From fitsbits-request  Sat Oct  1 18:30:58 1994
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	["5291" "Sat" " 1" "October" "1994" "22:23:06" "GMT" "Arnold Rots" "arots at heasfs.gsfc.nasa.gov" nil "107" "Re: Modified Julian Day" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Arnold Rots       Oct  1  107/5291  " thread-indent "\"Re: Modified Julian Day\"\n") nil]
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From: arots at heasfs.gsfc.nasa.gov (Arnold Rots)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: Modified Julian Day
Date: Sat, 1 Oct 1994 22:23:06 GMT

[this is yet another followup copied from newsgroup sci.astro.research]

From: arots at heasfs.gsfc.nasa.gov (Arnold Rots)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.research
Subject: Re: Modified Julian Day
Date: 30 Sep 1994 15:12:20 -0500
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- Greenbelt, Maryland USA

In <36bvur$2p6 at pecos.msfc.nasa.gov> aty at ucssun1.sdsu.edu (young a t) writes:

>In article <367ekq$1vr at pecos.msfc.nasa.gov>,
>Joe Cain <cain at geomag.gly.fsu.edu> wrote:
>>In article <366m81$1oo at pecos.msfc.nasa.gov> aty at ucssun1.sdsu.edu writes:
>>>In article <35t02e$5v at pecos.msfc.nasa.gov>,
>>>William Thompson <thompson at orpheus.gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote:
>...
>>We have been using MJD = JD - 2400000.5 for about 30 years in
>>geophysics and don't see any reason to change so long as the
>>definition is clear. We picked it up from SAO when first starting to
>>put times on data and found that one CDC word in binary was good to a
>>millisecond. Now we have to use some other means to store in the
>>shorter words of "modern" platforms. It is better than the "Julian
>>Day" generally used by NASA orbital mechanics which only means the day
>                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>(and UNIX programmers...)

>>of that year. 

>> How about instead just defining MJD as such and keep it as a useful
>>concept for many purposes? Most people don't like the idea of a day

>That was what the IAU tried some years ago.  The main problem was caused
>by the half day, because the variable-star folks had been using JD - 2400000
>(no half day) for a long time.  The result was that people started calling
>(JD - 2400000) "MJD" and thus not following the IAU-approved definition.
>This year, the IAU gave it up as a bad job; not enough users have the necessary
>discipline to keep to the definition.

It looks very much like the tail wagging the dog.  To me it appears as
though a tiny segment of the community couldn't muster the discipline
to call their deviant definition something else and, after having
caused confusion in their own circles (there are variable star people
who do use the proper definition of MJD), possibly out of spite, force
everbody to abandon a useful concept.

This decision to recant is even worse, since most of the community is
not going to change what they have been doing for years, acting as if
it still is an IAU-blessed unit, while in reality it isn't (speaking
of confusion!).

There are too many FITS files out with MJD, there is too much software
that uses it.  The variable star folks will have to face reality and
acknowledge that even an IAU decision can't keep the community from
using the former IAU-condoned definition of MJD.

>>... Most people don't like the idea of a day
>>starting at noon except for astronomers ....

>Well, most people don't like time tied to Greenwich unless they live near
>England.  The half day was for the convenience of European astronomers
>back in the last century; I'm not sure when that half-day offset from
>Greenwich time was introduced.  It was officially abandoned by astronomers
>in 1925, when we went from GMAT to UT as the standard.  But, to avoid
>confusion, the JD count continued to change at Greenwich Mean Noon.

I rather suspect that the half day offset originated from nautical
practice to start the day at noon: that was the moment in the day that
all important things happened, with noon sightings of the sun and
taking the nautical almanac from the shelf - determining the elevation
of the sun at midnight is too problematic.

>You are, of course, welcome to continue using MJD *if* you keep your
>readers informed of what you mean by it.  It's just no longer approved
>by the IAU as an astronomical standard.  Like Prohibition, it looked
>like a good idea at one time, but did not work out well in practice....

Unlike prohibition, it _was_ a good idea ...

I'm sure this was pretty much a storm in a teacup.  FITS files will
continue to carry MJD - perhaps with an extra comment - and most
astronomical software will continue to use it.

What may need to be stressed, though, is that using MJD (or JD, for
that matter) for defining a moment in absolute time requires not only
an MJD value that includes a fractional part, but also an indication
what time system is being used.  The Julian Day is not tied to any
particular time system (UTC, TAI, TT, ...), it only provides a
formalism for counting calendar days within such a time system.  For
instance, the epoch 1994.0 (UTC) (January 1, 1994 at 00:00:00 UTC, or
MJD=49352.0 (UTC)), is at MJD=49352.000696574074 (TT).  Very seldom
does one see a time system identified when MJD is given.

