Subject: FITS software?

From: ron at argus.lpl.Arizona.EDU (Ron Watkins)
Date: 5 Apr 1994 23:41:33 GMT

I would like to know what kind of software (source) exists for manipulating
FITS files. I have heard of FITSIO as a packae and FTOOLS from the HEASARC/NASA
but I just wondered if there were any other packages for manipulating FITS
files directly so that I may examine table values and copy images out to
other formats.
I know there are some FITS manipulation capabilities inside IRAF and AIPS.
Are there any software available for general use?
I ask because I am thinking about using FITS as a standard data format for
a small photometer that I am building and would like to know more about
existing software. I already am fairly familar with FITS files in general.
Thanks,
			Ron Watkin
--
Ron Watkins    [ron at argus.lpl.arizona.edu]    /            /~~~~)     /
931 Gould-Simpson                            /            /____/     /
University of Arizona                       /            /          /
Tucson AZ. 85721 -- (602) 621-8606         (____ unar & / lanetary (____ ab.

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From: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence)
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 94 10:45:31 EDT

>I would like to know what kind of software (source) exists for
>manipulating FITS files. I have heard of FITSIO as a packae and FTOOLS
>from the HEASARC/NASA but I just wondered if there were any other
>packages for manipulating FITS files directly so that I may examine
>table values and copy images out to other formats.

Here is a brief description of the FTOOLS package that is available from
legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov in the /software/ftools/release subdirectory.
Currently, version 2.8 of FTOOLS is available, but version 2.9 is 
expected to be released by the end of April.

FTOOLS consists of more than 100 individual programs that perform
various operations on FITS format files.  The programs can be
run standalone, or as integrated tasks under IRAF. Here is a list
of some of the more general FTOOLS programs (in version 2.9). 
(There are also many other FTOOLS programs that are more specifically
useful for high-energy astrophysics missions).

FITS Image Tasks:

       farith - Perform arithmetic on 2 FITS images
      fboxcar - Convolve a FITS image with a rectangular boxcar filter
      fcarith - Perform arithmetic on FITS image with a constant
       fgauss - Convolve a FITS image with an elliptical Gaussian function
      fimgdmp - Dump contents of a FITS image to an ASCII file
      fim2lst - Convert a 2D image to a pixel list (inverse of f2dhisto)
    fmaskfilt - Filter an event list based on an input mask image
      fmrgmsk - Merge 2 or more spatial masks
        fsaoi - Translate an SAOImage region file to an input for fselect
     f2dhisto - Make a 2-D histogram from 2 columns in a table

Futils - General Purpose Utilities:

        fhelp - Display help pages for an FTOOL task
      fappend - Append a FITS extension onto another FITS file
        fcalc - Calc. values for a column using an arithmetic expression
     fcatdiff - Compares columns of a fits file and reports row differences
      fcreate - Create a FITS table from  ASCII input files
       fcurve - Make a light curve histogram from a column in a table
        fdump - Dump contents of a FITS table to an ASCII file
     fextract - Copy a FITS extension from a file into a new file
     ffilecat - Copies keyword values from a list of FITS file to FITS Table
       fhisto - Make a histogram of a column in a table
       findex - Create an index file for a FITS table column
      fkeypar - Copy a FITS header keyword to a parameter
    fkeyprint - Display keyword(s) in FITS header(s)
      fkeytab - Copy a FITS header keyword to a FITS table element
        flcol - List column information in a FITS table extension
        flist - List contents of a FITS table to an ASCII file
      flookup - Filter a FITS file from selection based on a lookup table
     fmemsort - Fast memory sort of a FITS table
       fmerge - Merge rows from several FITS tables into one FITS table
     fmodhead - Modify the header keywords in a FITS file
      fparkey - Copy a parameter value to a FITS header keyword
      fpartab - Copy a parameter value to a FITS table element
        fplot - Plot columns in a FITS file using QDP/PLT package ***
      fselect - Create a new table from selected rows of a table
        fsort - Sort a FITS table in place
   fstatistic - Calc. mean, standard deviation, min, and max for a column
      fstruct - List a description of the structure of a FITS file
     ftabcopy - Copy specified columns of a FITS table to a new table
      ftabkey - Copy a FITS table element to a FITS header keyword
      ftabpar - Copy a FITS table element to a parameter value