From owner-fitsbits Fri Oct 3 21:36:46 1997 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id VAA14057 for fitsbits-spinner; Fri, 3 Oct 1997 21:36:46 -0400 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id VAA14054 for ; Fri, 3 Oct 1997 21:36:43 -0400 Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.0/CV-2.2) id VAA00148 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Fri, 3 Oct 1997 21:36:42 -0400 (EDT) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA13347 for ; Fri, 3 Oct 1997 18:06:46 -0400 Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.0/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id SAA29949 for ; Fri, 3 Oct 1997 18:06:45 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id SAA24250; Fri, 3 Oct 1997 18:06:44 -0400 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: 3 Oct 1997 16:07:56 GMT From: wmo at wansor.jpl.nasa.gov (Bill Owen) Message-ID: <61358s$dth at netline.jpl.nasa.gov> Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA/Caltech Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!uunet!in3.uu.net!chippy.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!europa.clark.net!199.60.229.5!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.he.net!newsfeed.qnet.com!nntp1.jpl.nasa.gov!netline-fddi.jpl.nasa.gov!wansor.jpl.nasa.gov!wmo References: <34213B7F.15B6 at ast.cam.ac.uk> Subject: Re: WCS problems on Optical Telescopes. Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at marmoset.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk In article , dwells at nrao.edu (Don Wells) writes: > ... A Chebyshev polynomial is a sufficient representation of the pixel > regularization map; the number of terms needed is essentially the same as > the number of spline coefficients that would be needed for the same > precision of representation. The Chebyshev expansion, which is orthogonal > and has the equi-ripple property, can be converted to the equivalent > conventional polynomial for interchange. I expect that the alternative FITS > keyword notation which I mentioned in the BoF at Sonthofen will support up > to 9999 polynomial coefficients per axis. True, but it's not the only possible set of basis polynomials. I use the Legendre polynomials, because if the reference stars are uniformly distributed the resulting model coefficients will be uncorrelated. -- Bill Owen, wmo at wansor.jpl.nasa.gov From owner-fitsbits Sat Oct 4 09:04:24 1997 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id JAA16809 for fitsbits-spinner; Sat, 4 Oct 1997 09:04:24 -0400 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA16806 for ; Sat, 4 Oct 1997 09:04:20 -0400 Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.0/CV-2.2) id JAA00808 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Sat, 4 Oct 1997 09:04:19 -0400 (EDT) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id GAA16220 for ; Sat, 4 Oct 1997 06:06:13 -0400 Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.0/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id GAA00680 for ; Sat, 4 Oct 1997 06:06:09 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id GAA20762; Sat, 4 Oct 1997 06:06:04 -0400 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 20:55:37 -0600 From: David Alisch Message-ID: Organization: Hughes Aircraft Company Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!uunet!in5.uu.net!nntprelay.mathworks.com!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!news.idt.net!nntp2.cerf.net!news.cerf.net!hacgate2.hac.com!hughes.cg.hac.com!dmalisch Subject: Looking for: FITS-->DICOM 3 image file converter Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at marmoset.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Hi all I was hoping I wouldn't have to bother anyone about this, but it seems that even with all the well-structured net-documentation by the FITS community, I still can't find what I'm looking for. I need a small but robust (well, preferably) image conversion utility that takes 16 bit FITS images and converts them directly to DICOM 3 format. So far I've only been able to find one utility that supports both these formats (Imaging Control Center by GKR Computer Consulting), but I'm not sure if I want to shell out $1K for functionality that we could probably develop here locally for much less. Image Magick would be great too but we need a utility for the Windows95/NT platform. Has ANYONE heard of an application that sounds like it might fit the bill here for the above platform? I'm sure I must be just looking in the wrong place. Any tips at all would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------------------------------------------ David Alisch dmalisch at hughes.cg.hac.com | Ph: 403/295-6648 Hughes Aircraft of Canada Calgary, AB | Fax: 403/295-6676 From owner-fitsbits Tue Oct 7 09:50:52 1997 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id JAA01456 for fitsbits-spinner; Tue, 7 Oct 1997 09:50:52 -0400 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA01453 for ; Tue, 7 Oct 1997 09:50:49 -0400 Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.0/CV-2.2) id JAA04249 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Tue, 7 Oct 1997 09:50:48 -0400 (EDT) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id HAA00911 for ; Tue, 7 Oct 1997 07:27:01 -0400 Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.0/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id HAA04128 for ; Tue, 7 Oct 1997 07:27:00 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id HAA29134; Tue, 7 Oct 1997 07:26:59 -0400 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 12:57:48 +0200 From: "Markus Jönsson" Message-ID: <343a15fe.0 at news.pi.se> Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!uunet!in2.uu.net!news.monmouth.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!wuff.mayn.de!news.netg.se!news5.transpac.net!news.pi.se!195.7.69.164 Subject: New (simple) FITS viewer for Windows Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at marmoset.