--
_---------------------Arnold H. Rots----------------------------
 \    __  __________  Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics
  \  / / |_   _   __| Code 666
   \/ /    | | | |_   Goddard Space Flight Center
   / /     | | |  _|  Greenbelt, MD 20771
  / /\     | | | |__
 /_/  \    |_| |____| Phone: (301) 286-1061   Building 2, rm S211
-------\_____________ E-mail: arots at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov----------
--
  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  Wed Oct  5 15:16:30 1994
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	["745" "" " 5" "October" "1994" "15:51:27" "+0100" "Mr R P Hammersley" "iecab at csv.warwick.ac.uk" nil "20" "FITS formats" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Mr R P Hammersley Oct  5   20/745   " thread-indent "\"FITS formats\"\n") nil]
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From: iecab at csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr R P Hammersley)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: FITS formats
Date: 5 Oct 1994 15:51:27 +0100


Dear all,

A while back I saw a posting on the network suggesting that
someone had used the FITS format to keep track of image-processing
performed on a lattice. Having pulled back all the info I could
from NOST I could find no information on this. Could anyone
point me in the right direction  please? What I had understood
was it was possible to store a raw image and then specify the 
transformations required (mathematically). When it came to display
the image it was a matter of reading the raw image and then
applying each of the transformations. Is this really a possible
thing to do?

All help gratefully received, but as I do not have access to news
I would appreciate a reply be email to

Richard Hammersley
R.Hammersley at sghms.ac.uk


From fitsbits-request  Fri Oct  7 08:46:39 1994
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	["162" "Fri" " 7" "October" "1994" "12:56:27" "CET" "Willem Vermin" "SONDWIM at VM1.SARA.NL" nil "8" "Q: fits for cray ymp" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Willem Vermin     Oct  7    8/162   " thread-indent "\"Q: fits for cray ymp\"\n") nil]
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From: SONDWIM at VM1.SARA.NL (Willem Vermin)
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To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Q: fits for cray ymp
Date: Fri, 07 Oct 94 12:56:27 CET

Hallo,
 
does anybody know about a port of FITS to Cray-YMP? Or, can somebody
tell me about the feasbility of such a port?
 
Willem Vermin
willem.vermin at sara.nl


From fitsbits-request  Fri Oct  7 09:56:24 1994
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	["460" "Fri" " 7" "October" "1994" "09:56:09" "-0400" "William Pence" "pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov" nil "16" "Re: Q: fits for cray ymp" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     William Pence     Oct  7   16/460   " thread-indent "\"Re: Q: fits for cray ymp\"\n") nil]
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From: William Pence <pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Cc: SONDWIM at VM1.SARA.NL
Subject: Re: Q: fits for cray ymp
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 09:56:09 -0400

> Hallo,
>  
> does anybody know about a port of FITS to Cray-YMP? Or, can somebody
> tell me about the feasbility of such a port?
>  
> Willem Vermin
> willem.vermin at sara.nl
> 

The FITSIO Fortran subroutine library for reading and writing FITS
files has been ported to run on the Cray-C98 machine at NASA/GSFC,
and should also run on a YMP.  FITSIO can be obtained via anonymous
ftp from legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov in the /software/fitsio directory.

-Bill Pence


From fitsbits-request  Sat Oct  8 09:17:03 1994
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	["0" "Fri" " 7" "October" "1994" "21:40:21" "GMT" "Mike Fitzpatrick" "fitz at noao.edu" nil "0" "Re: ftp site for fits libraries" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Mike Fitzpatrick  Oct  7    0/0     " thread-indent "\"Re: ftp site for fits libraries\"\n") nil]
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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: ftp site for fits libraries
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 21:40:21 GMT

>From article <3745l7$664 at smaug.aoc.nrao.edu>, by dmehring at newshost.aoc.nrao.edu (David Mehringer):
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["49" "" "" "August" "19664" "" "" "article" "article" nil "3" "" nil nil nil "8" nil nil (number " " mark "     article           Aug       3/49    " thread-indent "\"\"\n") nil]
	nil)
> The 15jul94 aips patch for single dish software requires one to 
> link using the fits libraries cfitsio and fitsio.  We do not
> have fits libraries on our local system, so I was wondering if
> someone could give me an ftp site where I can get them.

Try ftp://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/software/fitsio



From fitsbits-request  Sat Oct  8 13:37:39 1994
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	["338" "Thu" " 6" "October" "1994" "17:45:44" "GMT" "Ralph Snel" "ralph at astro.lu.se" nil "9" "pbm+ like FITS package?" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Ralph Snel        Oct  6    9/338   " thread-indent "\"pbm+ like FITS package?\"\n") nil]
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From: ralph at astro.lu.se (Ralph Snel)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: pbm+ like FITS package?
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 17:45:44 GMT

I was wondering if any software like the pbm+ package existed for FITS
format. I am not realy interested in the transformation to other formats,
but would like to have a package that can perform arithmatic on images,
fits format in, fits format out, capable of dealing with the more exotic
formats as well.

