From fitsbits-request  Fri Apr  1 18:03:38 1994
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	["744" "" " 1" "April" "1994" "22:49:01" "GMT" "Mike Newberry" "newberry at newton.as.arizona.edu" "<2ni8ct$5uk at auggie.CCIT.Arizona.EDU>" "16" "Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994040122:49:01" "No ST-6 FITS images ?" (number " " mark "     Mike Newberry     Apr  1   16/744   " thread-indent "\"Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?\"\n") "<94088.142150K3032E0 at ALIJKU11.BITNET>"]
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From: newberry at newton.as.arizona.edu (Mike Newberry)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?
Date: 1 Apr 1994 22:49:01 GMT

In article <94088.142150K3032E0 at ALIJKU11.BITNET> Herbert Raab <K3032E0 at ALIJKU11.BITNET> writes:
>I once read a posting saying that FITS images written by the software of
>the ST-6 CCD camera do not fullfill the FITS standard. Anyway, I can not
>remember the reason (if one was given at all).
>
>What's wrong with the files written by the ST-6 software ?
>

They have 16 bit unsigned pixels.  So when you import them, the FITS
reader thinks they are 16 bit signed integers.  It makes pixel values
over 32767 wrap around to 65536 lower and you see black holes in the`
middle of starts and other bright peaky objects.  The spectrasource
cameras do the same thing.  More people who manufacture CCD cameras nee
to read the FITS spec.

Mike Newberry


From fitsbits-request  Sat Apr  2 10:50:13 1994
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	["1189" "Sat" " 2" "April" "1994" "15:27:34" "GMT" "Robert Mutel" "rlm at astro.physics.uiowa.edu" "<Cnn1Ly.C74 at space.physics.uiowa.edu>" "23" "Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994040215:27:34" "No ST-6 FITS images ?" (number " " mark "     Robert Mutel      Apr  2   23/1189  " thread-indent "\"Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?\"\n") "<2ni8ct$5uk at auggie.CCIT.Arizona.EDU>"]
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From: rlm at astro.physics.uiowa.edu (Robert Mutel)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?
Date: Sat, 2 Apr 1994 15:27:34 GMT

Regarding 16 bit unsigned integers in ST6/SpectraSource FITS images:

1. In both the ST-6 and SpectraSource software, one has the ability to subtract 32767 from all pixels
before writing the FITS image. This 'fixes' the wrap around problem for pixels with counts >32767, although
the pixels then have a range from -32767 tro + 32767. 

2. An alternate approach for the ST-6 is to use Compuscope's Personal Observatory software to control 
the ST-6. This is *much* better than SBIG's software in any case, and does the 32767 subtraction
automatically. Unfortunately it doesn't support the 'track and accumulate' feature, but it does have filter
wheel control built in.

3.  We have written our own camera control software for the HPC-1 which complies with the [current] FITS standard. It is part of a complete telescope/camera robotic system and is written in C for a Unix/Motif
platform running on a PC with an ISA bus.  Anyone interested in more details can contact me directly.

Robert Mutel
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Iowa
Iowa City IA 52242

Telephone: 319-335-1950      FAX: 319-335-1753
Email: rlm at astro.physics.uiowa.edu  (internet) 
       iowa::rlm (span)



From fitsbits-request  Mon Apr  4 10:46:05 1994
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	["963" "" " 4" "April" "1994" "14:30:28" "GMT" "Greg F Walz Chojnacki" "gwc at alpha1.csd.uwm.edu" "<2np8a4INNa5f at uwm.edu>" "27" "Re: FITS viewer for Mac?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994040414:30:28" "FITS viewer for Mac?" (number " " mark "     Greg F Walz Chojn Apr  4   27/963   " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS viewer for Mac?\"\n") "<CnJ8z0.5sA at isosa2.estec.esa.nl>"]
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From: gwc at alpha1.csd.uwm.edu (Greg F Walz Chojnacki)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: FITS viewer for Mac?
Date: 4 Apr 1994 14:30:28 GMT

>From article <CnJ8z0.5sA at isosa2.estec.esa.nl>, by rverscho at isosa2.estec.esa.nl (Rob Verschoor):
> In sci.astro.fits you write:
> 
>>The subject line says it all: I'm looking for a utility for viewing -- and,
>>ideally, manipulating, at least rudimentarily, FITS image files.
> 
> There's no such thing as a 'FITS' viewer. FITS is a convention for formatting 
> any kind of data in a transportable format. A FITS viewer would therefore be 
> about as meaningful as an 'ISAM' file viewer: not at all. FITS data can be 
> anything : spectra, images, whatever. 

Just to make sure that others reading this aren't discouraged, I want to
point out that there are indeed programs for viewing images encoded using
the FITS standard. To wit:

For PCs
	IMDISP
	VIEWFITS (OS/2)
For Macs
	NIH-Image
	Maia

There are also FITS file browsers, which I take to be useful for examining
FITS data files and the like. I haven't used them, however, and won't
comment further.

Greg


From fitsbits-request  Tue Apr  5 14:39:00 1994
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	["630" "Tue" " 5" "April" "1994" "14:35:58" "EDT" "William Pence" "pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<9404051835.AA28910 at tetra.Gsfc.NASA.Gov>" "16" "FITSIO location" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994040518:35:58" "FITSIO location" (number " " mark "     William Pence     Apr  5   16/630   " thread-indent "\"FITSIO location\"\n") nil]
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From: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: FITSIO location
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 94 14:35:58 EDT

A previous posting here gave an obsolete address for obtaining
the FITSIO subroutine library for reading or writing FITS files.  
FITSIO is currently available via anonymous ftp from:

legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov    in the    /software/fitsio directory.

The latest release is version 3.413.  Recent enhancements 
include ports for Cray supercomputers and HP 9000 workstations.
There is also a C-callable version of FITSIO called CFITSIO
that can be found in the /software/fitsio/cfitsio directory.
This consists of a set of C wrapper routines that make it easier
to call FITSIO from C programs.

