in 
transporting information, the primary purpose of FITS.  For that 
reason, it is not wise to use local extensions, and by conventions, in 
data sets designed primarily for transport, and, by extensions, 
archival.

>Finally, we plan to add the following keywords in the header of any
>FITS extension  that uses this long string convention (the exact
>wording may change slightly):
> 
>LONGSTRN= 'OGIP 1.0'           / The OGIP long string convention may be used.
>COMMENT   This FITS file may contain long string keyword values that are
>COMMENT   continued over multiple keywords.  This convention uses the  '&'
>COMMENT   character at the end of a string which is then continued
>COMMENT   on subsequent keywords whose name = 'CONTINUE'.
> 
>The presence of the LONGSTRN keyword serves to indicate that long
>string keywords may be present in the FITS file.  The value of this
>keyword gives the name and version number of the specific convention
>that is used, which in our case is the OGIP long string convention,
>version 1.0.  

In this context, we should recall some comments from the Generalized 
Extensions paper (Grosbol et al. 1988, Astron. Ap. Suppl., 73,359.

"Implementors of FITS writing programs should alsways be aware of the  
 limitations of recipients.  The primary objective of the FITS standard  
 remains the reliable, unambiguous transmission of data to recipients. 
 Esoteric, complex data structures should be avoided as much as  
 possible.  The watchword of the implementor should be: keep it 
 simple."

				Barry Schlesinger
				NOST FITS Support Office 

From fitsbits-request  Fri Aug  5 16:56:36 1994
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	["305" "" " 4" "August" "1994" "10:06:00" "-0400" "Steve Rimmer" "alchemy at accesspt.north.net" "<31qsk8$ma4 at accesspt.north.net>" "12" "FITS Files" "^From:" nil nil "8" "1994080414:06:00" "FITS Files" (number " " mark "     Steve Rimmer      Aug  4   12/305   " thread-indent "\"FITS Files\"\n") nil]
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From: alchemy at accesspt.north.net (Steve Rimmer)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: FITS Files
Date: 4 Aug 1994 10:06:00 -0400

Hi...

We do a graphic manipulation and conversion package called Graphic
Workshop. We've been asked to include FITS files in it. Can anyone suggest
where we could find a description of how FITS files work, some sample
images and perhaps some example code to read and write 'em?

Thanks

- Steve Rimmer

From fitsbits-request  Fri Aug  5 18:08:13 1994
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	["648" "" " 5" "August" "1994" "08:59" "EDT" "BARRY M. SCHLESINGER" "bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<5AUG199408590195 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "17" "Re: FITS Files" "^From:" nil nil "8" "1994080512:59:00" "FITS Files" (number " " mark "     BARRY M. SCHLESIN Aug  5   17/648   " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS Files\"\n") "<31qsk8$ma4 at accesspt.north.net>"]
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References: <31qsk8$ma4 at accesspt.north.net>
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: Re: FITS Files
Date: 5 Aug 1994 08:59 EDT

In article <31qsk8$ma4 at accesspt.north.net>, alchemy at accesspt.north.net (Steve Rimmer) writes...
> 
>Can anyone suggest
>where we could find a description of how FITS files work, some sample
>images and perhaps some example code to read and write 'em?
> 
The contents of the FITS basics and information posting are available 
by anonymous ftp from nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov, directory fits, file 
BASICS_INFO.TXT (VAX, case not significant).  It provides information 
on FITS documentation, some of which is available in the same 
directory, sources of sample files, and sources of 
software.

				Barry Schlesinger 
				NSSDC/NOST FITS Support Office

From fitsbits-request  Sat Aug  6 10:07:13 1994
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	["1181" "Sat" " 6" "August" "1994" "16:13:22" "+0200" "Lucio Chiappetti" "lucio at ifctr.mi.cnr.it" "<Pine.3.89.9408061608.A21925-0100000 at poseidon.ifctr.mi.cnr.it>" "29" "Re: Units in FITS and the NOST Document" "^From:" nil nil "8" "1994080614:13:22" "Units in FITS and the NOST Document" (number " " mark "     Lucio Chiappetti  Aug  6   29/1181  " thread-indent "\"Re: Units in FITS and the NOST Document\"\n") "<9407211950.AA08937 at primate.cv.nrao.edu>"]
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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: Units in FITS and the NOST Document
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 1994 16:13:22 +0200 (MET DST)

On Thu, 21 Jul 1994, Eric Greisen wrote:

  [...]
> 	FITS was designed with the philosophy that data transport
> reliability is enhanced if the number of options describing a data set
> are kept to a reasonable minimum.  This "Occam's razor" philosophy was
> applied, for example, in the choice of only 3 binary formats