Ralph Snel
ralph at astro.lu.se


From fitsbits-request  Sat Oct  8 15:08:38 1994
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	["667" "Fri" " 7" "October" "1994" "18:16:07" "GMT" "Mike Kurtz" "kurtz at cfa244.harvard.edu" nil "18" "Re: pbm+ like FITS package?" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Mike Kurtz        Oct  7   18/667   " thread-indent "\"Re: pbm+ like FITS package?\"\n") nil]
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From: kurtz at cfa244.harvard.edu (Mike Kurtz)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: pbm+ like FITS package?
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 18:16:07 GMT

Ralph Snel (ralph at astro.lu.se) wrote:
: I was wondering if any software like the pbm+ package existed for FITS
: format. I am not realy interested in the transformation to other formats,
: but would like to have a package that can perform arithmatic on images,
: fits format in, fits format out, capable of dealing with the more exotic
: formats as well.

Why not just use pbmplus?  pnmtofits and fitstopnm exist for vanilla
FITS images.  Eg.:

< imagefile.fits fitstopnm | pnmsmooth | pnmtofits > smoothimagefile.fits

Of course AIPS, IRAF, MIDAS, IDL, ... all can read FITS files, perform
complex image operations then write a FITS file as output.

Michael Kurtz



From fitsbits-request  Sat Oct  8 16:01:57 1994
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	["491" "" " 7" "October" "1994" "12:56:39" "-0600" "David Mehringer" "dmehring at newshost.aoc.nrao.edu" nil "12" "ftp site for fits libraries" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     David Mehringer   Oct  7   12/491   " thread-indent "\"ftp site for fits libraries\"\n") nil]
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From: dmehring at newshost.aoc.nrao.edu (David Mehringer)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: ftp site for fits libraries
Date: 7 Oct 1994 12:56:39 -0600

The 15jul94 aips patch for single dish software requires one to 
link using the fits libraries cfitsio and fitsio.  We do not
have fits libraries on our local system, so I was wondering if
someone could give me an ftp site where I can get them.


-- 
Dave Mehringer                    University of Illinois  
dmehring at sirius.astro.uiuc.edu    Department of Astronomy
BIMA post-doc/AIPS manager        Urbana, IL 61801 USA
BIMA=Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association mm-wave interferometer


From fitsbits-request  Thu Oct 13 17:16:10 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["3184" "Thu" "13" "October" "1994" "21:15:51" "GMT" "Don Wells" "dwells at nrao.edu" nil "74" "worldpos.c -- WCS Algorithms from Classic AIPS" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Don Wells         Oct 13   74/3184  " thread-indent "\"worldpos.c -- WCS Algorithms from Classic AIPS\"\n") nil]
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From: dwells at nrao.edu (Don Wells)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: worldpos.c -- WCS Algorithms from Classic AIPS
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 21:15:51 GMT


I am pleased to announce the availability of URL

    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/src/wcs/worldpos.tar.gz

                 16489 Oct 13 17:04 worldpos.tar.gz

This is the code which was mentioned during the FITS-WCS BOF at ADASS'94.
The tar file contains:

tar tvf worldpos.tar
rwxr-xr-x106/16      0 Oct 13 17:04 1994 worldpos/
rw-r--r--106/16  17535 Oct 13 16:01 1994 worldpos/worldpos.c
rw-r--r--106/16   5143 Oct 13 16:23 1994 worldpos/testpos.c
rw-r--r--106/16   2721 Oct 13 17:04 1994 worldpos/testpos.ref
rw-r--r--106/16  25265 Oct 10 16:46 1994 worldpos/COPYING.LIB-2.0
rw-r--r--106/16   2277 Oct 13 16:31 1994 worldpos/Makefile

I append selected text from file worldpos.c.

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

/*  worldpos.c -- WCS Algorithms from Classic AIPS.
    Copyright (C) 1994
    Associated Universities, Inc. Washington DC, USA.
   
    This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License..

    These two ANSI C functions, worldpos() and xypix(), perform
    forward and reverse WCS computations for 8 types of projective
    geometries ("-SIN", "-TAN", "-ARC", "-NCP", "-GLS", "-MER", "-AIT"
    and "-STG"):

        worldpos() converts from pixel location to RA,Dec 
        xypix()    converts from RA,Dec         to pixel location   

    where "(RA,Dec)" are more generically (long,lat). These functions
    are based on the WCS implementation of Classic AIPS, an
    implementation which has been in production use for more than ten
    years. See the two memos by Eric Greisen

        ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/documents/wcs/aips27.ps.Z
	ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/documents/wcs/aips46.ps.Z

    for descriptions of the 8 projective geometries and the
    algorithms.  Footnotes in these two documents describe the
    differences between these algorithms and the 1993-94 WCS draft
    proposal (see URL below). In particular, these algorithms support
    ordinary field rotation, but not skew geometries (CD or PC matrix
    cases). Also, the MER and AIT algorithms work correctly only for
    CRVALi=(0,0). Users should note that GLS projections with yref!=0
    will behave differently in this code than in the draft WCS
    proposal.  The NCP projection is now obsolete (it is a special
    case of SIN).  WCS syntax and semantics for various advanced
    features is discussed in the draft WCS proposal by Greisen and
    Calabretta at:
    
        ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/documents/wcs/wcs.all.ps.Z
...
int worldpos(double xpix, double ypix, double xref, double yref,
      double xrefpix, double yrefpix, double xinc, double yinc, double rot,
      char *type, double *xpos, double *ypos)
...
int xypix(double xpos, double ypos, double xref, double yref, 
      double xrefpix, double yrefpix, double xinc, double yinc, double rot,
      char *type, double *xpix, double *ypix)
...
--
  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  Thu Oct 13 18:07:13 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["4575" "Thu" "13" "October" "1994" "22:06:18" "GMT" "Don Wells" "dwells at nrao.edu" nil "118" "WCS code from the IDL Astronomy Library" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Don Wells         Oct 13  118/4575  " thread-indent "\"WCS code from the IDL Astronomy Library\"\n") nil]
	nil)
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From: dwells at nrao.edu (Don Wells)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: WCS code from the IDL Astronomy Library
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 22:06:18 GMT


I am pleased to announce the availability of URL

    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/src/wcs/idl_wcs_code.tar.gz

                 29445 Oct  4 16:36 idl_wcs_code.tar.gz

The tar file contains:

gunzip -c idl_wcs_code.tar.gz | tar tvf - 
rw-r--r--106/16   4993 Oct  4 16:35 1994 README
rw-r--r--106/16  51361 Oct  4 16:31 1994 wcs_demo.pro
rw-r--r--106/16  34591 Oct  4 16:31 1994 wcssph2xy.pro
rw-r--r--106/16  35629 Oct  4 16:31 1994 wcsxy2sph.pro

The three *.pro files in this tar file have been extracted from the
GSFC IDL Astronomy Library (see ftp://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/README)
with permission from Wayne Landsman <landsman at uit.gsfc.nasa.gov>.  The
algorithms implemented in this package are believed to be in
substantial conformance with the Greisen & Calabretta draft WCS
proposal which is available at

        ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/documents/wcs/wcs.all.ps.Z

The three IDL files are quite readable, and can probably be
transliterated into other languages without too much difficulty. They
are the first implementation of the Greisen & Calabretta paper. The
projections implemented by this package are:

;  FITS  Number  Name                       Comments
;  code   code
;  ----  ------  -----------------------    -----------------------------------
;   DEF     0    Default = Cartesian
;   AZP     1    Zenithal perspective       projp1 required
;   TAN     2    Gnomic                     AZP w/ projp1 = 0
;   SIN     3    Orthographic               AZP w/ projp1 = Infinity (>10^14)
;   STG     4    Stereographic              AZP w/ projp1 = 1
;   ARC     5    Zenithal Equidistant
;   ZPN     6    Zenithal polynomial        prop1-projp9 required, useless
;   ZEA     7    Zenithal equal area
;   AIR     8    Airy                       projp1 required
;   CYP     9    Cylindrical perspective    projp1 and projp2 required
;   CAR    10    Cartesian
;   MER    11    Mercator
;   CEA    12    Cylindrical equal area     projp1 required
;   COP    13    Conical perspective        projp1 and projp2 required
;   COD    14    Conical equidistant        projp1 and projp2 required
;   COE    15    Conical equal area         projp1 and projp2 required
;   COO    16    Conical orthomorphic       projp1 and projp2 required
;   BON    17    Bonne's equal area         projp1 required
;   PCO    18    Polyconic
;   GLS    19    Sinusoidal
;   PAR    20    Parabolic
;   AIT    21    Hammer-Aitoff
;   MOL    22    Mollweide
;   CSC    23    Cobe Quadrilateralized     convergence of inverse is poor
;                Spherical Cube
;   QSC    24    Quadrilateralized 
;                Spherical Cube
;   TSC    25    Tangential Spherical Cube

Test program wcs_demo says:

; COPYRIGHT NOTICE:

;       Copyright 1991, The Regents of the University of California. This
;       software was produced under U.S. Government contract (W-7405-ENG-36)
;       by Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is operated by the
;       University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy.
;       The U.S. Government is licensed to use, reproduce, and distribute
;       this software. Neither the Government nor the University makes
;       any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any liability or
;       responsibility for the use of this software.
;
; AUTHOR:
;
;       Rick Balsano
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^
        work done while he was at Los Alamos National Laboratory,
	circa 1991-1993.

