From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Tue Mar 2 13:36:57 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id NAA09094 for fitsbits-spinner; Tue, 2 Mar 1999 13:36:02 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id NAA09089 for ; Tue, 2 Mar 1999 13:35:59 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id NAA04034 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Tue, 2 Mar 1999 13:35:58 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id OAA16392 for ; Sun, 28 Feb 1999 14:57:58 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id OAA32008 for ; Sun, 28 Feb 1999 14:57:57 -0500 Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id OAA11772; Sun, 28 Feb 1999 14:57:10 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: 28 Feb 1999 19:56:41 GMT From: pikovsky at rz.uni-potsdam.de ( Arkady Pikovsky) Message-ID: <7bc71p$dcu at zeppelin.rz.uni-potsdam.de> Organization: University of Potsdam Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!newsfeed.mathworks.com!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!bofh.vszbr.cz!newsfeed.nacamar.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!news.fh-hannover.de!news-han1.dfn.de!news-ham1.dfn.de!news-ber1.dfn.de!news.uni-potsdam.de!persius!pikovsky Subject: Scan to fits Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Hi there ! Does software exist (public domain preferred :) ) to save scanned images into FITS format (Windows NT) ? [if possible reply by e-mail] Thanks -- -------- A. Pikovsky pikovsky at rz.uni-potsdam.de From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Tue Mar 2 13:55:18 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id NAA09954 for fitsbits-spinner; Tue, 2 Mar 1999 13:55:17 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id NAA09949 for ; Tue, 2 Mar 1999 13:55:14 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id NAA04104 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Tue, 2 Mar 1999 13:55:13 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id MAA08975 for ; Tue, 2 Mar 1999 12:52:04 -0500 (EST) Received: from palantir.cv.nrao.edu (tismail at palantir.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.254]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id MAA03934 for ; Tue, 2 Mar 1999 12:52:03 -0500 Received: (from tismail at localhost) by palantir.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id MAA03189 for ; Tue, 2 Mar 1999 12:52:01 -0500 Received: from wheelo.gsfc.nasa.gov(128.183.50.20) by palantir.cv.nrao.edu via smap (V1.3) id sma002863; Tue Mar 2 12:51:48 1999 Received: from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov [128.183.16.178]) by wheelo.gsfc.nasa.gov (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id MAA01813 for ; Tue, 2 Mar 1999 12:45:41 -0500 (EST) Received: from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov by tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id MAA28687; Tue, 2 Mar 1999 12:45:22 -0500 Message-ID: <36DC23B1.928B1A88 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 12:45:21 -0500 From: William Pence Organization: NASA/GSFC X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.05 [en] (X11; I; SunOS 5.6 sun4u) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: FITSBITS Subject: CFITSIO 2.0 Update Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk . **** CFITSIO v2.0 Release **** This is an update on the latest features that have been added to version 2.0 of the CFITSIO library for reading and writing FITS files, which is available at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fitsio 1. Any table column, regardless of the datatype, can be read as a character string. The format of the returned string is determined by the TDISPn display format keyword if it exists, otherwise a default format based on the datatype of the column is used. 2. A subsection of a FITS image can be opened by appending the starting and ending pixel numbers (and optionally, a pixel increment) for each dimension to the filename with the IRAF-style syntax: filename.fits[xstart:xend:xstep, ystart:yend:ystep] For example, "myfile.fits[1:512:2, 2:512:2]" will open a 256x256 pixel image consisting of the odd numbered columns and the even numbered rows of the input image. 3. Added transparent support for the ESO HIERARCH keyword convention for keyword names longer than 8 characters or that contain ASCII characters not allowed in normal FITS keywords. Thus, CFITSIO can effectively read and write keywords like: heliocentric_correction = -45.5 / velocity HST WFPC2 Exposure Time = 1200.0 / exposure time in seconds heater:temp:#34 = 0.8 / degrees C These types of keywords are stored in the FITS header using the HIERARCH keyword convention that fully conforms to the FITS Standard. 4. Added new support routines for dealing with World Coordinate System keywords, which makes it easier to call Doug Mink's WCSlib routines for converting between plate and sky coordinates. 5. Added support for opening images or arrays that are contained in a single cell of a binary table, with the syntax: "filename.fits[extname; col_name(row_number)]" where 'extname' is the name of the table extension, 'col_name' is the name of the column and 'row_number' is the number of the row in the table that contains the array. This array is opened so that it appears to the application program as though it is opening a FITS image in the primary array. 6. Added 2 new routines to read any consecutive string of bits as an unsigned integer from a Bit 'X' or Byte 'B' column. 7. Added support for VMS-style directories in the input file name (e.g. "disk:[user.subdir]myfile.fits"). 8. Added supporting project files and instructions for building CFITSIO under Windows NT with the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler. 9. Made major improvements to both the C and Fortran User's Guides. These Guides are available on line at: C: http://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/c/c_user/cfitsio.html Fortran: http://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/c/f_user/fitsio.html As a reminder, version 2.0 of CFITSIO also supports these features: 1. CFITSIO can read IRAF format image files (.imh files) as well as FITS files. Thus, any program that uses CFITSIO to do image analysis of FITS images can directly read IRAF images as well. 2. FITS files on the internet can be directly read by providing the full FTP or HTTP URL as the input file name. 3. Input FITS files can be filtered or modified at run-time based on a user-supplied expression that is appended to the name of the input file. This allows users, at run time, to: a) select a subset of the rows in a table which satisfy an arbitrarily complex boolean expression b) create new table columns whose values are calculated as a function of other columns and/or keywords in the table c) create a virtual FITS image by binning/histogramming the values in one or more table columns. This is most often used to create an image by binning a list of X and Y coordinates for each event in a table. 4. The data input and output routines in CFITSIO has been optimized to achieve high throughputs, with typical rates of 5 - 10 MB/s on current generation machines. Many people and institutions have contributed to these new features in CFITSIO: Please refer to the User's Guides for the list of acknowlegements. -- ____________________________________________________________________ Dr. William Pence pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov NASA/GSFC Code 662 HEASARC +1-301-286-4599 (voice) Greenbelt MD 20771 +1-301-286-1684 (fax) From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Fri Mar 5 09:38:26 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id JAA21239 for fitsbits-spinner; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 09:36:15 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id JAA21234 for ; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 09:36:11 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id JAA24489 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 09:36:11 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id WAA11569 for ; Thu, 4 Mar 1999 22:26:40 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id WAA23307 for ; Thu, 4 Mar 1999 22:26:38 -0500 Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id WAA27969; Thu, 4 Mar 1999 22:25:19 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Thu, 04 Mar 1999 20:49:40 +0000 From: Duncan Munro Message-ID: <36DEF1E4.7125 at sfu.ca> Organization: SFU ARO Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!newsfeed.mathworks.