-Bill Pence
 pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov



From fitsbits-request  Tue Apr  5 20:05:28 1994
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	["982" "" " 5" "April" "1994" "23:41:33" "GMT" "Ron Watkins" "ron at argus.lpl.Arizona.EDU" "<2nssvd$sl2 at auggie.CCIT.Arizona.EDU>" "18" "FITS software?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994040523:41:33" "FITS software?" (number " " mark "     Ron Watkins       Apr  5   18/982   " thread-indent "\"FITS software?\"\n") nil]
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From: ron at argus.lpl.Arizona.EDU (Ron Watkins)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: FITS software?
Date: 5 Apr 1994 23:41:33 GMT


I would like to know what kind of software (source) exists for manipulating
FITS files. I have heard of FITSIO as a packae and FTOOLS from the HEASARC/NASA
but I just wondered if there were any other packages for manipulating FITS
files directly so that I may examine table values and copy images out to
other formats.
I know there are some FITS manipulation capabilities inside IRAF and AIPS.
Are there any software available for general use?
I ask because I am thinking about using FITS as a standard data format for
a small photometer that I am building and would like to know more about
existing software. I already am fairly familar with FITS files in general.
Thanks,
			Ron Watkin
--
Ron Watkins    [ron at argus.lpl.arizona.edu]    /            /~~~~)     /
931 Gould-Simpson                            /            /____/     /
University of Arizona                       /            /          /
Tucson AZ. 85721 -- (602) 621-8606         (____ unar & / lanetary (____ ab.


From fitsbits-request  Wed Apr  6 10:48:54 1994
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	["3583" "Wed" " 6" "April" "1994" "10:45:31" "EDT" "William Pence" "pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<9404061445.AA29044 at tetra.Gsfc.NASA.Gov>" "64" "Re: FITS software?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994040614:45:31" "FITS software?" (number " " mark "     William Pence     Apr  6   64/3583  " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS software?\"\n") nil]
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From: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: FITS software?
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 94 10:45:31 EDT

>I would like to know what kind of software (source) exists for
>manipulating FITS files. I have heard of FITSIO as a packae and FTOOLS
>from the HEASARC/NASA but I just wondered if there were any other
>packages for manipulating FITS files directly so that I may examine
>table values and copy images out to other formats.

Here is a brief description of the FTOOLS package that is available from
legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov in the /software/ftools/release subdirectory.
Currently, version 2.8 of FTOOLS is available, but version 2.9 is 
expected to be released by the end of April.

FTOOLS consists of more than 100 individual programs that perform
various operations on FITS format files.  The programs can be
run standalone, or as integrated tasks under IRAF. Here is a list
of some of the more general FTOOLS programs (in version 2.9). 
(There are also many other FTOOLS programs that are more specifically
useful for high-energy astrophysics missions).

FITS Image Tasks:

       farith - Perform arithmetic on 2 FITS images
      fboxcar - Convolve a FITS image with a rectangular boxcar filter
      fcarith - Perform arithmetic on FITS image with a constant
       fgauss - Convolve a FITS image with an elliptical Gaussian function
      fimgdmp - Dump contents of a FITS image to an ASCII file
      fim2lst - Convert a 2D image to a pixel list (inverse of f2dhisto)
    fmaskfilt - Filter an event list based on an input mask image
      fmrgmsk - Merge 2 or more spatial masks
        fsaoi - Translate an SAOImage region file to an input for fselect
     f2dhisto - Make a 2-D histogram from 2 columns in a table

Futils - General Purpose Utilities:

        fhelp - Display help pages for an FTOOL task
      fappend - Append a FITS extension onto another FITS file
        fcalc - Calc. values for a column using an arithmetic expression
     fcatdiff - Compares columns of a fits file and reports row differences
      fcreate - Create a FITS table from  ASCII input files
       fcurve - Make a light curve histogram from a column in a table
        fdump - Dump contents of a FITS table to an ASCII file
     fextract - Copy a FITS extension from a file into a new file
     ffilecat - Copies keyword values from a list of FITS file to FITS Table
       fhisto - Make a histogram of a column in a table
       findex - Create an index file for a FITS table column
      fkeypar - Copy a FITS header keyword to a parameter
    fkeyprint - Display keyword(s) in FITS header(s)
      fkeytab - Copy a FITS header keyword to a FITS table element
        flcol - List column information in a FITS table extension
        flist - List contents of a FITS table to an ASCII file
      flookup - Filter a FITS file from selection based on a lookup table
     fmemsort - Fast memory sort of a FITS table
       fmerge - Merge rows from several FITS tables into one FITS table
     fmodhead - Modify the header keywords in a FITS file
      fparkey - Copy a parameter value to a FITS header keyword
      fpartab - Copy a parameter value to a FITS table element
        fplot - Plot columns in a FITS file using QDP/PLT package ***
      fselect - Create a new table from selected rows of a table
        fsort - Sort a FITS table in place
   fstatistic - Calc. mean, standard deviation, min, and max for a column
      fstruct - List a description of the structure of a FITS file
     ftabcopy - Copy specified columns of a FITS table to a new table
      ftabkey - Copy a FITS table element to a FITS header keyword
      ftabpar - Copy a FITS table element to a parameter value



From fitsbits-request  Fri Apr  8 16:39:46 1994
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	["749" "" " 8" "April" "1994" "18:27:10" "GMT" "Mike Newberry" "newberry at astro.as.arizona.edu" "<2o47lu$7vi at auggie.CCIT.Arizona.EDU>" "17" "Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994040818:27:10" "No ST-6 FITS images ?" (number " " mark "     Mike Newberry     Apr  8   17/749   " thread-indent "\"Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?\"\n") "<Cnn1Ly.C74 at space.physics.uiowa.edu>"]
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References: <2ni8ct$5uk at auggie.CCIT.Arizona.EDU> <Cnn1Ly.C74 at space.physics.uiowa.edu>
From: newberry at astro.as.arizona.edu (Mike Newberry)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?
Date: 8 Apr 1994 18:27:10 GMT

Keywords: 
>Regarding 16 bit unsigned integers in ST6/SpectraSource FITS images:
>
>1. In both the ST-6 and SpectraSource software, one has the ability to
>subtract 32767 from all pixels
>before writing the FITS image. This 'fixes' the wrap around problem for pixels with counts >32767, although
>the pixels then have a range from -32767 tro + 32767. 
>
>2. An alternate approach for the ST-6 is to use Compuscope's Personal Observatory software to control 

There's another away to do this:  MIRA automatically knows that Spectrsource
and SBIG images are 16 bit unsigned and it imports them correctly.  It also
allows you to specify that any incoming FITS file is actually unsigned (invalid
FITS, actually] and import it correctly.