The calling sequences are:

; NAME:
;       WCSSPH2XY 
;
; PURPOSE:
;       To convert spherical (longitude and latitude -- sky) coordinates to x 
;       and y (map) angular coordinates.  This procedure is the inverse of 
;       WCSXY2SPH.    See WCS_DEMO for example of use.
;
; CALLING SEQUENCE:
;       wcssph2xy, longitude, latitude, x, y, [ map_type , CTYPE = ,
;               FACE =,PROJP1 = , PROJP2= , CRVAL = , CRXY = , LONGPOLE = ,
;               NORTH_OFFSET =, SOUTH_OFFSET =, BADINDEX =]
;

    -=-=-=-=-=-

; NAME:
;       WCSXY2SPH  
;
; PURPOSE:
;       To convert x and y (map) coordinates to spherical (longitude and 
;       latitude or sky) coordinates.    This procedure is the inverse of
;       WCSSPH2XY.
;
; CALLING SEQUENCE:
;
;   wcsxy2sph, x, y, longitude, latitude, [map_type], [ CTYPE = ,$
;             FACE = ,PROJP1 = , PROJP2 = ,CRVAL =, CRXY =, LONGPOLE= ]

--
  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  Thu Oct 20 11:41:17 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1238" "Thu" "20" "October" "1994" "11:41:13" "EDT" "Bill Cotton" "bcotton at gorilla.CV.NRAO.EDU" nil "31" "FITS viewer for MS Windows" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Bill Cotton       Oct 20   31/1238  " thread-indent "\"FITS viewer for MS Windows\"\n") nil]
	nil)
Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5)
	id AA09540; Thu, 20 Oct 94 11:41:17 EDT
Return-Path: <bcotton at gorilla.CV.NRAO.EDU>
Message-Id: <9410201541.AA03683 at gorilla.cv.nrao.edu>
From: bcotton at gorilla.CV.NRAO.EDU (Bill Cotton)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at gorilla.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: FITS viewer for MS Windows
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 94 11:41:13 EDT


		       FITSview for MS Windows
			   October 20, 1994

   This is to announce the availability of a beta release of FITSview
for MS Windows.  This is a FITS image viewer for Windows which
features 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.

   FITSview runs on Windows 3.1 or later and uses any multicolor (or
multiple gray level) display although 256 color displays give the best
results.  Extensive online documentation is included. 

   FITSview for Windows is available at no cost via anonymous ftp as
the two files:

    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/os-support/ms-windows/fitsv03.txt
    ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/os-support/ms-windows/fitsv03.zip

Installation is described in file fitsv03.txt.

Implementations under X-windows and MacIntosh are under consideration.

bcotton at nrao.edu


From fitsbits-request  Thu Oct 20 15:47:44 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["3117" "Thu" "20" "October" "1994" "19:46:53" "GMT" "Brian Glendenning" "bglenden at colobus.CV.NRAO.EDU" nil "90" "C++ FITS Classes" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Brian Glendenning Oct 20   90/3117  " thread-indent "\"C++ FITS Classes\"\n") nil]
	nil)
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Message-Id: <BGLENDEN.94Oct20154653 at colobus.cv.nrao.edu>
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Path: saips.cv.nrao.edu!news.cv.nrao.edu!bglenden
From: bglenden at colobus.CV.NRAO.EDU (Brian Glendenning)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: C++ FITS Classes
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 1994 19:46:53 GMT


			 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 cd aips; make       # makes lib/libaips.a - mostly a Complex class
	o cd FITS; make       # makes lib/libfits.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. We are very interested in any experience you might have
porting these classes, and will endeavour to get such changes into the
mainline code.

"make distclean" from the top (aips) directory should clean out all
generated files.

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

4. Known bugs and deficiencies

        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 4.058 (19OCT94).


       Brian Glendenning - National Radio Astronomy Observatory
bglenden at nrao.edu          Charlottesville Va.           (804) 296-0286
--
       Brian Glendenning - National Radio Astronomy Observatory
bglenden at nrao.edu          Charlottesville Va.           (804) 296-0286


From fitsbits-request  Mon Oct 24 17:47:46 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["2386" "" "24" "October" "1994" "16:22" "EDT" "Barry M. Schlesinger" "bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov" nil "51" "ANNOUNCE: Draft revision to NOST standard on angular units" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Barry M. Schlesin Oct 24   51/2386  " thread-indent "\"ANNOUNCE: Draft revision to NOST standard on angular units\"\n") nil]
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Message-Id: <24OCT199416221206 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- Greenbelt, Maryland USA
Path: saips.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!caen!usenet.cis.ufl.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!news.mathworks.com!hookup!ames!newsfeed.gsfc.nasa.gov!nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov!bschlesinger
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: ANNOUNCE: Draft revision to NOST standard on angular units
Date: 24 Oct 1994 16:22 EDT