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cyclone.bc.net!news.sfu.ca!not-for-mail References: <7bc71p$dcu at zeppelin.rz.uni-potsdam.de> Reply-To: dmunro at sfu.ca Subject: Re: Scan to fits Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk you could use Xfree86, GIMP, Xscanimage, SANE and Linux or OS/2 to scan into the GIMP and save the scan as a fits file. Alternatively you could use PMview ((NT?) or OS/2) and a scanner driver to do the same. I don't think PMview supports 16bit fits files though. Duncan Arkady Pikovsky wrote: > > Hi there ! > Does software exist (public domain preferred :) ) to > save scanned images into FITS format (Windows NT) ? > > [if possible reply by e-mail] > > Thanks > > -- > -------- > A. Pikovsky > > pikovsky at rz.uni-potsdam.de From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Sun Mar 7 14:31:43 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id OAA29143 for fitsbits-spinner; Sun, 7 Mar 1999 14:30:58 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id OAA29130 for ; Sun, 7 Mar 1999 14:30:55 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id OAA30778 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Sun, 7 Mar 1999 14:30:54 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id RAA29234 for ; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 17:16:55 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id RAA25338 for ; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 17:16:54 -0500 Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id RAA16193; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 17:16:53 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: 5 Mar 1999 14:16:05 -0800 From: sla at ucolick.borg (Steve Allen) Message-ID: <7bpl35$a35$1 at dei.ucolick.org> Organization: UCO/Lick Observatory Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!newsfeed.mathworks.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.ucsc.edu!not-for-mail Subject: OBJECT keyword redux Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Last April in response to the call for comments on NOST 100-1.2 Don Wells proposed that the value of the OBJECT keyword should conform to the recommendations of the Designations Task Group of IAU Commission 5. This led to a lively discussion in s.a.f that lasted through June where two camps emerged. One camp effectively agreed that the use of the OBJECT keyword should be tightened for the sake of archival applications. The other camp objected that the original loose definition of the OBJECT keyword had already led to development of software and observer habits which could not easily be changed to conform with a tightened definition. The discussion ended without a clear consensus. We are now about to deploy the new observing user interface whose prototype was mentioned last year. It has the ability to modify an object name provided by the observer so as to generate a single FITS card which contains a synopsis of several other important FITS cards. The prototype used the OBJECT keyword as the location for this information, principally because this has been the keyword which is listed by IRAF when it scans a directory full of files. Our decision on whether to continue to "abuse" the OBJECT keyword is imminent. I would like to re-open this can of worms. Are there any further thoughts on the matter of how the OBJECT keyword should be used? Or is the issue moot because the NOST panel will be changing the recommendations for OBJECT? -- Steve Allen UCO/Lick Observatory Santa Cruz, CA 95064 sla at ucolick.borg Voice: +1 831 459 3046 FAX (don't): +1 831 459 5244 WWW: http://www.ucolick.borg/~sla PGP public keys: see WWW Junk mail is irrelevant -- my return address has been assimilated. From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Wed Mar 10 13:09:12 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id NAA00984 for fitsbits-spinner; Wed, 10 Mar 1999 13:08:29 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id NAA00979 for ; Wed, 10 Mar 1999 13:08:26 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id NAA05747 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Wed, 10 Mar 1999 13:08:25 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id NAA00968 for ; Wed, 10 Mar 1999 13:07:09 -0500 (EST) Received: from palantir.cv.nrao.edu (tismail at palantir.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.254]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id NAA05732 for ; Wed, 10 Mar 1999 13:07:08 -0500 Received: (from tismail at localhost) by palantir.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id NAA24310 for ; Wed, 10 Mar 1999 13:07:07 -0500 Received: from wheelo.gsfc.nasa.gov(128.183.50.20) by palantir.cv.nrao.edu via smap (V1.3) id sma024301; Wed Mar 10 13:06:52 1999 Received: from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov [128.183.16.178]) by wheelo.gsfc.nasa.gov (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id NAA20826; Wed, 10 Mar 1999 13:00:43 -0500 (EST) Received: from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov by tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id NAA06373; Wed, 10 Mar 1999 13:00:23 -0500 Message-ID: <36E6B337.8690E056 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 13:00:23 -0500 From: William Pence Organization: NASA/GSFC X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.05 [en] (X11; I; SunOS 5.6 sun4u) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Steve Allen CC: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: OBJECT keyword redux References: <7bpl35$a35$1 at dei.ucolick.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Steve Allen wrote: > > I would like to re-open this can of worms. Are there any further > thoughts on the matter of how the OBJECT keyword should be used? Or > is the issue moot because the NOST panel will be changing the > recommendations for OBJECT? There has been no significant change to the definition of the OBJECT keyword in the latest version of the NOST FITS Standard (which incidentally, is expected to be publicly released within a couple weeks): "Object Keyword - The Value field shall contain a character string giving a name for the object observed". The NOST panel decided it was out of scope of its charter to introduce new restrictions or rules for the value of the OBJECT keyword or to define a new reserved keyword such as IAUDESIG, without the prior general agreement of the FITS community. -Bill Pence ____________________________________________________________________ Dr. William Pence pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov NASA/GSFC Code 662 HEASARC +1-301-286-4599 (voice) Greenbelt MD 20771 +1-301-286-1684 (fax) From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Thu Mar 11 14:53:28 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id OAA02142 for fitsbits-spinner; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:52:27 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id OAA02137 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:52:24 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id OAA08374 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:52:24 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id OAA00025 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:29:34 -0500 (EST) Received: from palantir.cv.nrao.edu (tismail at palantir.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.254]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id OAA08331 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:29:33 -0500 Received: (from tismail at localhost) by palantir.