Subject: FITS-> other format converter: A summary

From: pwb at newt.phys.unsw.OZ.AU (Paul W. Brooks)
Date: 29 Jul 91 12:57:46 GMT

To all who replied by email as well as all who posted, thank you.
Almost all mentioned the PBMplus package, and almost all mentioned
reservations about its use!
Thanks to:	dwells at fits.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells)
		warnock at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
		fink at ssvs.gsfc.nasa.gov
		jjj at sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au (another Aussie - I think I'm
		                          in luck!)
					  -who suggested a postscript
					  dump direct from the
					  workstation screen.

My images ARE fairly simple (I wrote the code myself - maybe that is
significant :-) - 600x400 BITPIX=16 NAXIS=2, with only one image per
file) - pretty much "classic" FITS. Our telescope is a wide-field CCD
camera, and I'm trying to put together a 2500-pixel square image of the
Small Magellanic Cloud for this funding interview. Does anybody know of
a hardcopy output device (or even a workstation screen I could
photograph!) big enough to display it????

	I will get hold of the PBMplus package and have a play. 
	Cheers,
Paul Brooks        |Internet: pwb at newt.phys.unsw.edu.au
Uni. of N.S.W.     |If you have trouble sleeping, try lying on the end of
Kensington NSW 2033|   your bed. With a little luck you'll drop off. 
AUSTRALIA          |                              - Mark Twain.

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From: ted at aps1.spa.umn.edu (Ted Stockwell)
Date: 29 Jul 91 18:13:58 GMT

>   photograph!) big enough to display it????

pbmplus comes to the rescue again

You can use ppmscale to reduce or enlarge your image so that it will
fit on you display device.  You can then convert it to a dithered bitmap
for your favorite laser printer.  For example, for our HP LaserJet:

ppmscale 0.7 filename| ppmtopgm| pgmtopbm| pbmtolj -r 300| lpr -Pgraph

SAOimage also does a nice job displaying and printing 
images.  Available via anonymous ftp from cfa250.harvard.edu
(128.103.40.250)
--
Ted Stockwell                                     U of MN, Dept. of Astronomy
ted at aps1.spa.umn.edu                          Automated Plate Scanner Project