	A draft for revisions to the NOST Standard, the Definition of
FITS, is now available for review and comment.  The revisions deal 
with the units for angular measure and celestial coordinates.  
	This draft is being distributed for comments by a new
Technical Panel appointed by the NASA/Science Office of
Standards and Technology (NOST).  Among the responsibilities of this 
panel is to rectify any errors or oversights in version 1.0 of the 
NOST Standard. The new Panel is chaired by Dr. Robert J. Hanisch
(Space Telescope Science Institute), who chaired the panel that
developed version 1.0 of the Definition of FITS. 
	The panel has considered the issue of requirements and
recommendations on units for FITS files in response to community
comments on the version 1.0 treatment of this area.  Draft revisions 
are being released to the community for review and comments.  The Technical
Panel will review these comments. The Panel will either revise the
draft revisions to incorporate the substance of a comment or state the
reasons for not doing so.  The Panel will respond to all comments. 
All comments must be received by 21 November 1994.  When the
commmunity review process is complete, the text finally adopted by the
Technical Panel will be incorporated in the NOST Definition of FITS,
producing version 1.1. Comments should be sent in writing to the NOST
Librarian, at the electronic and postal addresses at the end of this
announcement. 
	The draft text for units revisions is available by anonymous 
ftp from nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits/units_revision.txt or by DECnet 
copy from NSSDCA::ANON_DIR:[FITS]UNITS_REVISION.TXT.  It is in flat 
ASCII text form, with an approximate length of two printed pages.  
Printed copies and electronic copies for those without ftp access can 
be obtained from the NOST librarian, who can be reached as follows:

Electronic mail --

Internet: nost at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
DECnet: NSSDCA::NOST

Surface mail:	NASA/Science Office of Standards and Technology
		National Science Data Systems Standards Office
		Code 633 (Building 26, Room 115)
		Goddard Space Flight Center
		Greenbelt MD 20771

Telephone:  	+1-301-286-3575
		(if no one answers first, a voice mail system answers 
			after four rings)


	Normal NOST library hours are 9:00 a. m. - 6:00 p. m., U. S.
Eastern Time, Monday-Friday (-0400 until October 29; -0500 after
October 30) 



From fitsbits-request  Mon Oct 24 19:23:16 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1256" "" "24" "October" "1994" "22:52:38" "GMT" "William Thompson" "thompson at orpheus.gsfc.nasa.gov" nil "32" "Telling httpd that FITS files are binary" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     William Thompson  Oct 24   32/1256  " thread-indent "\"Telling httpd that FITS files are binary\"\n") nil]
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Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- Greenbelt, Maryland USA
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From: thompson at orpheus.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary
Date: 24 Oct 1994 22:52:38 GMT


I remember reading somewhere that WWW browsers such as Mosaic depend on the
http server to determine what format a file is in.  Evidently, httpd thinks
that FITS files are text, probably because they start with an ASCII header.  

Unfortunately, the documentation for httpd is on http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
which is (chronically) down.  Does anyone know how to tell NCSA's httpd to
treat files ending in .fits as binary files?

One clue that I have is that there is a file in the "conf" directory called
mime.types which contains lines like

	image/jpeg                     jpeg jpg jpe

Evidently, one is supposed to enter a line in this file with the MIME data type
followed by a list of extensions this will apply to.  This should be something
that will tell the browser on the other end that this is a FITS file, so that
if a suitable viewer is available (e.g. SAOIMAGE) then it will pop the file
directly into that program.

Is there any standard for what that line should be (assuming I'm guessing
right)?  My inclination is to put in something like

	application/x-fits		fits fit fts

I don't think "image/fits" is a good idea because most GIF/JPEG viewers would
not work with FITS files.

Thank you for any help you can give me,

Bill Thompson


From fitsbits-request  Mon Oct 24 19:49:35 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["2326" "Mon" "24" "October" "1994" "19:42:59" "-0400" "Bruce O'Neel" "oneel at arupa.gsfc.nasa.gov" nil "62" "Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Bruce O'Neel      Oct 24   62/2326  " thread-indent "\"Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary\"\n") nil]
	nil)
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	id AA03135; Mon, 24 Oct 94 19:49:35 EDT
Return-Path: <oneel at arupa.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Message-Id: <m0qzZ2a-0001tlC at arupa.gsfc.nasa.gov>
In-Reply-To: <38hdrm$liv at paperboy.gsfc.nasa.gov> from "William Thompson" at Oct 24, 94 10:52:38 pm
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24alpha3]
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 2325      
From: oneel at arupa.gsfc.nasa.gov (Bruce O'Neel)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: thompson at orpheus.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson)
Cc: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 19:42:59 -0400 (EDT)

Hi,
  You guessed correctly.  Here's what we use...
  
image/x-fits                    fit     ifits   fts     FIT
image/x-fits                    im1.fits im2.fits im3.fits img.fits
image/x-fits                    xia
image/x-fits                    xib
image/x-fits                    xic
image/x-fits                    xid
image/x-fits                    mex
image/x-fits                    img

and we have entries in our .mailcap files to spawn saoimage when it sees
these types.  We did have to modify our copy of httpd so that files for the
form im1.fits would be recognized as images and .fits by itself would be
recognized just as binary files (for us .fits in most cases are just event
lists).  Our prefered image extension name is .img.