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id OAA18813 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:29:31 -0500 Received: from wheelo.gsfc.nasa.gov(128.183.50.20) by palantir.cv.nrao.edu via smap (V1.3) id sma018805; Thu Mar 11 14:29:01 1999 Received: from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov [128.183.16.178]) by wheelo.gsfc.nasa.gov (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id OAA13608 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:22:56 -0500 (EST) Received: from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov by tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id OAA10204; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:22:31 -0500 Message-ID: <36E817F6.90618916 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:22:30 -0500 From: William Pence Organization: NASA/GSFC X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.05 [en] (X11; I; SunOS 5.6 sun4u) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: FITSBITS Subject: HIERARCH keywords in CFITSIO Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Here is some information about support for the HIERARCH keyword convention in CFITSIO, for those who may be interested: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the request of ESO scientists, the CFITSIO library (available at http://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/fitsio) has been enhanced to support their convention for hierarchical FITS keyword names. A typical keyword using this convention looks like: HIERARCH ESO INS FOCU POS = -0.00002500 / Focus position Basically, this convention uses the FITS keyword 'HIERARCH' to indicate that this convention is being used. Then the actual keyword name begins in column 10 and can be composed of a number of subfields. In this example, 'ESO' indicates the domain of the keyword, 'INS' is the catagory, and 'FOCU' and 'POS' are subsystems to which the keyword applies. The equals sign marks the end of the keyword name and is followed by the usual value and comment fields just as in ordinary FITS keywords. Further details of this convention are described at http://arcdev.hq.eso.org/dicb/dicd/dic-1-1.4.html (search for HIERARCH). This specific use of the HIERARCH convention is probably of limited interest outside of ESO itself, but it has been implemented in CFITSIO in a general way so that a much broader range of keyword names are now supported, including names up to 67 characters in length, and names containing other ASCII text characters that would otherwise not be allowed in a standard keyword name. For example, all the following keywords can now be read or written with CFITSIO. 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 HIERARCH LongKeyword = 47.5 / This keyword has > 8 characters, and mixed case HIERARCH XTE$TEMP = 98.6 / This keyword contains the '$' character HIERARCH Earth is a star = F / This keyword contains embedded spaces HIERARCH ThisIsOneOfTheLongestPossibleKeywordsAllowedWhenUsingThisConvention = 9 Application programs do not need to specify the 'HIERARCH' part of the keyword name when reading or writing keywords with CFITSIO (although it may be specified if desired). When writing a keyword, CFITSIO first checks to see if the keyword name is legal as a standard FITS keyword (no more than 8 characters long and containing only letters, digits, or a minus sign or underscore). If so it writes it as a normal FITS keyword, otherwise it uses the hierarch convention to write the keyword. As shown in the last example above, the maximum keyword name length is 67 characters, (leaving only 1 space for the value field!). A more practical limit would be about 40 characters, which would leave enough room for most keyword values. Currently CFITSIO returns an error if there is not enough room for both the keyword name and the keyword value on the 80-character card, except for string-valued keywords which are simply truncated so that the closing quote character falls in column 80. Note that this hierarch convention can be combined in CFITSIO with the HEASARC long string value convention to produce keywords with both long keyword names and long string values extending over multiple keywords (the keyword name must all fit on the first card however). In the current implementation, CFITSIO preserves the case of the letters when writing the keyword name, but it is case-insensitive when searching for a keyword. Thus, the first keyword in the examples above could be read by looking for the keyword 'LONGKEYWORD' or 'Longkeyword', or any other combination of upper and lower case. The current implementation allows any ASCII text character (ASCII 32 to ASCII 126) in the keyword name except for the '=' character. A space is also required on either side of the equal sign, but in principle this could be relaxed to provide room for 2 more characters in the other keyword fields. Obviously, this convention should be used sparingly, or not at all in FITS files that are intended to be imported into other data systems that don't support this convention. On the otherhand, this convention will enable some new applications that require longer keywords to use the FITS format. - Bill Pence ____________________________________________________________________ Dr. William Pence pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov NASA/GSFC Code 662 HEASARC +1-301-286-4599 (voice) Greenbelt MD 20771 +1-301-286-1684 (fax) From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Fri Mar 12 09:46:17 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id JAA29968 for fitsbits-spinner; Fri, 12 Mar 1999 09:44:44 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id JAA29963 for ; Fri, 12 Mar 1999 09:44:41 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id JAA10725 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Fri, 12 Mar 1999 09:44:40 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id BAA20561 for ; Fri, 12 Mar 1999 01:32:06 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id BAA09841 for ; Fri, 12 Mar 1999 01:31:58 -0500 Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id BAA27647; Fri, 12 Mar 1999 01:31:57 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 06:09:23 GMT From: dmunro at sfu.ca (Duncan Munro) Message-ID: <36e8ada0.3999528 at newsserver.sfu.ca> Organization: Simon Fraser University Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!chaos.aoc.nrao.edu!newshost.nmt.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!cyclone.bc.net!news.sfu.ca!not-for-mail Subject: Fitsblink 2.28 Xfree86-OS/2 Port Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps,comp.os2.os2.misc,sci.astro.amateur,sci.astro,sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk The latest version of the Fitsblink for Xfree86-OS/2 (and others) is available at: http://kronos.ijs.si/~jure/fitsblink/fitsblink.html Here are a few of its features: >Fitsblink is a program for analysis of astronomical images, especially of asteroids and comets. It has the following features: > On-screen comparison of the FITS images. It can load and display a number of images, each with its own grey level correction and translation relative to other > images. The images can be alternately displayed with an adjustable time delay between them; > fitsblink can load images in FITS, compressed FITS (.fts.Z) or gzipped FITS (.fts.gz) formats; > if the header contains correct WCS keywords, it will show the celestial coordinates at the cursor position; > images can be displayed in grey level or color mode; > Fitsblink can create star lists, import star lists, match star lists with GSC and USNO SA catalogs; > after successful match with a catalog it is possible to do astrometry and mail results in MPC format. Duncan Munro From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Mon Mar 15 16:27:33 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id QAA22160 for fitsbits-spinner; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 16:26:19 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id QAA22155 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 16:26:16 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id QAA22103 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 16:26:16 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id PAA22047 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 15:51:04 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id PAA22036 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 15:51:03 -0500 Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id PAA10022; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 15:51:02 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 14:56:31 -0500 From: Tom McGlynn Message-ID: <36ED65EF.88196A87 at silk.gsfc.nasa.gov> Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- Greenbelt, Maryland USA Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!chaos.aoc.nrao.edu!newshost.nmt.edu!newshost.lanl.gov!awabi.library.ucla.edu!128.230.129.106!