Mike Newberry



From fitsbits-request  Mon Apr 11 15:49:48 1994
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	["793" "" "11" "April" "1994" "18:47:08" "GMT" "Andy Boden" "andy at henry.jpl.nasa.gov" "<2oc5vc$oia at elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>" "22" "FITS Image Viewer for Unix/X...?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041118:47:08" "FITS Image Viewer for Unix/X...?" (number " " mark "     Andy Boden        Apr 11   22/793   " thread-indent "\"FITS Image Viewer for Unix/X...?\"\n") nil]
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From: andy at henry.jpl.nasa.gov (Andy Boden)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: FITS Image Viewer for Unix/X...?
Date: 11 Apr 1994 18:47:08 GMT


Hi -- Quick neophyte question.  In a similar vein as the recent DOS
and Mac questions, I was wondering if there is a public domain
FITS-native image viewer I can use on my SPARC running X?  I can
convert FITS images to other image formats and run xv (among others),
but I have a requirement to use FITS as a native format, and
converting to something else is a little cumbersome (but maybe
necessary, given the comments in the FITS basics and info)...

I'll try to keep up with the newsgroup, but if you could direct your
responses (and flames) to e-mail I'd appreciate it.  Thanks for your
time in advance.

						- A.B.

-- 


"...it doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter
how smart you are -- if it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong."

						- R.P. Feynman


From fitsbits-request  Mon Apr 11 16:23:21 1994
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	["782" "Mon" "11" "April" "1994" "19:12:01" "GMT" "Mike Fitzpatrick" "fitz at noao.edu" "<1994Apr11.191201.9405 at noao.edu>" "18" "Re: FITS Image Viewer for Unix/X...?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041119:12:01" "FITS Image Viewer for Unix/X...?" (number " " mark "     Mike Fitzpatrick  Apr 11   18/782   " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS Image Viewer for Unix/X...?\"\n") "<2oc5vc$oia at elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>"]
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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 Image Viewer for Unix/X...?
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 1994 19:12:01 GMT

>From article <2oc5vc$oia at elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>, by andy at henry.jpl.nasa.gov (Andy Boden):
> 
> Hi -- Quick neophyte question.  In a similar vein as the recent DOS
> and Mac questions, I was wondering if there is a public domain
> FITS-native image viewer I can use on my SPARC running X? 

Hi Andy,
	I think what you're after is SAOimage, although patches to XV exist
to allow it to read a FITS disk image.  You can ftp the source for SAOimage
from iraf.noao.edu (140.252.1.1) as iraf.old/saoimage.tar.Z, documentation
is available in the files saoimage.ps.Z and saoman.ps.Z.  Lastly a pre-
compiled sparc binary is in the contrib directory as saoimage.sparc.  Any
questions or problems with it should be sent to iraf at noao.edu.

Cheers,
Mike Fitzpatrick
NOAO/IRAF Group
fitz at noao.edu


From fitsbits-request  Tue Apr 12 08:30:09 1994
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	["681" "Sun" "10" "April" "1994" "16:50:47" "GMT" "George Smoot X2612 P7989" "gsmoot at pts.mot.com" "<Co1ysn.Er3 at pts.mot.com>" "18" "Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041016:50:47" "No ST-6 FITS images ?" (number " " mark "     George Smoot X261 Apr 10   18/681   " thread-indent "\"Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?\"\n") "<94088.142150K3032E0 at ALIJKU11.BITNET>"]
	nil)
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From: gsmoot at pts.mot.com (George Smoot X2612 P7989)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?
Date: Sun, 10 Apr 1994 16:50:47 GMT

Herbert Raab (K3032E0 at ALIJKU11.BITNET) wrote:
: I once read a posting saying that FITS images written by the software of
: the ST-6 CCD camera do not fullfill the FITS standard. Anyway, I can not
: remember the reason (if one was given at all).

: What's wrong with the files written by the ST-6 software ?

:   Herbert


While the ST-6 software dumps it's FITS files in 16-bit unsigned integers
which is not a valid FITS format, the SBIG people do include BZERO and
BSCALE values in the header which should allow (if I read the spec correctly)
these images to be interpreted correctly.  I have no problem reading ST-6
images into SAOIMAGE or IRAF.

George Smoot
(Lake Worth, FL) 


From fitsbits-request  Wed Apr 13 15:38:53 1994
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	["1032" "Wed" "13" "April" "1994" "13:26:14" "GMT" "Dominique Beauchamp" "beaucham at leo.phy.ulaval.ca" "<Co79Bs.9t9 at athena.ulaval.ca>" "27" "Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041313:26:14" "No ST-6 FITS images ?" (number " " mark "     Dominique Beaucha Apr 13   27/1032  " thread-indent "\"Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?\"\n") "<Co1ysn.Er3 at pts.mot.com>"]
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References: <94088.142150K3032E0 at ALIJKU11.BITNET> <Co1ysn.Er3 at pts.mot.com>
From: beaucham at leo.phy.ulaval.ca (Dominique Beauchamp)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 1994 13:26:14 GMT

In article <Co1ysn.Er3 at pts.mot.com> gsmoot at pts.mot.com (George Smoot X2612 P7989) writes:
>Herbert Raab (K3032E0 at ALIJKU11.BITNET) wrote:
>: I once read a posting saying that FITS images written by the software of
>: the ST-6 CCD camera do not fullfill the FITS standard. Anyway, I can not
>: remember the reason (if one was given at all).
>
>: What's wrong with the files written by the ST-6 software ?
>
>:   Herbert
>
>
>While the ST-6 software dumps it's FITS files in 16-bit unsigned integers
>which is not a valid FITS format, the SBIG people do include BZERO and
>BSCALE values in the header which should allow (if I read the spec correctly)
>these images to be interpreted correctly.  I have no problem reading ST-6
>images into SAOIMAGE or IRAF.
>
Curiously, mine appear flipped upside down...

