Subject: FITS Browser web page

From: Xinjian Lu <xlu at ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 1996 15:40:21 -0600

The NCSA HDF group has set up a FITS Browser web page at:
          http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu:4321/fits/

This page contains:

  . The features of the FITS Browser.
  . Installation
  . How to use the FITS Browser.
  . Downloading
  . Test files

If interested please check it out and have a try!

-xinjian (xlu at ncsa.uiuc.edu)

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From: ejo at pha.jhu.edu (Eric J. Ostrander)
Date: 21 Jan 1996 22:25:37 GMT

Dear sci.data.formats readers,

  Does anyone out there know how to convert .fit format
to .ps format non-interactively?  Ultimately, is there
a way to print a .fit format image on my printer?  I'm
running SunOS4.1.3

Thank you for your time. 

                           Eric J. Ostrander
                           ejo at mds.pha.jhu.edu
                           JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
                           PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

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From: Andy Loan <aloan at ast.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 14:54:14 +0000

> a way to print a .fit format image on my printer?  I'm

You could try 'fitstopgm' followed by 'pnmtops' assuming you have the
relevant commands available. 

I have not actually tried this, and I have no idea whether the results 
will look any good. If you are worried about how good the results look, 
you should probably use a proper interactive graphics package, like IDL.

-- 
+-----Andy Loan (aloan at ast.cam.ac.uk)---tel: +44 1223 337502-------+
+  Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HA, UK  |
+------<a href="http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~aloan/">me</a>-----------+

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From: Lucio Chiappetti <lucio at ifctr.mi.cnr.it>
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 09:15:54 +0100 (MET)

On Mon, 22 Jan 1996, Andy Loan wrote in reply to ???? asking :

> You could try [...]

  Any common astronomical package like ESO MIDAS or NOAO IRAF will do
  that.

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From: fitz at noao.edu (Mike Fitzpatrick)
Date: 22 Jan 1996 21:01:23 -0700

> you should probably use a proper interactive graphics package, like IDL.

    You actually have a little more control if you also use the other
filters in PBMplus to do the color quantization, gamma correction, scaling,
etc.  Still you may have to crank out a few before you get something you're
happy with.
    For a single task have a look at the 'convert' program in ImageMagick,
it handles simple FITS, PS, PS Level II, and lots more.  There are also 
options to quantize, scale, blur, etc.
    For a "proper" package my personal favorite is the EXPORT task in IRAF
(in the IMCNV external package, ftp://iraf.noao.edu/iraf/extern/imcnv.tar.Z).
IRAF V2.11 will contain a FITS image kernel so you can operate on the FITS
files directly (a preliminary FITS kernel is available from STScI now),
but for now it's still easy to convert to IRAF format first.  EXPORT has 
an expression parameter that allows you to compute an optimal 8-bit inten-
sity scale without looking at the image first, mosaic multiple images 
onto a single page, combine frames to form a pseudocolor image, apply 
any arithmetic function, or any combination of these.  A number of formats
besides EPS are also supported.  Contact iraf at noao.edu for more information.
    As for printing, once you get the PS file just use 'lpr'....

Mike Fitzpatrick
NOAO/IRAF Group
fitz at noao.edu