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Hi all! An astronomy crazed friend of mine convinced me to add FITS support to my shareware image viewer app called 'Image Eye'. I though this might be a good place to announce it's availability. It is a small and fast, multi- format image viewer for Windows 95 and Windows NT. If this sounds interesting, point your www browser at: http://hem.passagen.se/fmj/fmjsoft.html Regarding the FITS support; it is quite simple. Any 2D FITS data are displayed as a grayscale bitmap where the value range from minimum data value to the maximum data value has been linearly stretched to cover the entire range from black to white. Best regards, / Markus J. From owner-fitsbits Thu Oct 9 11:20:19 1997 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id LAA13175 for fitsbits-spinner; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 11:20:19 -0400 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id LAA13172 for ; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 11:20:16 -0400 Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.0/CV-2.2) id LAA08929 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 11:20:15 -0400 (EDT) Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id LAA13161 for ; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 11:19:44 -0400 Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.0/CV-2.2) id LAA08917; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 11:19:43 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 11:19:43 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199710091519.LAA08917 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 problems on Optical Telescopes. Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits In-Reply-To: <61358s$dth at netline.jpl.nasa.gov> References: <34213B7F.15B6 at ast.cam.ac.uk> <61358s$dth at netline.jpl.nasa.gov> Sender: owner-fitsbits at marmoset.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk "BO" == Bill Owen writes: BO> In article , dwells at nrao.edu (Don Wells) writes: >> ... A Chebyshev polynomial is a sufficient representation of the pixel >> regularization map.. The Chebyshev expansion, which is orthogonal >> and has the equi-ripple property, can be converted to the equivalent >> conventional polynomial for interchange.. BO> True, but it's not the only possible set of basis polynomials. I use the BO> Legendre polynomials, because if the reference stars are uniformly BO> distributed the resulting model coefficients will be uncorrelated. Yes, the Legendre polynomials are better for astrometric numerical mapping over rectangular fields than are conventional polynomials, because the orthogonality property means that the correlation between the coefficients in the least-squares regression approaches zero as the number of reference stars approaches infinity. Of course, for any finite number of reference stars, even if uniformly distributed, the correlation is nonzero (but smaller than the correlations between coefficients of the equivalent conventional polynomial). I have never understood why many/most astrometrists persist in using conventional polynomials in their numerical mapping regressions. An interesting question is the (dis?)advantages of using Chebyshev polynomials instead of Legendre polynomials in astrometric numerical mapping of rectangular fields. Both sets of polynomials are orthogonal, so both have the uncorrelated-coefficient property. I prefer Chebyshev polynomials because I consider the form of their error-of-fit (the Chebyshev equi-ripple/minimum-maximum-error property) to be desirable in astrometric numerical mapping applications. Comments? For circular fields there is no question about the ideal functions to use: the Zernike polynomials are the only reasonable choice among sets of polynomials which are orthogonal on the unit circle. Indeed, when doing least-squares fits of radial distortion functions in optical systems, such as telescopes with corrector lenses, I believe that we should use the radial polynomials from the Zernike set instead of conventional polynomials. The choice of which polynomials to use for FITS _interchange_ is independent of the choice of which to use for regressions. At ADASS'97, when I suggested transmitting Chebyshev coefficients in FITS headers, I immediately got a comment from the floor (from Rodney Warren-Smith?) saying that it would be better to use conventional polynomials because many programmers will be confused/intimidated by Chebyshev polynomials. A least-squares fit using a set of orthogonal polynomials (Legendre, Chebyshev, Zernike,..) can always be recast as a conventional polynomial for FITS interchange purposes, with no loss of accuracy. The use of conventional polynomials will be easier to describe in FITS standards documents, and will leave all of us free to make our own choices of numerical mapping functions for regressions. -- 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 owner-fitsbits Wed Oct 29 12:08:44 1997 Received: (from majordom at localhost) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id MAA00543 for fitsbits-spinner; Wed, 29 Oct 1997 12:08:44 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id MAA00540 for ; Wed, 29 Oct 1997 12:08:41 -0500 Received: (from dwells at localhost) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.0/CV-2.2) id MAA25610 for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Wed, 29 Oct 1997 12:08:40 -0500 (EST) Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu (cv3.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.2]) by marmoset.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id MAA00472 for ; Wed, 29 Oct 1997 12:07:26 -0500 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/CV-2.7) with ESMTP id KAA29975 for ; Wed, 29 Oct 1997 10:25:23 -0500 (EST) Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.0/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id KAA25474 for ; Wed, 29 Oct 1997 10:25:18 -0500 (EST) Received: (from news at localhost) by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id KAA05752; Wed, 29 Oct 1997 10:25:17 -0500 To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: 29 Oct 1997 09:46 EDT From: bschlesinger at ndadsb-f.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry M. Schlesinger) Message-ID: <29OCT199709461725 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov> Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- Greenbelt, Maryland USA Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!nntprelay.mathworks.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!su-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsgate.tandem.com!pacbell.com!nick.arc.nasa.gov!newsfeed.gsfc.nasa.gov!nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov!bschlesinger Reply-To: fits at ndadsb-f.gsfc.nasa.gov Subject: Sources of FITS Information Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits,sci.answers,news.answers Sender: owner-fitsbits at marmoset.