Dominique Beauchamp


-- 
Dominique Beauchamp	  | Developer of ViewFITS, a FITS  
Labo. d'astrophysique,    | viewer for OS/2 2.1
U. Laval, Ste-Foy, G1K7P4 | Next release: spring 1994 
beaucham at phy.ulaval.ca    | ftp.cdrom.com  

From fitsbits-request  Wed Apr 13 17:32:16 1994
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	["1638" "" "13" "April" "1994" "18:33:59" "GMT" "Channel Energy" "eychaner at suncub.bbso.caltech.edu" "<2ohduo$dgp at gap.cco.caltech.edu>" "32" "Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041318:33:59" "No ST-6 FITS images ?" (number " " mark "     Channel Energy    Apr 13   32/1638  " thread-indent "\"Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?\"\n") "<Co79Bs.9t9 at athena.ulaval.ca>"]
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References: <94088.142150K3032E0 at ALIJKU11.BITNET> <Co1ysn.Er3 at pts.mot.com>,<Co79Bs.9t9 at athena.ulaval.ca>
Reply-To: eychaner at SUNCUB.BBSO.CALTECH.EDU
From: eychaner at SUNCUB.BBSO.CALTECH.EDU ("Channel Energy")
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?
Date: 13 Apr 1994 18:33:59 GMT

beaucham at leo.phy.ulaval.ca (Dominique Beauchamp) writes:
>gsmoot at pts.mot.com (George Smoot X2612 P7989) writes:
>>Herbert Raab (K3032E0 at ALIJKU11.BITNET) wrote:
>>: What's wrong with the files written by the ST-6 software ?
>>
>>While the ST-6 software dumps it's FITS files in 16-bit unsigned integers
>>which is not a valid FITS format, the SBIG people do include BZERO and
>>BSCALE values in the header which should allow (if I read the spec correctly)
>>these images to be interpreted correctly.  I have no problem reading ST-6
>>images into SAOIMAGE or IRAF.
>>
>Curiously, mine appear flipped upside down...

	So do the Big Bear Solar Observatory FITS files (available by
anonymous FTP to suncub.bbso.caltech.edu), on many FITS viewers.  We
write our data in the order it comes off the chip (or digitizer); i.e.
left to right and top to bottom (the first value is in the upper left),
to avoid having to invert the array.  "Top" and "left" are somewhat
arbitrary with respect to the sun as well, depending on the optical
configuration.  (It's all explained in the 000README.NOW file on our
image archive.)
	Many FITS viewers display left to right and bottom to top (the
first value is in the lower left).  Is this behaviour specified by the
standard (I couldn't find it, but I have an older copy)?
	SAOimage accepts a command line argument specifying where the
first pixel goes (and thus the axis directions).

-G.

Glenn Eychaner, C Programmer & VMS Manager, Big Bear Solar Obs., Caltech
eychaner at suncub.bbso.caltech.edu  (909)866-5791  40386 North Shore Lane
SUNCUB::EYCHANER, 5554::EYCHANER  (818)395-4014  Big Bear City, CA 92314

From fitsbits-request  Wed Apr 13 17:49:49 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["2146" "" "13" "April" "1994" "20:52:16" "GMT" "Steve Allen" "sla at umbra.ucsc.edu" "<2ohm20$i2o at darkstar.UCSC.EDU>" "35" "Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041320:52:16" "Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)" (number " " mark "     Steve Allen       Apr 13   35/2146  " thread-indent "\"Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)\"\n") "<2ohduo$dgp at gap.cco.caltech.edu>"]
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References: <94088.142150K3032E0 at ALIJKU11.BITNET> <Co1ysn.Er3 at pts.mot.com> <Co79Bs.9t9 at athena.ulaval.ca> <2ohduo$dgp at gap.cco.caltech.edu>
From: sla at umbra.UCSC.EDU (Steve Allen)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)
Date: 13 Apr 1994 20:52:16 GMT

In article <2ohduo$dgp at gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
Channel Energy <eychaner at SUNCUB.BBSO.CALTECH.EDU> wrote:
>       Many FITS viewers display left to right and bottom to top (the
>first value is in the lower left).  Is this behaviour specified by the
>standard (I couldn't find it, but I have an older copy)?

The standard documents do not specify anything about the orientation of
the display of a FITS image; they merely describe how it shall be stored.

Personally, I find it somewhat hard to understand why IRAF chose to display
pixel 1,1 at the lower left.  Many CCD detectors plainly originated as video
devices intended to be used to display on a standard video screen where
the origin is at the upper left.  This is the standard video coordinate
system and it is also the system adopted by the writers of the X Window
System.  It seems only fair to acknowledge the roots of the technology,
especially when dealing with the original hardware which had little
extra power to do things such as re-rasterize the image.  (Lick uses
the standard video coordinate system.)

The draft "Representations of Celestial Coordinates in FITS" paper by
E. Greisen and M. Calabretta recommends that FITS images be displayed
with 1,1 in the lower left corner, though it leaves open the possibility
that a (powerful enough) display system should re-orient as desired.

We probably need to remember that this is akin to the other odd things about
astronomy:  FITS arrays begin with 1 not 0, temperature increases to
the left in the HR diagram, larger magnitude is a fainter star, the
longitude of the sub-solar point decreases with time, etc.  All these
things simply have to be drilled into the introductory classes and
written into the specs which control how the software will be written.
Otherwise we will all be off-by-one and flipped upside down.  :-)
--  --  --  --  --  -+-   --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -+-  --  --  --  --  --
Steve Allen          | See us on the World Wide Web    |   sla at lick.ucsc.edu
UCO/Lick Observatory | The URL is ftp://lick.ucsc.edu/ |   +1 408 459 3046
Santa Cruz, CA 95064 | pub/outgoing/sla/sms.html       |   Seabright Morris

From fitsbits-request  Wed Apr 13 20:24:04 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1275" "Wed" "13" "April" "1994" "22:10:03" "GMT" "Doug Tody" "tody at lepus.tuc.noao.edu" "<1994Apr13.221003.8687 at noao.edu>" "27" "Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041322:10:03" "Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)" (number " " mark "     Doug Tody         Apr 13   27/1275  " thread-indent "\"Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)\"\n") "<2ohm20$i2o at darkstar.UCSC.EDU>"]
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Reply-To: tody at noao.edu
From: tody at lepus.tuc.noao.edu (Doug Tody)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 1994 22:10:03 GMT

In article <2ohm20$i2o at darkstar.UCSC.EDU>, sla at umbra.UCSC.EDU (Steve Allen) writes:
> In article <2ohduo$dgp at gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
> Channel Energy <eychaner at SUNCUB.BBSO.CALTECH.EDU> wrote:
> >       Many FITS viewers display left to right and bottom to top (the
> >first value is in the lower left).  Is this behaviour specified by the
> >standard (I couldn't find it, but I have an older copy)?
> 
> The standard documents do not specify anything about the orientation of
> the display of a FITS image; they merely describe how it shall be stored.
> 
> Personally, I find it somewhat hard to understand why IRAF chose to display
> pixel 1,1 at the lower left...

