Subject: Re: FITS viewer?

From: dwells at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU (Don Wells)
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1993 16:22:27 GMT

In article <20mtaiINN61h at uwm.edu> gwc at csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Greg F Walz
Chojnacki) writes: [in Newsgroups: sci.astro]

 GFWC> I need a FITS image viewer.. tried VFITS012 for OS/2.. hangs
 GFWC> [for] images other than the samples.. how to use VFIT012[?]..
 GFWC> [or] another FITS viewer..?

1) Newsgroup sci.astro.fits exists for the purpose of discussing
FITS-related questions. I have crossposted this followup to s.a.f.

2) AnonFTP directory fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]
/fits/os-support/dos contains the following files related to
FITS-support software for DOS:

               2242 May  5 09:18 ftb30b.mail
               3480 Apr  2 22:34 imagine-32.news
               4211 Dec 31 13:58 imdisp-fits.news
               7399 Oct 15  1992 imdisp77.news
             342084 Oct 15  1992 imdisp77.zip
             131107 Oct 15  1992 imdisp78.exe
               5968 Oct 15  1992 imdisp78.news
               2827 Apr 29 00:27 imdisp78b.news
              19075 Mar  4 08:56 imdisp79.news
               1267 Dec  2  1992 ipsys.news
               6300 Jul 28  1991 listfits.c
               1735 Dec  3  1992 mira.news
               7010 Apr 28 09:26 pcvista.news
                959 Mar 10 07:06 s-and-t.news
               1957 Jun 28 10:59 vfits012.news

I suggest that you look at these files if you have not already done
so. I have appended your posting to the file containing the original
announcement of availability of vfits012.

3) A common weakness of simple FITS software is refusal to handle
cases of (NAXIS != 2) and, in particular, cases of (NAXIS > 2). In
many such cases NAXISi==1 for i>2 and therefore if you have source you
can probably add the support easily.

4) Another common source of trouble is using FTP to copy FITS files
without setting binary mode.
--

  Donald C. Wells           Associate Scientist       dwells at nrao.edu
  National Radio Astronomy Observatory                +1-804-296-0277
  520 Edgemont Road                              Fax= +1-804-296-0278
  Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-2475 USA         78:31.1W, 38:02.2N