bruce
  
> 
> 
> I remember reading somewhere that WWW browsers such as Mosaic depend on the
> http server to determine what format a file is in.  Evidently, httpd thinks
> that FITS files are text, probably because they start with an ASCII header.  
> 
> Unfortunately, the documentation for httpd is on http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
> which is (chronically) down.  Does anyone know how to tell NCSA's httpd to
> treat files ending in .fits as binary files?
> 
> One clue that I have is that there is a file in the "conf" directory called
> mime.types which contains lines like
> 
> 	image/jpeg                     jpeg jpg jpe
> 
> Evidently, one is supposed to enter a line in this file with the MIME data type
> followed by a list of extensions this will apply to.  This should be something
> that will tell the browser on the other end that this is a FITS file, so that
> if a suitable viewer is available (e.g. SAOIMAGE) then it will pop the file
> directly into that program.
> 
> Is there any standard for what that line should be (assuming I'm guessing
> right)?  My inclination is to put in something like
> 
> 	application/x-fits		fits fit fts
> 
> I don't think "image/fits" is a good idea because most GIF/JPEG viewers would
> not work with FITS files.
> 
> Thank you for any help you can give me,
> 
> Bill Thompson
> 


-- 
oneel at arupa.gsfc.nasa.gov -- Bruce O'Neel HSTX (301) 286-1511 -- You can put
graphics and audio in SQL databases (as BLOBs, Binary Large OBjects), but
that's like trying to push a cow into the refrigerator -- Ted Nelson, New
Media 9/94



From fitsbits-request  Mon Oct 24 19:52:35 1994
Status: RO
X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil]
	["1611" "" "24" "October" "1994" "23:34:18" "GMT" "Steve Allen" "sla at umbra.UCSC.EDU" nil "32" "Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     Steve Allen       Oct 24   32/1611  " thread-indent "\"Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary\"\n") nil]
	nil)
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	id AA03144; Mon, 24 Oct 94 19:52:35 EDT
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Organization: UCO/Lick Observatory, Santa Cruz
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References: <38hdrm$liv at paperboy.gsfc.nasa.gov>
From: sla at umbra.UCSC.EDU (Steve Allen)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary
Date: 24 Oct 1994 23:34:18 GMT

In article <38hdrm$liv at paperboy.gsfc.nasa.gov>,
William Thompson <thompson at orpheus.gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote:
>I remember reading somewhere that WWW browsers such as Mosaic depend on the
>http server to determine what format a file is in.

In answer to this, we posted the following to our internal Lick BB a while ago
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
From mongo Thu Aug 11 09:44:09 1994
Subject: Teaching NCSA Mosaic to view FITS images

NCSA Mosaic can be taught to view datatypes other than those commonly sent over
the WWW.  In particular, it can be taught how to view FITS images.  The
procedures and protocols are described in
    http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/d2-multimedia.html
and they use the standard Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
mechanisms.  (The same mechanisms could be used to email and view FITS
images from inside a MIME-capable mail reader such as elm.)

First, create a .mime.types file in your home directory containing
    image/x-fits    fits
Then, create a .mailcap file in your home directory containing
    image/x-fits;           saoimage %s

The next time you start Mosaic it will know what to do with a FITS image
found anywhere on the Internet.  This trick cannot be performed with IRAF
image format because the data are not all stored in a single file.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --
Steve Allen          UCO/Lick Observatory       Santa Cruz, CA 95064
sla at lick.ucsc.edu    Voice: +1 408 459 3046     FAX: +1 408 454 9863
<a href=http://ucowww.ucsc.edu/~sla/morris/sms.html>Seabright Morris & Sword</a>


From fitsbits-request  Tue Oct 25 11:07:18 1994
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	["1814" "" "25" "October" "1994" "14:33:07" "GMT" "William Thompson" "thompson at orpheus.gsfc.nasa.gov" nil "43" "Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary" "^From:" nil nil "10" nil nil (number " " mark "     William Thompson  Oct 25   43/1814  " thread-indent "\"Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary\"\n") nil]
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References: <m0qzZ2a-0001tlC at arupa.gsfc.nasa.gov>
From: thompson at orpheus.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary
Date: 25 Oct 1994 14:33:07 GMT

oneel at arupa.gsfc.nasa.gov (Bruce O'Neel) writes:

>Hi,
>  You guessed correctly.  Here's what we use...
>  
>image/x-fits                    fit     ifits   fts     FIT
>image/x-fits                    im1.fits im2.fits im3.fits img.fits
>image/x-fits                    xia
>image/x-fits                    xib
>image/x-fits                    xic
>image/x-fits                    xid
>image/x-fits                    mex
>image/x-fits                    img

It seems like a number of people want to use "image/x-fits".  I think this is a
bad idea, for several reasons.

1.  Most of the people I will be passing data to will not have a FITS-viewer,
    such as saoimage, that they can simply pass the data to.  This may reflect
    the fact that I'm in a different community, solar physics, then the normal
    "nighttime" astronomical community.  If I use "image/x-fits" then the
    default behavior will be to pass the file to xv, lview or some other
    similar viewer which will not be able to view a FITS file (at least not
    unpatched).