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newspeer1.nac.net!news.new-york.net!newsmaster.cc.columbia.edu!osiris.giss.nasa.gov!newsfeed.gsfc.nasa.gov!usenet Subject: Web Page Describing FITS Libraries Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Periodically this group gets a request for pointers to a FITS library which will meet the requester's needs. I thought it might be useful to have a single Web page that provided pointers to FITS libraries available in various languages. I've put one in the HEASARC Web site at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/fits/fits_libraries.html It provides a tabular overview of all the libraries, a capsule summary of the capabilities of the packages and links to where each package can be downloaded. So far this has only the libraries that I was personally aware of or that were easily findable on the Web. I'd be very happy to add more libraries -- and to correct errors in the descriptions. I've been trying to emphasize libraries that are usable independently of a particular software environment, and which are easily downloadable. Since it started with the libraries I know of, it's strongly biased to libraries developed at the HEASARC [including the two I'm responsible for], but I'm hoping to get pointers to alternatives and I'll be happy to add them. Note that all of this is 'without warranty'. I'm simply providing pointers to what others have placed on the Web. I've not personally used most of the libraries so I cannot vouch for their quality. Even a buggy library may be helpful to someone starting from scratch. I'd be especially interested in filling gaps in the language coverage. E.g., I don't know of any Ada or Pascal FITS libraries. Any suggestions for how this might be improved are welcome. Regards, Tom McGlynn NASA/HEASARC From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Tue Mar 23 14:23:03 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id OAA03177 for fitsbits-spinner; Tue, 23 Mar 1999 14:21:44 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id OAA03172 for ; Tue, 23 Mar 1999 14:21:41 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id OAA21135 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Tue, 23 Mar 1999 14:21:40 -0500 Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu (cv3.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.2]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id OAA02724 for ; Tue, 23 Mar 1999 14:18:54 -0500 (EST) Received: from primate.cv.nrao.edu (primate.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.67]) by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/CV-2.7) with ESMTP id OAA02626 for ; Tue, 23 Mar 1999 14:18:52 -0500 (EST) Received: (from egreisen at localhost) by primate.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/CV-2.3) id OAA11933; Tue, 23 Mar 1999 14:18:50 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 14:18:50 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199903231918.OAA11933 at primate.cv.nrao.edu> From: Eric Greisen MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: fitsbits at nrao.edu Subject: New drafts of WCS papers X-Mailer: VM 6.35 under Emacs 20.2.1 Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Mark and I have been working to implement the understandings of the last ADASS in Illinois in the form of 3 wcs papers. The drafts of papers I and III are now available for comment. The long Paper II on celestial coordinate projections needs a bit more work, although Mark has made great progress. Paper I: Representations of World Coordinates in FITS ftp://ftp.cv.nrao.edu/NRAO-staff/egreisen/wcs.ps Paper III: Representations of Spectral Coordinates in FITS ftp://ftp.cv.nrao.edu/NRAO-staff/egreisen/scs.ps are in PostScript form for printers with modern PostScript fonts (as expected by A&A Supp). They have no long figures. I invite comment, preferably directed to me rather than filling the fitbits with detail at this stage of the proceedings. Of course, wider comment will need to be made later and you may feel it appropriate even now. The spectral paper has a hole marked "HERE" where suggestions for dealing with complex optical instruments might be made. One thought is that optical images that have spectra of numerous objects overlayed on an RA-dec image may not even be amenable to a FITS representation at that stage of their processing. They may only e suitable for tables of spectra at a later stage of analysis. AS a radio astronomer, I do not know about such things and need your help. Thanks, Eric W. Greisen (egreisen at nrao.edu) and Mark Calabretta (mcalabre at atnf.csiro.edu) From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Fri Mar 26 12:02:48 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id MAA00044 for fitsbits-spinner; Fri, 26 Mar 1999 12:02:00 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id MAA29989 for ; Fri, 26 Mar 1999 12:01:56 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id MAA03129 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Fri, 26 Mar 1999 12:01:56 -0500 Received: from primate.cv.nrao.edu (primate.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.67]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id MAA29646 for ; Fri, 26 Mar 1999 12:01:07 -0500 (EST) Received: (from egreisen at localhost) by primate.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/CV-2.3) id MAA16355; Fri, 26 Mar 1999 12:01:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 12:01:04 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199903261701.MAA16355 at primate.cv.nrao.edu> From: Eric Greisen MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: fitsbits at primate.cv.nrao.edu Subject: new draft X-Mailer: VM 6.35 under Emacs 20.2.1 Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Peter Teuben has read wcs.ps and reported a few typos and made some suggestions. These are reflected in a new draft to be found at ftp://ftp.cv.nrao.edu/NRAO-staff/egreisen/wcs.ps The changes are an additional sentence at the end of the section on CUNITj concerning the number of characters needed and changes to Table 2 and to the description of Table 2. A numerically concrete example is now given and the choice of parameters described. Sadly, the paper now folds about an inch onto page 10. I invite people to consider wcs.ps and scs.ps at the above address and send their ideas on to me. Thanks, Eric From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Sat Mar 27 00:18:45 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id AAA18884 for fitsbits-spinner; Sat, 27 Mar 1999 00:18:29 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id AAA18843 for ; Sat, 27 Mar 1999 00:18:24 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id AAA05011 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Sat, 27 Mar 1999 00:18:24 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id RAA27082 for ; Fri, 26 Mar 1999 17:23:04 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id RAA04314 for ; Fri, 26 Mar 1999 17:23:03 -0500 Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id RAA29615; Fri, 26 Mar 1999 17:23:03 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 22:24:27 GMT From: ttruong at cfa.harvard.edu (Trieu Truong) Message-ID: <36fc0822.1653745 at cfanews.harvard.edu> Organization: Harvard University Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!newsfeed.mathworks.