  [...]
> anticipate all possible combinations of the allowed parameters.  In
> effect, a fully general standard is no standard at all.
> 
> 	The important point is that data communication will fail if
> the format allows so many combinations that they cannot be reasonably
> anticipated IN ADVANCE.  If a proposed standard is too general, data

  [...]
> 
> 
  IM (very) HO,  I agree !!!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Lucio Chiappetti - IFCTR/CNR     | Ma te' vugl' da' quost avis a ti' Orsign  
via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano  | Buttet rabios intant te se' pisnign       
Internet: LUCIO at IFCTR.MI.CNR.IT  |                                           
Decnet:   IFCTR::LUCIO           |             (Rabisch, II 46, 119-120)     
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

From fitsbits-request  Mon Aug 15 10:51:13 1994
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	["274" "" "15" "August" "1994" "14:35:56" "GMT" "Eric Heim" "eheim at hamlet.umd.edu" "<32nugc$8bs at umd5.umd.edu>" "14" "Image processing software" "^From:" nil nil "8" "1994081514:35:56" "Image processing software" (number " " mark "     Eric Heim         Aug 15   14/274   " thread-indent "\"Image processing software\"\n") nil]
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Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
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From: eheim at hamlet.umd.edu (Eric Heim)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Image processing software
Date: 15 Aug 1994 14:35:56 GMT

Can anyone suggest some image processing software that does photometry but
does NOT require a math coprocessor?

Preferably, it would work with FITS files.  May be either mac or PC based

email if possible to eheim at umd5.umd.edu

Eric Heim
Dundalk HS
Baltimore, MD 21222

From fitsbits-request  Mon Aug 15 18:01:34 1994
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	["1943" "Mon" "15" "August" "1994" "18:01:29" "-0400" "William Pence" "pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<199408152201.SAA10942 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "45" "A new release of FTOOLS" "^From:" nil nil "8" "1994081522:01:29" "A new release of FTOOLS" (number " " mark "     William Pence     Aug 15   45/1943  " thread-indent "\"A new release of FTOOLS\"\n") nil]
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Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Cc: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov
Subject: A new release of FTOOLS
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 18:01:29 -0400

                  FTOOLS Version 3.0 

A new version of the FTOOLS package of programs to manipulate FITS
files is now available.  There are now well over 100 tasks in this
package that perform many different operations on FITS format files.
With this release, users now have the option to build only the "core"
set of FTOOLS that perform generic operations on FITS files, or the
entire set of FTOOLS that includes more specialized tasks for X-ray and
Gamma-ray data analysis.  One new general purpose task available with
this release is called FVERIFY, that will read any FITS file and verify
whether it conforms to the FITS format standard.

As before FTOOLS may be built either as a set of stand-alone executable
programs, or as a package of tasks under IRAF.

How:    Anonymous FTP from legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov
Where:  software/ftools/release/ directory
What:  
        *** FTOOLS Source Code ***
        ftools.all.v3.0.tar.Z  -  Source Code Distribution for all platforms

        *** Reference Data ***
        refdata.v3.0.tar.Z - calibration data needed for X-ray analysis
                             (this is not needed for just the "core" FTOOLS)

        *** Compressed Postscript Documentation ***
        Develop.v3.0.ps.Z    -  Developer's Guide
        Install.v3.0.ps.Z    -  Installation Guide
        Users.v3.0.ps.Z      -  User's Guide
        TechRef.v3.0.ps.Z    -  Complete User's Guide and help pages

Supported Platforms: (See Installation Guide for details)
        unix         ALPHA/OSF, DEC/ULTRIX, SUN/SunOS, MODCOMP/REALIX, 
                     (a beta version for Solaris is also available)

        vms          ALPHA/VMS, VAX/VMS

The FTOOLS package has been developed and is supported by programmers
and scientists at the HEASARC, the High Energy Astrophysics Science
Archive Research Center.  Any installation questions or problems should
be directed to Kent Blackburn, at kent at kentaurus.gsfc.nasa.gov.

From fitsbits-request  Tue Aug 16 12:44:16 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["2528" "Tue" "16" "August" "1994" "12:44:13" "EDT" "Eric Greisen" "egreisen at primate.cv.nrao.edu" "<9408161644.AA16463 at primate.cv.nrao.edu>" "61" "WCS proposal draft updated" "^From:" nil nil "8" "1994081616:44:13" "WCS proposal draft updated" (number " " mark "     Eric Greisen      Aug 16   61/2528  " thread-indent "\"WCS proposal draft updated\"\n") nil]
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From: egreisen at primate.CV.NRAO.EDU (Eric Greisen)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at primate.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: WCS proposal draft updated
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 94 12:44:13 EDT

I have placed new versions of the draft paper "Representations of
Celestial Coordinates in FITS" by Eric W. Greisen and Mark Calabretta
in the anonymous ftp area of fits.cv.nrao.edu called
fits/documents.wcs where all documents on this topic may be found.
The older June 1993 and August 1993 versions are also there in the
.tex and .ps.all forms with appropriate names.  The latest form is
there as wcs.tex and as wcs.ps.all.Z, wcs.ps.most.Z, wcs.ps.some.Z,
and wcs.ps.none.Z depending on how many of the figures you want to
print.

