Subject: Clarification of EFC Motion in Support of DATE-OBS Proposal

From: Preben Grosbol <pgrosbol at eso.org>
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 15:25:03 +0100

We received some comments regarding the 'Motion in support of
DATE-OBS proposal' by the European FITS Committee after it was posted
on the 'sci.astro.fits' News Group.  They suggest that the wording of
our first comment:

    1) that UTC is made mandatory for all DATExxxx keywords
       including DATE-OBS, and

was unclear and could be misinterpreted to imply the usage of
date/time format only.  This was NOT the intention of the European
FITS Committee which was concerned with the UTC time scale to define
start of day but always regarded the combined date/time format as
optional.  To clarify this issue we have rephrased our first comment
as:

    1) that the use of UTC time scale is made mandatory for all
       DATExxxx keywords including DATE-OBS both for date and
       date/time representations (i.e. 'ccyy-mm-dd' and
       'ccyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss[.sss...]Z' formats),

This new wording was approved unanimously by the European FITS
Committee.  The complete motion then reads:

   "The European FITS Committee endorses the proposal for
    'Precise re-definition of DATE-OBS Keyword' as described
    in the 'sci.astro.fits' News Groups posting:

      'DATE-OBS and the millennium;   the proposal.' of
      1996-11-19T16:56:22+0000 by Peter Bunclark, RGO
      (Article: 1541 of sci.astro.fits)

     with the following comments:

     The European FITS Committee suggests

       1) that the use of UTC time scale is made mandatory for all
          DATExxxx keywords including DATE-OBS both for date and
          date/time representations (i.e. 'ccyy-mm-dd' and
          'ccyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss[.sss...]Z' formats),

       2) that the Appendix should not be a part of the proposal
          but only appended for information.

    It is recommended that the proposal is forwarded to the
    IAU FITS Working Group for final approval. It is recognized
    that minor technical changes and clarifications may be
    implemented in this process.

    This endorsement will first be effective when the North
    American FITS Group within the AAS WGAS and the Japanese
    FITS Group adopt similar resolution in support of this
    proposal."

Best regards,
Preben Grosbol,
European FITS Committee, Chair.