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!129.250.35.44!iad-peer.news.verio.net!peer.news.verio.net!news.harvard.edu!cfanews.harvard.edu!131.142.41.247 Subject: FITS to GIF/TIFF/etc. Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Hello. I'm a newbie to FITS and was hoping someone might be kind enough to tell me if there is PC software that will allow me to manipulate FITS files and convert them to GIF/JPEG/TIFF/etc. files so that I can put the pics up on the Web. I've tried FTOOLS, but that didn't allow me to save the files as anything but postscript files, and Photoshop (my main image editor) couldn't read the .ps files. Please please help. TIA ps. I am aware of MIRA from Axiom Research. Is this my only option? From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Sun Mar 28 20:47:40 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id UAA13996 for fitsbits-spinner; Sun, 28 Mar 1999 20:46:21 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id UAA13991 for ; Sun, 28 Mar 1999 20:46:18 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id UAA10769 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Sun, 28 Mar 1999 20:46:17 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id IAA10537 for ; Sun, 28 Mar 1999 08:52:29 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id IAA09614 for ; Sun, 28 Mar 1999 08:52:28 -0500 Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id IAA14114; Sun, 28 Mar 1999 08:52:28 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 15:50:10 +0100 From: Patrick Chevalley Message-ID: <36FE3392.7083D45A at geneva.crosswinds.net> Organization: AstroPC Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!nntp-out.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!news.belnet.be!news-ge.switch.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!not-for-mail References: <36fc0822.1653745 at cfanews.harvard.edu> Subject: Re: FITS to GIF/TIFF/etc. Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk If you use Photoshop there is a plugin for working with FITS file. You can find it at : http://www.fan.net.au/~eddiet/fitsplug.html I have a utility ( AstroIma ) in my QuickCam page that can view FITS images and then save it in BMP format, but it is only in French. http://www.astrosurf.org/astropc/qcam Patrick Chevalley http://www.astrosurf.org/astropc From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Mon Mar 29 10:03:53 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id KAA18053 for fitsbits-spinner; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 10:03:10 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id KAA18048 for ; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 10:03:07 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id KAA12134 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 10:03:06 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id KAA18038 for ; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 10:01:23 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id KAA12119 for ; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 10:01:21 -0500 Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id KAA14678; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 10:01:20 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 16:39:55 +0200 From: "Martino Nicolini" Message-ID: <7do3be$tov$1 at news.flashnet.it> Organization: Customer of Flashnet S.p.A. - http://www.flashnet.it Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!chaos.aoc.nrao.edu!newshost.nmt.edu!newshost.lanl.gov!awabi.library.ucla.edu!128.230.129.106!news.maxwell.syr.edu!btnet-peer!btnet!insnet.net!backpost.satin.net!newsfeeder.flashnet.it!news.flashnet.it!not-for-mail References: <36fc0822.1653745 at cfanews.harvard.edu> Subject: Re: FITS to GIF/TIFF/etc. Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Hello, Astroart is a new 32bit software for astronomical image processing and analysis (for Windows95-98 and NT (TM)). It supports FITS file format (you can easly edit the header) as well as 20 commercial CCD formats like SBIG, HiSIS, Starlight, Pixcell, Seti 245, Cookbook, Lynxx, Electrim or a generic free format for particular cameras; some other nice features are a true real time zoom and 3D window. It has advanced filters like a new adaptive algorithm, gaussian high pass, convolution and deconvolution (Lucy-Richardson and Maximum Likelihood) rotational gradient (Larson-Sekanina) and many others... Using a simple drag&drop you can manipolate groups of images with the advanced tools in the PreProcessing window (in just a few seconds you can calibrate for dark, flat and bias and align and sum a set of images); create your own macros for many pourposes etc. Another very powerful feature is the easy astrometric and photometric calibration with an integrated Star Atlas based on the G.S.C. catalogue: it fully support the WCS (World Coordinate System) with standard FITS keywords so you can correctly read sky coordinates in your images also with other UNIX based and advanced software like IRAF, MIDAS, XEPHEM etc. now on Linux platform. After our efforts in developing and producing this big package, we decided to share with the CCD astronomical amateur community a freeware-demo version (in english and italian), available at: http://www.sira.it/msb/astroart.htm Only the advanced features are not supported, but you can load, display, read the WCS etc. in every kind of images and, above all, it does not expire with the time: enjoy it forever! The freeware-demo version will allow you to save FITS images only in the BMP format Best regards, MSB Fabio Cavicchio and Martino Nicolini Ravenna, Italy. Trieu Truong ha scritto nel messaggio <36fc0822.1653745 at cfanews.harvard.edu>... >Hello. > >I'm a newbie to FITS and was hoping someone might be kind enough to >tell me if there is PC software that will allow me to manipulate FITS >files and convert them to GIF/JPEG/TIFF/etc. files so that I can put >the pics up on the Web. I've tried FTOOLS, but that didn't allow me >to save the files as anything but postscript files, and Photoshop (my >main image editor) couldn't read the .ps files. Please please help. > >TIA > >ps. I am aware of MIRA from Axiom Research. Is this my only option? > From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Mon Mar 29 13:39:15 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id NAA18938 for fitsbits-spinner; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 13:38:58 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id NAA18933 for ; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 13:38:54 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id NAA12469 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 13:38:53 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id NAA18921 for ; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 13:33:31 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id NAA12449 for ; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 13:33:29 -0500 Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id NAA19028; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 13:33:29 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 17:47:27 GMT From: dunmunro at direct.ca (Duncan Munro) Message-ID: <36ffb9d8.14837494 at news.direct.ca> Organization: Canada Internet Direct, Inc. Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!chaos.aoc.nrao.edu!lynx.unm.edu!jobone!cliffs.rs.itd.umich.edu!newsfeed.direct.ca!newsgate.direct.ca!not-for-mail References: <36fc0822.1653745 at cfanews.harvard.edu> Reply-To: dmunro at sfu.ca Subject: Re: FITS to GIF/TIFF/etc. Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Get Fitsview. It is a freeware fits viewer which allows you to save into the bmp format. you can get it at: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/fits/os-support/ Duncan On Fri, 26 Mar 1999 22:24:27 GMT, ttruong at cfa.harvard.edu (Trieu Truong) wrote: >Hello. > >I'm a newbie to FITS and was hoping someone might be kind enough to >tell me if there is PC software that will allow me to manipulate FITS >files and convert them to GIF/JPEG/TIFF/etc. files so that I can put >the pics up on the Web. I've tried FTOOLS, but that didn't allow me >to save the files as anything but postscript files, and Photoshop (my >main image editor) couldn't read the .ps files. Please please help. > >TIA > >ps. I am aware of MIRA from Axiom Research. Is this my only option? > From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Mon Mar 29 15:05:13 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id PAA19796 for fitsbits-spinner; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 15:05:00 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id PAA19765 for ; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 15:04:56 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id PAA12662 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 15:04:55 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id PAA19724 for ; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 15:03:27 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id PAA12645 for ; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 15:03:26 -0500 Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id PAA21661; Mon, 29 Mar 1999 15:03:26 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 15:02:32 -0500 From: Doug Mink Message-ID: <36FFDC58.844D982D at cfa.harvard.edu> Organization: Harvard University Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!howland.erols.net!newshub.northeast.verio.net!iad-peer.news.verio.net!peer.news.verio.net!news.harvard.edu!cfanews.harvard.edu!131.142.24.153 References: <36fc0822.1653745 at cfanews.harvard.edu> Subject: Re: FITS to GIF/TIFF/etc. Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Trieu Truong wrote: > I'm a newbie to FITS and was hoping someone might be kind enough to > tell me if there is PC software that will allow me to manipulate FITS > files and convert them to GIF/JPEG/TIFF/etc. files so that I can put > the pics up on the Web. I display FITS images in my viewer of choice (usually SAOimage because I maintain it, but sometimes SkyCat, SAOtng, or ds9), adjust the contrast (darker, smoother backgrounds compress better and make smaller GIF images), use xwd to dump the image to a disk file and either xv or the PBMPLUS xwd2pnm and ppmtogif programs to make GIF files for WWW use. I have found the the PBMPLUS pnmscale program reduces image dimensions more cleanly than XV does. My latest results are at http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/software/wcstools/imwcs/imua2.html -Doug Mink Telescope Data Center Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Wed Mar 31 10:42:49 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id KAA07641 for fitsbits-spinner; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 10:41:30 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id KAA07636 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 10:41:27 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id KAA17539 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 10:41:26 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id KAA07624 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 10:39:28 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id KAA17522 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 10:39:27 -0500 Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id KAA13408; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 10:39:26 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 17:37:29 +0200 From: Francois Ochsenbein Message-ID: <37024139.19EA at simbad.u-strasbg.fr> Organization: CDS (Centre de Donnees de Strasbourg) Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!newsfeed.mathworks.com!nntp.primenet.com!news-peer.gip.net!news-raspail.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!oleane!ciril.fr!u-strasbg.fr!news Subject: wcs.ps Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk I read with interest the "Representation of world coordinates in FITS" proposal -- this convention widely used will benefit the publication! But I was suprised to find there the Appendix B with the OGIP conventions on units in FITS that, as far as I know, were never approved (was WCS approved ?) There are the following points of disagreements: 1. Compared to the IAU Style Manual: In table3: - the radian (symbol rad) is missing - the Ohm sould be written with a capitalized O, to be consistent with its origin (physicist's name) and uppercase greek symbol. In table 4: - the symbol of the year is the single-letter a (not yr) - the sun-based units (solar mass at least) is missing - the letter 'b' alone is the symbol of the barn (cross-section) - for the Angstroem: should be capitalized for the same reasons as Ohm above -- and should or not an 'e' appended after the 'o' to reflect the original accentuation of the o ? 2. The usage of the ** for exponentiation is not really a good idea -- it only makes sense for fortran programmers. Why not a single-letter symbol like the carret (^) most likely familiar to many more persons ? 3. The usage of the blank is not a good idea either, even though it looks more like the printed text, it complicates its acquisition from simple-minded software (e.g. Perl) without better readibility -- "count /s" doesn't look better than "count/s" 4. Some usual abbreviations like "ct" for count, or "ph" for photon, could be accepted . And some "miscellaneous" units could be useful as well like "beam" or "bit" 5. Finally, the usage of the trigonometric functions applied to units raises the question of the units of their argument and therefore the inconsistency with the inverse function, the degree being adopted instead of the radian. My personnal suggestion would be to drop completely the trigonometric functions applied to non-dimensionless units -- I never found such expression in the literature, and this would be bad physics anyway ! Are these conventions about units in FITS definitive ? The documentation of astronomical catalogues available from the data centres (ADC, CDS, ...) describe over 60,000 columns; roughly 50% of these columns are unitless, and therefore about 30,000 columns have attached units carefully standardized to allow automatic conversions. (description at http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/doc/catstd-3.2.htx ) I would hesitate to change these anyway... but would appreciate any comment / argumentation ! ====================================================== Francois Ochsenbein Centre de Donnees astronomiques de Strasbourg Internet: francois at astro.u-strasbg.fr Phone: +33 3 88 150 755 Fax: +33 3 88 150 740 http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/CDS.html Post: Observatoire Astronomique 11, rue de l'Universite 67000 STRASBOURG, France ====================================================== From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Wed Mar 31 11:03:44 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id LAA07850 for fitsbits-spinner; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 11:03:41 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id LAA07822 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 11:03:37 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id LAA17618 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 11:03:37 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id KAA07684 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 10:59:05 -0500 (EST) Received: from palantir.cv.nrao.edu (tismail at palantir.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.254]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id KAA17581 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 10:59:04 -0500 Received: (from tismail at localhost) by palantir.