I suspect this predates IRAF, however lower left is appealing to people with
a mathematical background, where the origin (of the positive XY quadrant) is
always in the lower left.  It is the graphics folks that have it backward.

The new Ximtool display server has buttons allowing the displayed image to
be easily flipped in either axis, so this should soon become a non-issue.

As Steve points out, FITS itself does not care how the image is displayed.

	- Doug

-- 
Doug Tody	National Optical Astronomy Observatories    IRAF project
tody at noao.edu   P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona, 85726      iraf at noao.edu

From fitsbits-request  Wed Apr 13 20:47:02 1994
Status: RO
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	["3021" "" "13" "April" "1994" "23:07:35" "GMT" "Channel Energy" "eychaner at suncub.bbso.caltech.edu" "<2ohtvn$o45 at gap.cco.caltech.edu>" "55" "Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041323:07:35" "Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)" (number " " mark "     Channel Energy    Apr 13   55/3021  " thread-indent "\"Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)\"\n") "<2ohm20$i2o at darkstar.UCSC.EDU>"]
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Reply-To: eychaner at SUNCUB.BBSO.CALTECH.EDU
From: eychaner at SUNCUB.BBSO.CALTECH.EDU ("Channel Energy")
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)
Date: 13 Apr 1994 23:07:35 GMT

sla at umbra.UCSC.EDU (Steve Allen) writes:
>Channel Energy <eychaner at SUNCUB.BBSO.CALTECH.EDU> wrote:
>>       Many FITS viewers display left to right and bottom to top (the
>>first value is in the lower left).  Is this behaviour specified by the
>>standard (I couldn't find it, but I have an older copy)?
>
>The standard documents do not specify anything about the orientation of
>the display of a FITS image; they merely describe how it shall be stored.

Pet peeve time:
(One of my pet peeves about the FITS standard is that the word-order is
opposite that of my VAX machines, forcing me to byte-swap before I write
as it is.  I realize I could probably do the image-invert in the same
lopp, but it gets increasingly complicated.)
(Or maybe that's one of my pet peeves about VAX machines.)  :-)
(Maybe the standard ought to specify THREE things about the data: number
of bits/pixel, signed/unsigned, and byte order.  But then, the standard
is more than complicated enough, thanks to the binary tables, etc.  It
could be done IF it had stayed an IMAGE standard.)
(And I'm annoyed that I'll have to store the 10-bit CCD data from our
new camera as 16-bit; I can't just say BITPIX=10, squeeze out the zero
bits, and get an instant 40% compression.)  :-)

>Personally, I find it somewhat hard to understand why IRAF chose to display
>pixel 1,1 at the lower left.  Many CCD detectors plainly originated as video
>devices intended to be used to display on a standard video screen where
>the origin is at the upper left.  This is the standard video coordinate
>system and it is also the system adopted by the writers of the X Window
>System. [...]  (Lick uses the standard video coordinate system.)
[...]
>The draft "Representations of Celestial Coordinates in FITS" paper by
>E. Greisen and M. Calabretta recommends that FITS images be displayed
>with 1,1 in the lower left corner, though it leaves open the possibility
>that a (powerful enough) display system should re-orient as desired.

I believe I can guess why IRAF and others chose the lower left corner:
because a standard coordinate grid has its origin in the lower left of
the positive axes, and increases up and to the right.
So why don't chips read from the lower left (and video scan from the
lower left, etc.?)  Because the English language is written and read
from the upper left, rightward and downward, perhaps?

>We probably need to remember that this is akin to the other odd things about
>astronomy:  FITS arrays begin with 1 not 0, temperature increases to
>the left in the HR diagram, larger magnitude is a fainter star, the
>longitude of the sub-solar point decreases with time, etc.

Did astronomers decide that as long as they got one thing backward, they
might as well get EVERYTHING backward in the hopes it would cancel?  :-)

-G.

Glenn Eychaner, C Programmer & VMS Manager, Big Bear Solar Obs., Caltech
eychaner at suncub.bbso.caltech.edu  (909)866-5791  40386 North Shore Lane
SUNCUB::EYCHANER, 5554::EYCHANER  (818)395-4014  Big Bear City, CA 92314

From fitsbits-request  Thu Apr 14 11:04:04 1994
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	["2021" "" "14" "April" "1994" "14:02:33" "GMT" "William Thompson" "thompson at serts.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<thompson.766332153 at serts.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "38" "Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041414:02:33" "Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)" (number " " mark "     William Thompson  Apr 14   38/2021  " thread-indent "\"Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)\"\n") "<2ohm20$i2o at darkstar.UCSC.EDU>"]
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From: thompson at serts.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)
Date: 14 Apr 94 14:02:33 GMT

sla at umbra.UCSC.EDU (Steve Allen) writes:

>In article <2ohduo$dgp at gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
>Channel Energy <eychaner at SUNCUB.BBSO.CALTECH.EDU> wrote:
>>       Many FITS viewers display left to right and bottom to top (the
>>first value is in the lower left).  Is this behaviour specified by the
>>standard (I couldn't find it, but I have an older copy)?

>The standard documents do not specify anything about the orientation of
>the display of a FITS image; they merely describe how it shall be stored.

>Personally, I find it somewhat hard to understand why IRAF chose to display
>pixel 1,1 at the lower left.  Many CCD detectors plainly originated as video
>devices intended to be used to display on a standard video screen where
>the origin is at the upper left.  This is the standard video coordinate
>system and it is also the system adopted by the writers of the X Window
>System.  It seems only fair to acknowledge the roots of the technology,
>especially when dealing with the original hardware which had little
>extra power to do things such as re-rasterize the image.  (Lick uses
>the standard video coordinate system.)