The main difference between the June and August 1993 versions was
the re-introduction of the CDELTn keywords.  This means the the
CDiiijjj matrix is a pixel-to-pixel conversion matrix with no units.
Philosophically, it just feels better to avoid mixing extremely
different units (e.g. frequencies with CDELT's of order 10**6 or more
and angles with CDELT's of 10**(-3) or less).  There is also some
accuracy questions that would arise in dealing with such a matrix.
The other reason to pull apart the originally proposed CDi_j matrix
was to allow for more than one description of an axis without having
to have a second whole CDi_j matrix (or n**2 such matrices in bad
cases).

The changes to the current version include

(1) The SIN projection was given two parameters to allow for slant
orthographic projections such as those produced by interferometers
whose baselines all lie in a plane (east-west interferometers, VLA
snapshots, etc.).

(2) The NCP projection's conversion to SIN was corrected and given an
alternate conversion using the slant parameters.

(3) The CUNITn keyword was added to allow users to document whatever
units they use.

(4) A set of keywords to give 2nd, 3rd, ... 9th forms of description
for an axis were added.

(5) A short usage note for random-groups interferometer data was added
as Appendix C.3.

(6) The discussion of units was expanded and strengthened.

(7) The discussion of which keywords apply to the array axis and which
to the coordinate axis was reworded and promoted from a footnote to
the main text.

(8) An error in Table 1 (faces for Quadrilateralized sphere
representations) was corrected (face numbers 3 and 4 were switched).

(9) Minor spelling errors and typos were corrected.

I hope that you will fetch, print and read this document.  I intend to
present a poster on it at the ADASS meeting in Baltimore (Sept 25-28)
and it will be discussed at a "Birds of a Feather" session as well.

Eric W. Greisen
National Radio Astronomy Observatory

From fitsbits-request  Fri Aug 26 06:51:20 1994
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	["231" "" "26" "August" "1994" "10:31:21" "GMT" "Anton Norup Soerensen" "norup at indigo" "<33kg9p$lo at hugin.aau.dk>" "7" "FITS to GIF help please" "^From:" nil nil "8" "1994082610:31:21" "FITS to GIF help please" (number " " mark "     Anton Norup Soere Aug 26    7/231   " thread-indent "\"FITS to GIF help please\"\n") nil]
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From: norup at indigo (Anton Norup Soerensen)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: FITS to GIF help please
Date: 26 Aug 1994 10:31:21 GMT

I would like to know of programs available for converting FITS images
to GIF format. I will also be interested to hear of programs to 
combine three, e.g. B,V,R images to one 'true-colour' GIF image.

Thanks,
Anton Norup Sorensen

From fitsbits-request  Fri Aug 26 09:02:06 1994
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Reply-To: xmosa at vega.pd.astro.it (xmosa)
From: xmosa at vega.pd.astro.it (xmosa)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: FITS to GIF help please
Date: 26 Aug 1994 12:37:04 GMT

In article <33kg9p$lo at hugin.aau.dk>, norup at indigo (Anton Norup Soerensen) writes:
|>
|>I would like to know of programs available for converting FITS images
|>to GIF format. I will also be interested to hear of programs to 
|>combine three, e.g. B,V,R images to one 'true-colour' GIF image.
|>
|>Thanks,
|>Anton Norup Sorensen
|>

Here is a list of programs/packages that (to my knowledge)
can do the job of converting from FITS to GIF:

xv 3.00 with patches for reading FITS files

fitstopgm in the pbmplus package (I use pbmplus10dec91)

the ImageMagic package

Interactive Data Language (IDL) from RSI inc. (commercial program,
if you have it already available at your Institute)

another way is to display your FITS image with an astronomical
program (e.g. SAOImage/IRAF, MIDAS, Vista, ...) and then grab
the display into a file (several programs can be used to grab the display,
e.g. xpick).

Hope this helps.

Andrea Baruffolo
Osservatorio Astronomico
Padova, Italy

From fitsbits-request  Sat Aug 27 12:33:08 1994
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From: mlosher at pnet1.pnet.com (mlosher)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: FITS to GIF help please
Date: 27 Aug 1994 14:43:52 GMT

If it's for MACINTOSH, I can help you. Respond.