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id KAA00229 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 10:59:02 -0500 Received: from poseidon.ifctr.mi.cnr.it(155.253.16.87) by palantir.cv.nrao.edu via smap (V1.3) id sma000218; Wed Mar 31 10:58:45 1999 Received: from localhost (lucio at localhost) by poseidon.ifctr.mi.cnr.it (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id RAA06204 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 17:58:59 +0200 (MET DST) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 17:58:59 +0200 (MET DST) From: Lucio Chiappetti To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: wcs.ps In-Reply-To: <37024139.19EA at simbad.u-strasbg.fr> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk On Wed, 31 Mar 1999, Francois Ochsenbein wrote: > Appendix B with the OGIP conventions on units in FITS that, > as far as I know, were never approved (was WCS approved ?) a statement on the official approval status of both would be appreciated. > There are the following points of disagreements: I would say I agree with some points > 3. The usage of the blank is not a good idea either, [..] > 4. Some usual abbreviations like "ct" for count, or "ph" [...] I'm indifferent to other > 1. Compared to the IAU Style Manual: > 5. Finally, the usage of the trigonometric functions applied to (as I would not care much for standardization of what are essentially labels, I would expect human readability to be more important than computer readability, and few programs needing to INTERPRET (parse) such data, but just use them "as they are" to label plots or table captions). But I **definitely disagree** on this one : > 2. The usage of the ** for exponentiation is not really a good > idea -- it only makes sense for fortran programmers. > Why not a single-letter symbol like the carret (^) most > likely familiar to many more persons ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucio Chiappetti - IFCTR/CNR - via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano (Italy) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- L'Italia ripudia la guerra [...] come Italy repudiates war {...] as a mezzo di risoluzione delle controversie way of resolution of international internazionali controversies [Art. 11 Constitution of the Italian Republic] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more info : http://www.ifctr.mi.cnr.it/~lucio/personal.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Wed Mar 31 11:30:58 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id LAA08031 for fitsbits-spinner; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 11:30:56 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id LAA08026 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 11:30:53 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id LAA17665 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 11:30:52 -0500 Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu (cv3.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.2]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id LAA08005 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 11:29:00 -0500 (EST) Received: from primate.cv.nrao.edu (primate.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.67]) by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/CV-2.7) with ESMTP id LAA29232 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 11:28:59 -0500 (EST) Received: (from egreisen at localhost) by primate.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/CV-2.3) id LAA24989; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 11:28:58 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 11:28:58 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199903311628.LAA24989 at primate.cv.nrao.edu> From: Eric Greisen MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: fitsbits at nrao.edu Subject: approval status X-Mailer: VM 6.35 under Emacs 20.2.1 Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk My e-mails made it clear (I thought) that these are draft proposals. They have not been approved by anyone other than their authors. Of course, they have been around in some form or other for a long time and already reflect a great deal of discussion and compromise. Both authors are, in fact, unhappy about bits of them but we are eager to get some sort of agreement, so long as it is workable and correct. The authors do not expect for the appendices to be part of the adopted standard, although one or more of them could be. Certainly, we expect the pixel regularization to be included if possible in an adopted standard, but we do not expect that the added nomenclature for tables and the specific units suggestions to be official standards. Instead, they may well end up in the same category as the "heap" used with binary tables, namely an understood but informal convention. I adopted most of the units suggestions of OGIP since theirs is the only set actually documented and in wide use. I did drop non-degrees in units for angles and may have made other mistakes in the transcription. I will reply in more detail about the other comments after I get to study them in detail. Eric Greisen From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Wed Mar 31 12:35:45 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id MAA08362 for fitsbits-spinner; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 12:35:39 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id MAA08357 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 12:35:36 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id MAA17768 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 12:35:35 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id MAA08347 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 12:35:08 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id MAA17749; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 12:35:07 -0500 Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 12:35:07 -0500 Message-Id: <199903311735.MAA17749 at fits.cv.nrao.edu> From: Don Wells MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: wcs.ps In-Reply-To: References: <37024139.19EA at simbad.u-strasbg.fr> X-Mailer: VM 6.35 under Emacs 20.2.1 Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Lucio Chiappetti writes: > On Wed, 31 Mar 1999, Francois Ochsenbein wrote: > > > Appendix B with the OGIP conventions on units in FITS that, > > as far as I know, were never approved (was WCS approved ?) > > a statement on the official approval status of both would be appreciated. The FITS WCS conventions beyond those described in the earliest FITS papers have not been subject to a vote by any of the FITS committees. Therefore, the current NOST FITS standard does not discuss them. Conventions on units for FITS beyond those recommended in the FITS papers have not been subject to a vote by any of the FITS committees. Therefore, the current NOST FITS standard says in its section 5.3 that units should conform to the IAU style manual and 'for angular measurements given as floating point values and specified with reserved keywords, degrees are the recommended units'. The OGIP conventions on units are an agreement among certain high-energy astrophysics data groups. The 'wcs.ps' draft is proposing that a version of them become a recommended practice to augment the IAU Style Manual rules. The units conventions used by the data centers (CDS, ADC, etc) for data tables should be regarded as another draft proposal for FITS. I expect that a merger of the two sets of conventions would be best; see: http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/doc/catstd-3.2.htx http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/ofwg/docs/general/ogip_93_001/ogip_93_001.html The current negotiation of the WCS conventions for FITS is an opportunity to agree on a recommended practice for interchanging computer character string representations of units, a problem which the IAU Style Manual did not address. -Don -- Donald C. Wells Scientist - GBT Project dwells at nrao.edu http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~dwells National Radio Astronomy Observatory +1-804-296-0277 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-2475 USA From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Wed Mar 31 16:20:51 1999 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id QAA08878 for fitsbits-spinner; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 16:20:35 -0500 (EST) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id QAA08873 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 16:20:32 -0500 (EST) Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id QAA19261 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 16:20:32 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id QAA08863 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 16:18:02 -0500 (EST) Received: from primate.cv.nrao.edu (primate.