Why should FITS be tied to a specific detector such as a CCD?  There are a lot
of other ways to gather data.

The FITS standard does allow for the inclusion of information relating to the
orientation of the data.  Both the World Coordinate System and the older
CRPIXn, CRVALn, CDELTn system document how the data relates to real world
coordinates.  This may or may not be the same as the way the data falls onto
the detector, depending on the optical system used to feed it.

When analyzing data, I find it convenient that images are displayed with the
origin at the lower left, because contour plots are done the same way.  This
makes it easy to combine images and graphics.  I don't use IRAF myself--I use
IDL which evidently does it the same way as IRAF.  (IDL does allow one to
display images with the origin at the upper left if desired, by manipulating a
global variable.)

Bill Thompson

From fitsbits-request  Thu Apr 14 15:41:27 1994
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	["1094" "" "14" "April" "1994" "17:54:02" "GMT" "Chris Flatters" "cflatter at laphroaig.nrao.edu" "<CFLATTER.94Apr14115403 at laphroaig.nrao.edu>" "21" "Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041417:54:02" "Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)" (number " " mark "     Chris Flatters    Apr 14   21/1094  " thread-indent "\"Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)\"\n") "<1994Apr13.221003.8687 at noao.edu>"]
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From: cflatter at laphroaig.nrao.edu (Chris Flatters)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images ?)
Date: 14 Apr 1994 17:54:02 GMT

In article <1994Apr13.221003.8687 at noao.edu> tody at lepus.tuc.noao.edu (Doug Tody) writes:
> I suspect this predates IRAF, however lower left is appealing to people with
> a mathematical background, where the origin (of the positive XY quadrant) is
> always in the lower left.  It is the graphics folks that have it backward.

Monitors conventionally scan from left-to-right and from top-to-bottom.
In the days of devices that were accessed as frame buffers (such as the
old IIS Model 70s) it was convenient to use the same data layout so
that data would be read sequentially and fed to the monitor in the
order that it was needed.  In this case placing the origin at the top
left was a natural choice and this has carried over to less-hardware
oriented graphics interfaces that still work at the pixel level (such
as X11).

On the other hand, truly hardware-independent graphics interfaces (such
as GKS, PEX and PostScript) generally use a coordinate system with the
origin at the bottom left-hand corner, corresponding to the normal
convention used on paper.

	Chris Flatters
	cflatter at nrao.edu

From fitsbits-request  Sat Apr 16 15:38:54 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["835" "Fri" "15" "April" "1994" "07:01:59" "GMT" "Mark Calabretta" "mcalabre at rp.csiro.au" "<1994Apr15.070159.27815 at rp.CSIRO.AU>" "20" "Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041507:01:59" "Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images" (number " " mark "     Mark Calabretta   Apr 15   20/835   " thread-indent "\"Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images\"\n") "<1994Apr13.221003.8687 at noao.edu>"]
	nil)
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References: <1994Apr13.221003.8687 at noao.edu>
Reply-To: mcalabre at rp.CSIRO.AU
From: mcalabre at rp.CSIRO.AU (Mark Calabretta)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: Upside Down (was Re: No ST-6 FITS images
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 1994 07:01:59 GMT

In article <2ohm20$i2o at darkstar.UCSC.EDU>, sla at umbra.UCSC.EDU (Steve Allen) writes:
> In article <2ohduo$dgp at gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
> Channel Energy <eychaner at SUNCUB.BBSO.CALTECH.EDU> wrote:
> >       Many FITS viewers display left to right and bottom to top (the
> >first value is in the lower left).  Is this behaviour specified by the
> >standard (I couldn't find it, but I have an older copy)?
> 
> The standard documents do not specify anything about the orientation of
> the display of a FITS image; they merely describe how it shall be stored.

The draft WCS proposal "Representations of Celestial Coordinates in FITS", by
Greisen and Calabretta (fits.cv.nrao.edu:/fits/documents/wcs) formally proposes
that pixel (1,1) be displayed at lower-left by default.  This has long been an
unwritten convention.

Mark Calabretta
ATNF




From fitsbits-request  Mon Apr 18 09:20:16 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["342" "Mon" "18" "April" "1994" "09:25:37" "GMT" "Chan Ho Yin" "chanhy at hkuxa.hku.hk" "<CoG7Iq.9HC at hkuxb.hku.hk>" "14" "FITS FORMATS IN BATSE??" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041809:25:37" "FITS FORMATS IN BATSE??" (number " " mark "     Chan Ho Yin       Apr 18   14/342   " thread-indent "\"FITS FORMATS IN BATSE??\"\n") nil]
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From: chanhy at hkuxa.hku.hk (Chan Ho Yin)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: FITS FORMATS IN BATSE??
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 1994 09:25:37 GMT

i am working on batse data analysis. would somebody have programs to convert
the tte and stte format into useful information such as count vs bin etc.
please indicate where can i get these programs !


with regards,

matthew chan.
h.y.chan
department of physics
email address : chanhy at hkuxa.hku.hk
              :: chanhy at hkusub.hku.hk
D::
:

From fitsbits-request  Tue Apr 19 19:18:49 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["334" "Tue" "19" "April" "1994" "22:46:51" "GMT" "Robert Mutel" "rlm at astro.physics.uiowa.edu" "<CoJ3A3.F7B at space.physics.uiowa.edu>" "13" "Hcompress for DOS?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994041922:46:51" "Hcompress for DOS?" (number " " mark "     Robert Mutel      Apr 19   13/334   " thread-indent "\"Hcompress for DOS?\"\n") nil]
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Reply-To: rlm at astro.physics.uiowa.edu
From: rlm at astro.physics.uiowa.edu (Robert Mutel)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject:  Hcompress for DOS?
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 22:46:51 GMT

Does anyone know if Richard White's hcompress program [which compresses 
FITS images among others] has been ported to DOS? 