    More useful for my users will be to have Mosaic, etc., automatically copy
    the file to disk so that it can then be read in and processed by IDL.  I
    know that it's possible to make Mosaic do this, but I want to avoid any
    possibility of confusion or wasted bandwidth.  For simply popping an image
    up on the screen we plan to provide GIF or JPEG files.

2.  Most of our data will not be simple 2D images.  There will be a significant
    subset that will be, but the bulk of the files will be more complex than
    that.  Binary tables will be extensively used.  

Perhaps a good compromise would be to have two possible MIME types for FITS
files:

	image/x-fits		For simple images
	application/x-fits	For more general FITS files

William Thompson


From fitsbits-request  Tue Oct 25 18:38:07 1994
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	["854" "" "25" "October" "1994" "21:42:34" "GMT" "William Thompson" "thompson at orpheus.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<38ju4a$ceg at paperboy.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "23" "Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary" "^From:" nil nil "10" "1994102521:42:34" "Telling httpd that FITS files are binary" (number " " mark "     William Thompson  Oct 25   23/854   " thread-indent "\"Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary\"\n") "<38j4v3$498 at paperboy.gsfc.nasa.gov>"]
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From: thompson at orpheus.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary
Date: 25 Oct 1994 21:42:34 GMT

thompson at orpheus.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson) writes:

>Perhaps a good compromise would be to have two possible MIME types for FITS
>files:

>	image/x-fits		For simple images
>	application/x-fits	For more general FITS files

I looked over again the mime.types file that came with NCSA's httpd and noticed
that there are entries for HDF and netCDF files which read

	application/x-hdf              hdf             
	application/x-netcdf           nc cdf          

Since I see FITS files as more closely related, in terms of the goals it's
trying to accomplish, to HDF and netCDF than it is to GIF and JPEG, I see this
as another argument that it should be "application/x-fits".

I've heard that there is some kind of movement underway to have FITS accepted
as a standard MIME type.  Could somebody involved in that effort comment?

William Thompson


From fitsbits-request  Tue Oct 25 23:01:43 1994
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	["1438" "Wed" "26" "October" "1994" "02:53:45" "GMT" "Don Wells" "dwells at nrao.edu" "<DWELLS.94Oct25225345 at fits.cv.nrao.edu>" "30" "Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary" "^From:" nil nil "10" "1994102602:53:45" "Telling httpd that FITS files are binary" (number " " mark "     Don Wells         Oct 26   30/1438  " thread-indent "\"Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary\"\n") "<38ju4a$ceg at paperboy.gsfc.nasa.gov>"]
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From: dwells at nrao.edu (Don Wells)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Re: Telling httpd that FITS files are binary
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 02:53:45 GMT

In article <38ju4a$ceg at paperboy.gsfc.nasa.gov>
     thompson at orpheus.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson) writes:
 WT> .. I've heard that there is some kind of movement underway to
 WT> have FITS accepted as a standard MIME type.  Could somebody
 WT> involved in that effort comment? 

When I accepted the role of Chair of the IAU FITS Working Group on
August 23 at Den Haag, I presented a proposed agenda for the current
triennium. The fifth item on my list was:

\item Register FITS with the Internet (IANA) as a MIME data type.

I added this item to my list because I believed that we would soon
find a need to use MIME type codes for transmission of FITS files.
This current thread of discussion shows that my prediction was
correct!

The FITS community should continue this discussion for a while, and
should continue experimenting with type codes.  When our ideas have
stabilized, somebody can formulate a specific proposal to register one
or more codes for FITS. The proposal should be posted in
sci.astro.fits for community review. Finally, the proposed application
to IANA will be considered by the IAU FITS Working Group, and they can
authorize it by a formal vote.
--
  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  Thu Oct 27 03:22:29 1994
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	["744" "" "27" "October" "1994" "06:47:48" "GMT" "Christopher Phillips" "cphillip at tasman.cc.utas.edu.au" "<38niek$s71 at franklin.cc.utas.edu.au>" "20" "Single Dish FITS info needed." "^From:" nil nil "10" "1994102706:47:48" "Single Dish FITS info needed." (number " " mark "     Christopher Phill Oct 27   20/744   " thread-indent "\"Single Dish FITS info needed.\"\n") nil]
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From: cphillip at tasman.cc.utas.edu.au (Christopher Phillips)
Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU
Subject: Single Dish FITS info needed.
Date: 27 Oct 1994 06:47:48 GMT

Hi all,

I am trying to find get information about the single dish fits format. I need
this to store spectral line data from a radio telescope. Currently we are using
out own format using standard FITS. We want to change this because of some 
problems we are having and to be a bit more standard.

I have looked through the NRAO ftp/html/wais site but can find very little
single dish fits information. (Namely a sample file from unipops and a 
collection of news/email discussing single dish fits, but it is dated 89/90.
Can anyone point me in the right direction. I want to be able to write in the
single dish format as well as read. Any FORTRAN code would be welcome. Any 
ftp or html sites would be a good help.

Cheers


Chris Phillips
 