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Archive-name: astronomy/fits/info-sources Last-modified: 1997/10/27 -------- Sources of FITS Information Preface This material on sources of Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) information is posted and updated periodically by the FITS Support Office at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). It discusses where general FITS information, including some answers to frequently asked questions, can be found, and provides sources for detailed information on FITS software and documentation. ------- FITS Support Office The FITS Support Office maintains a library of FITS information accessible via http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_home.html or ftp://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/fits/. The material available includes o "Definition of FITS", a codification of FITS for the NASA/Science Office of Standards and Technology (NOST), available in LaTeX, uncompressed PostScript, compressed PostScript and (often) ASCII text o "A User's Guide to FITS", published by the FITS Support Office, in LaTeX, uncompressed PostScript, and gzipped PostScript o Revisions to version 1.0 of the "Definition of FITS" covering the specification of units, which were incorporated into version 1.1 (text) o A current list of the extension type (structure) names registered with the International Astronomical Union FITS Working Group (IAUFWG) (text) o Rules for physical blocking on various media adopted by the IAUFWG (text) o The proposal under consideration by the IAUFWG for a format providing for a four-digit year and both date and time for DATExxxx keyword values (text) In the same directory as fits_home.html and accessible from it are four files that contain an update and expansion of the information that used to be in the FITS Basics and Information: o fits_intro.html: An overview of FITS o documents.html: A discussion of FITS documents o software.html: A discussion of software packages that support FITS, including FITS->image converters for various platforms, and a list of sample FITS files o info_sources.html: A discussion of on-line FITS resources Links are provided to many of the documents, software, and network locations listed. This FITS Support Office on-line material is continually revised to reflect current FITS developments. There is also a hypertext version of the List of Registered Extensions. Links from the Web page and subdirectories of the ftp directory contain o Software developed by the FITS Support Office. o Error test files: primary HDUs useful for testing the ability of software designed to read FITS files to cope with files that have errors or are non-standard. These files should be downloaded in binary form. Printed copies of the material in the FITS directory can be obtained from the Coordinated Request and User Support Office (CRUSO): (Postal) Coordinated Request and User Support Office Code 633 National Space Science Data Center NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD 20771 USA (Electronic mail) request at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Telephone) +1-301-286-6695 8:00 A. M. - 4:30 P.M. U. S. Eastern Time (-0500 from the last Sunday in October through the first Saturday in April; -0400 the remainder of the year) When no one is available, messages can be left on voice mail. (FAX) +1-301-286-1635 ------- National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) A FITS Archive can be found at URL http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/ or at ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits, located at NRAO. This machine supports a WAIS server named nrao-fits which has an index of all of the FITS-related text files in the archive; the file nrao-fits.src is available at ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/wais-sources/nrao-fits.src. Some of the more noteworthy materials in this archive are o Text of any detailed proposals currently being discussed by the FITS committees o Drafts of other formally proposed additions to the FITS standard and of potential future proposals o A collection of documents on World Coordinate Systems, including the current draft proposal o Conventions specific to particular projects or disciplines o Software for various environments and Usenet postings about code o Sample data and special test files designed to measure the ability of a FITS reader to handle a wide variety of FITS files o Archives of traffic on FITS-related newsgroups and exploders A separate NRAO site, http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~bcotton/fitsview.html, provides information on the FITSview family of software packages for display of FITS images on Microsoft Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, Apple Macintosh, and Unix/X-Windows, with links to the software. It also links to a number of sources of astronomical FITS images. ------- HEASARC The NASA/Goddard High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) Web server at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/fits.html and the anonymous ftp access through ftp://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_info/ provide FITS material. HEASARC has developed the FITSIO package of software routines for easily reading and writing FITS files, with FORTRAN and C versions available, portable to a wide variety of machines. There are also the FTOOLS collection of software tools, the VERIFITS FITS conformance verifier, and the fv FITS file viewer and editor. HEASARC software is available directly through http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/tech_res_software.html or ftp://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_info/software/ . The HEASARC server also provides information from the HEASARC FITS Working Group, (HFWG) the internal legislative body on FITS-related matters within the Office of Guest Investigator Programs (OGIP) at NASA/GSFC, at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/ofwg/ofwg_intro.html or at ftp://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_info/ in the directories ofwg_minutes and ofwg_recomm. The HFWG has developed a number of FITS conventions that are more specific than the requirements of the FITS standards. Proposed conventions are publicized to the FITS community as a whole, with the goal of collaborative development of a set of conventions that will be accepted throughout the community as well as within OGIP/HEASARC. ------- Direct questions about this posting to Barry M. Schlesinger Coordinator, FITS Support Office Electronic mail: fits at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov Telephone: +1-301-286-2899 The FITS Support Office is operated under the guidance of the NASA/GSFC Astrophysics Data Facility.