Robert Mutel
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Iowa
Iowa City IA 52242

Telephone: 319-335-1950      FAX: 319-335-1753
Email: rlm at astro.physics.uiowa.edu  (internet) 
       iowa::rlm (span)


From fitsbits-request  Wed Apr 20 05:49:14 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["152" "Wed" "20" "April" "1994" "08:02:04" "GMT" "John Boyer" "boyer at rd.eng.bbc.co.uk" "<CoJszG.EC0 at bbc.co.uk>" "9" "Portable Bitmap Toolkit?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994042008:02:04" "Portable Bitmap Toolkit?" (number " " mark "     John Boyer        Apr 20    9/152   " thread-indent "\"Portable Bitmap Toolkit?\"\n") nil]
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From: boyer at rd.eng.bbc.co.uk (John Boyer)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Portable Bitmap Toolkit?
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 08:02:04 GMT


The FAQ mentions fits conversion to other formats usinf portbale bitmap
toolkit. Can anyone tell me about this?

John B

John.boyer at rd.eng.bbc.co.uk



From fitsbits-request  Wed Apr 20 16:18:10 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["2956" "Wed" "20" "April" "1994" "16:21:15" "-0400" "Selden E. Ball, Jr." "SEB at lns62.lns.cornell.edu" "<01HBEKFKCUWY9OEXAG at LNS62.LNS.CORNELL.EDU>" "64" "\"Re: Portable Bitmap Toolkit?\"" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994042020:21:15" "\"Re: Portable Bitmap Toolkit?\"" (number " " mark "     Selden E. Ball, J Apr 20   64/2956  " thread-indent "\"\"Re: Portable Bitmap Toolkit?\"\"\n") nil]
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From: "Selden E. Ball, Jr." <SEB at LNS62.LNS.CORNELL.EDU>
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: boyer at rd.eng.bbc.co.uk
Cc: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: "Re: Portable Bitmap Toolkit?"
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 16:21:15 -0400 (EDT)

John,

You asked
>The FAQ mentions fits conversion to other formats usinf portbale bitmap
>toolkit. Can anyone tell me about this?

The "portable bitmap toolkit" known as PBMPlus is included in 
the "contributed" portion of X11R5.  
PBMPlus was developed by Jef Poskanzer with help by many others.
Unfortunately, Jef no longer has time to work on it. 

PBMPlus has been extended by others (not me) to become NetPBM.
I'm appending the announcement.

I hope this helps.

Selden
seb at lns62.lns.cornell.edu
================================================================
                           N E T P B M
                     Release 1 March 1994

Netpbm is a toolkit for conversion of images between a variety of
different formats, as well as to allow a few basic image operations.
The package is intended to be portable to many platforms. It has been
tested under UNIX (BSD and SYSV, e.g. SGI, Sun4, Sun386i, DEC and
Apollo DN 3500), VMS and AmigaDOS. There are also compiler directives
in it for MS-DOS.

You'll find the latest release of Netpbm at the following sites:
* wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4),
  directory /graphics/graphics/packages/NetPBM
* ikaros.fysik4.kth.se (130.237.35.2), directory /pub/netpbm.
* ftp.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (134.106.1.9). This site also carries
  binaries for the Amiga.
* peipa.essex.ac.uk (155.245.115.161), directory ipa/src/manip
* ftp.rahul.net (192.160.13.1), directory /pub/davidsen/source
* ftp.cs.ubc.ca, directory /ftp/archive/netpbm
* ftp.x.org, directory /contrib

You'll also find a mirror site at the BBS:
* sixhub.tmr.com in the "source" area.

Netpbm is based on the widely spread Pbmplus package (release: 10 Dec 91).
On top of that, a lot of improvements and additions have been made. After
the latest release of Pbmplus, a lot of additional filters have been
circulating on the net. The aim of Netpbm was, to collect these and to turn
them into a package. This work has been performed by a group of program-
mers all over the world. If *you* have some code to add, please contact us,
and we will incorporate it. There is a mailing list for discussions about
Netpbm. You post a message to the list by writing to "netpbm at fysik4.kth.se".
If you want to be on the list, please contact the list administrator,
"oliver at fysik4.kth.se".

Please note, that this is not an official Pbmplus release. The code in
this release is merely a collection of code from various sources around
the world. Not all of the new code parts follow the high standard of
programming of Pbmplus. We have tried to make the code portable to as
many systems as possible, but we haven't cleaned up all routines. We hope
that this release will help the many users of Pbmplus to upgrade their
code all in one piece, instead of having to hunt down different code
fragments at different sites around the world. We also hope, that our
effort will help the author of Pbmplus, Jef Poskanzer, to make a new
official release soon.

From fitsbits-request  Wed Apr 20 21:31:25 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1413" "Wed" "20" "April" "1994" "21:29:30" "GMT" "Rick White" "rlw at stsci.edu" "<1994Apr20.212930.25822 at stsci.edu>" "32" "Re:  Hcompress for DOS?" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994042021:29:30" "Hcompress for DOS?" (number " " mark "     Rick White        Apr 20   32/1413  " thread-indent "\"Re:  Hcompress for DOS?\"\n") "<CoJ3A3.F7B at space.physics.uiowa.edu>"]
	nil)
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References: <CoJ3A3.F7B at space.physics.uiowa.edu>
From: rlw at stsci.edu (Rick White,P443,71-4933,)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re:  Hcompress for DOS?
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 21:29:30 GMT

>From article <CoJ3A3.F7B at space.physics.uiowa.edu>, by rlm at astro.physics.uiowa.edu (Robert Mutel):
> Does anyone know if Richard White's hcompress program [which compresses 
> FITS images among others] has been ported to DOS? 

I don't know of anyone who has done this yet, though I have heard from
a couple of people who are working on it.  One is Pete Sauerbrei at the
University of Iowa (pjs at astro.physics.uiowa.edu), but maybe you're
asking because he is having problems!  The other is Denis Priou
(priou at mesioa.obspm.fr), who is working on porting the decompression
software for the Digitized Sky Survey to DOS.

There seem to be serious problems with memory management under DOS.
I've never done any DOS programming, but if it is not possible to
effectively read the whole image into memory then the program would
have to be modified to compress the image in blocks (with resulting
changes in the output file formats.)

We have effectively done this for the compression of the STScI
Digitized Sky Survey (scanned version of the POSS & ESO plates).  There
the images are 14000x14000; we compress them in blocks of 500x500.  I
have not written code for the general problem of compressing huge
images in blocks, though.

If anyone has already done the port to DOS (or has tried and failed), I
would be interested in hearing about it too.