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.67]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id QAA19225 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 16:18:02 -0500 Received: (from egreisen at localhost) by primate.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/CV-2.3) id QAA25164; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 16:17:52 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 16:17:52 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199903312117.QAA25164 at primate.cv.nrao.edu> From: Eric Greisen MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: Francois Ochsenbein Cc: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: wcs.ps Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits In-Reply-To: <37024139.19EA at simbad.u-strasbg.fr> References: <37024139.19EA at simbad.u-strasbg.fr> X-Mailer: VM 6.35 under Emacs 20.2.1 Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk A revised draft of wcs.ps may be found at the usual address: ftp://ftp.cv.nrao.edu/NRAO-staff/egreisen/wcs.ps It contains a change to the table of special table keywords and the discussion of that table. And it contains lots of changes re units. I ask the OGIP people in particular to review these changes to see if they are okay with you. Francois Ochsenbein writes: > I read with interest the "Representation of world coordinates > in FITS" proposal -- this convention widely used will benefit > the publication! Thank you; the authors agree or we would not have worked on this paper for 7 years and much aggravation. > But I was surprised to find there the > Appendix B with the OGIP conventions on units in FITS that, > as far as I know, were never approved (was WCS approved ?) I felt that we needed at least to make recommendations for usage. I left Appendix B's status with respect to official adoption vague to see whether the community will be willing to accept guidance on this issue. But, everything in the papers wcs.ps, ccs.ps (not available yet), and scs.ps is a proposal. None of it is adopted as yet. I have reviewed both the OGIP document and the WWW page you cited and have made a bunch of changes to wcs.ps. Thank you for pointing me in this direction. I believe that every unit in your www page is now in wcs.ps. For specifics, see below: > > There are the following points of disagreements: > > 1. Compared to the IAU Style Manual: > In table3: > - the radian (symbol rad) is missing Angular units are a problem. The original FITS papers specified that degrees would be used and they have been widely used for angles projected onto images. Coordinate descriptions purporting to obey the proposed conventions of Paper II (ccs.ps) will be required to use degrees throughout. Nonetheless, wcs.ps should include 'rad' and other standard angular measures for other uses, such as in tables. Angles without specified units will be assumed to be in degrees. > - the Ohm should be written with a capitalized O, > to be consistent with its origin (physicist's name) > and uppercase Greek symbol. Agreed - but neither your www site nor OGIP used the upper case so I think we should stay lower. IAU does not capitalize any of the named units (e.g.newton) when spelling out the unit in case that matters to anyone. > In table 4: > - the symbol of the year is the single-letter a (not yr) Yes. However, your www site also allows 'yr', so I have added the IAU-standard 'a' > - the sun-based units (solar mass at least) is missing Special mass units in general were missing and I also added all the solar ones on your www page. > - the letter 'b' alone is the symbol of the barn (cross-section) The IAU does not include this unit and your www page also uses 'barn' so I think we leave this one. > - for the Angstroem: should be capitalized for the same reasons > as Ohm above -- and should or not an 'e' appended after the > 'o' to reflect the original accentuation of the o ? The IAU does not include the unit. I suggest angstrom because that is what OGIP has used and your www page does not allow for it. > > 2. The usage of the ** for exponentiation is not really a good > idea -- it only makes sense for fortran programmers. > Why not a single-letter symbol like the caret (^) most > likely familiar to many more persons ? Actually the up arrow is also tied to mark-up languages such as TeX which, like Fortran, will become unfamiliar to people in time. There is no reason not to allow both and I agree that the up arrow looks more like "raising to a power". It will be harder to typeset with TeX (e.g. \char'136 or inside a \verb) than simple text. > > 3. The usage of the blank is not a good idea either, even though > it looks more like the printed text, it complicates its > acquisition from simple-minded software (e.g. Perl) without > better readability -- "count /s" doesn't look better than > "count/s" You know - I rejected this when I first read it and have since come around to think that you are right. I have rewritten the text to allow but strongly discourage blanks. > > 4. Some usual abbreviations like "ct" for count, or "ph" for > photon, could be accepted . > And some "miscellaneous" units could be useful as well like > "beam" or "bit" I added 'ct', 'bit', and 'beam'. Your list does not include 'ph' so I left 'photon' as the only one of those. > > 5. Finally, the usage of the trigonometric functions applied to > units raises the question of the units of their argument and > therefore the inconsistency with the inverse function, the degree > being adopted instead of the radian. My personal suggestion > would be to drop completely the trigonometric functions applied > to non-dimensionless units -- I never found such expression in > the literature, and this would be bad physics anyway ! Again I am going from rejecting your idea to accepting it. There are numerous physical quantities that vary e.g wrt log(wavelength) or cos(elevation). In the first case, the values do depend on whether it is log(nm) or log(m). But the second case, cos requires an argument in whatever units that function requires and produces a unitless result that is independent of whatever units we thought of the elevation in. Therefore I have dropped all trigonometric functions but have left log, ln, etc. > > Are these conventions about units in FITS definitive ? > The documentation of astronomical catalogues available from > the data centres (ADC, CDS, ...) describe over 60,000 columns; > roughly 50% of these columns are unitless, and therefore about > 30,000 columns have attached units carefully standardized > to allow automatic conversions. (description at > http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/doc/catstd-3.2.htx ) > I would hesitate to change these anyway... but would appreciate > any comment / argumentation ! I have adopted all of the suggestions at this site, but one. Write m2 does not instinctively mean m^2 or m**2 when I read it and so I prefer the nomenclature of OGIP for exponents even though it does require more characters. At some point human readability must enter this discussion. Many thanks for your close reading of this document and your suggestions. I look forward to hearing from you again... Eric Greisen