Rick White
STScI
3700 San Martin Dr
Baltimore, MD 21218
rlw at stsci.edu


From fitsbits-request  Thu Apr 21 16:08:59 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["898" "" "21" "April" "1994" "14:46" "EDT" "BARRY M. SCHLESINGER" "bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<21APR199414464651 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "20" "Re: FITS to GIF format" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994042118:46:00" "FITS to GIF format" (number " " mark "     BARRY M. SCHLESIN Apr 21   20/898   " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS to GIF format\"\n") "<bobh.14.000D5230 at mwunix.mitre.org>"]
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References: <2p3t59$3os at news.u.washington.edu> <2p68qgINN634 at hancock.cc.williams.edu> <bobh.14.000D5230 at mwunix.mitre.org>
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 to GIF format
Date: 21 Apr 1994 14:46 EDT

>>In article <2p3t59$3os at news.u.washington.edu> aberman at u.washington.edu (Andrew
>>Berman) writes:
>>>Is there some program somewhere that will
>>>convert a FITS file to GIF or JPG format?
>>>

One point that has not been mentioned in any of the answers to this 
question on sci.astro is any limits on the kinds of FITS files the 
programs can handle.  Many are unable to handle values of NAXIS, the 
number of axes in the FITS array, other than 2.  Additional axes are
often used when the same object is observed at different wavelengths
or polarizations.  Also, not all can handle every FITS data type:
unsigned 8-bit integers, signed 16- and 32- bit integers, and IEEE-754
32-bit and 64-bit floating point.  Citations of particular software
packages should any such limitation in these areas. 

sci.astro.fits added to newsgroup header.

				Barry Schlesinger
				NSSDC/NOST FITS Support Office

From fitsbits-request  Fri Apr 22 10:04:46 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1783" "" "22" "April" "1994" "11:43:14" "GMT" "David Robinson" "drtr at mail.ast.cam.ac.uk" "<2p8d8i$o8i at lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>" "35" "Re: FITS to GIF format" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994042211:43:14" "FITS to GIF format" (number " " mark "     David Robinson    Apr 22   35/1783  " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS to GIF format\"\n") "<21APR199414464651 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>"]
	nil)
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References: <2p68qgINN634 at hancock.cc.williams.edu> <bobh.14.000D5230 at mwunix.mitre.org> <21APR199414464651 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>
From: drtr at mail.ast.cam.ac.uk (David Robinson)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: FITS to GIF format
Date: 22 Apr 1994 11:43:14 GMT

In article <21APR199414464651 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov> bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (BARRY M. SCHLESINGER) writes:
>>>In article <2p3t59$3os at news.u.washington.edu> aberman at u.washington.edu (Andrew
>>>Berman) writes:
>>>>Is there some program somewhere that will
>>>>convert a FITS file to GIF or JPG format?
>>>>
>
>One point that has not been mentioned in any of the answers to this 
>question on sci.astro is any limits on the kinds of FITS files the 
>programs can handle.  Many are unable to handle values of NAXIS, the 
>number of axes in the FITS array, other than 2.  Additional axes are
>often used when the same object is observed at different wavelengths
>or polarizations.  Also, not all can handle every FITS data type:
>unsigned 8-bit integers, signed 16- and 32- bit integers, and IEEE-754
>32-bit and 64-bit floating point.  Citations of particular software
>packages should any such limitation in these areas. 

FITS support is available for the xv-3.00a image display program.
This allows it to read and write fits files, and hence convert to/from
GIF,PM,PBM,X11 bitmap, Sun rasterfile, BMP, PostScript, IRIS, JPEG and
TIFF files.

It can display files with NAXIS being 2 or 3; for 3-dimensional fits files
the dataset is divided into NAXIS3 sub-images. All BITPIX values are supported.
HISTORY and COMMENT keywords will be presevered when converting to/from fits
files if the source/destination format supports commentary data.

To my knowledge the code has been used under Vax VMS 5.5, Univel SVR4.2,
hp-ux 8.07, SunOs 4 and SunOs 5.

The patches to xv can be fetched by anonymous ftp from the file
pub/software/xv-patches/FITS-v2.tar.Z at ftp-hst.ast.cam.ac.uk.
It should be unpacked in the xv-3.00a source directory.

David Robinson. (drtr at mail.ast.cam.ac.uk)

From fitsbits-request  Mon Apr 25 10:52:33 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["856" "Mon" "25" "April" "1994" "13:43:31" "GMT" "Dominique Beauchamp" "beaucham at phy.ulaval.ca" "<CotI4K.Cry at athena.ulaval.ca>" "27" "ViewFITS 0.4 release 1 on ftp.cdrom.com" "^From:" nil nil "4" "1994042513:43:31" "ViewFITS 0.4 release 1 on ftp.cdrom.com" (number " " mark "     Dominique Beaucha Apr 25   27/856   " thread-indent "\"ViewFITS 0.4 release 1 on ftp.cdrom.com\"\n") nil]
	nil)
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Organization: CRAPUL
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Reply-To: beaucham at phy.ulaval.ca
From: beaucham at phy.ulaval.ca (Dominique Beauchamp)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: ViewFITS 0.4 release 1 on ftp.cdrom.com
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 1994 13:43:31 GMT

Hello!

ViewFITS 0.4 release 1 has been uploaded on ftp.cdrom.com on April 25, 1994. This
program is a FITS image viewer for OS/2 PM,  2.1.  Here is a list of the improvments
since last release (version 0.3 release 2):

- multithreaded;
- inline help;
- four buffers for different images, they can be blinked;
- improved palette controller;
- direct cursor reading of pixel position and value and redirection in a file;
- some other bugs fixed...

If you want to try it, it is on ftp.cdrom.com in /pub/os2/incoming/vf04r1.zip and
will probablly be moved toward /pub/os2/2_1/graphics/vf04r1.zip.

Thank you for using ViewFITS!

Dominique Beauchamp

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Dominique Beauchamp	  | Developer of ViewFITS, a FITS  
Labo. d'astrophysique,    | viewer for OS/2 2.1
U. Laval, Ste-Foy, G1K7P4 | Last release: April 1994 
beaucham at phy.ulaval.ca    | ftp.cdrom.com  



