From owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Thu Aug 22 13:39:56 1996 Received: (from majdom at localhost) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) id NAA14054; Thu, 22 Aug 1996 13:39:56 -0400 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) with ESMTP id UAA05573; Wed, 21 Aug 1996 20:24:30 -0400 Received: from solitaire.cv.nrao.edu (news at solitaire.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.79]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.7.5/8.7.1/CV-2.1) with SMTP id UAA27937 for ; Wed, 21 Aug 1996 20:24:26 -0400 (EDT) Received: by solitaire.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.10) id AA04831; Wed, 21 Aug 96 20:24:23 EDT To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 11:22:08 -0500 From: "B. Evans" Message-Id: <3219E630.2D02 at siennasoft.com> Organization: Bell Global Solutions Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!uunet!in3.uu.net!nntp04.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!winternet.com!clio.trends.ca!worldlinx.com!news.bellglobal.com!news Subject: FITS to excel or tabbed text conversion Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits,sci.astro Sender: owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Hi all you FITS experts. I am looking for a utility program that can take FITS files and convert them into a text file that can be read in by a spreadsheet. The type of fits files I am interested in are ones describing the locations of stars, deep sky objects and other point-like objects on the celestial sphere. I could use a solution that is Macintosh based. I have heard of a program called "browser" will it do the trick? C or C++ source code is another option. Thanks a lot for any suggestions you might have. Please email as well as post solutions, my news server is not the most reliable thing on the planet. From owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Thu Aug 22 13:41:24 1996 Received: (from majdom at localhost) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) id NAA14091; Thu, 22 Aug 1996 13:41:24 -0400 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) with ESMTP id MAA13247; Thu, 22 Aug 1996 12:22:11 -0400 Received: from solitaire.cv.nrao.edu (news at solitaire.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.79]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.7.5/8.7.1/CV-2.1) with SMTP id MAA04464 for ; Thu, 22 Aug 1996 12:22:04 -0400 (EDT) Received: by solitaire.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.10) id AA01903; Thu, 22 Aug 96 12:21:59 EDT To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: 21 Aug 1996 11:28 EDT From: bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry M. Schlesinger) Message-Id: <21AUG199611282166 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov> Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- Greenbelt, Maryland USA Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!maui.cc.odu.edu!news.larc.nasa.gov!news.msfc.nasa.gov!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in3.uu.net!news2.digex.net!news5.digex.net!haven.umd.edu!cs.umd.edu!newsfeed.gsfc.nasa.gov!nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov!bschlesinger Reply-To: fits at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov Subject: Sources of FITS Information Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits,sci.answers,news.answers Sender: owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Archive-name: astronomy/fits/info-sources Last-modified: 1996/07/23 -------- 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 from http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/astro/fits/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 (usually) ASCII text (The ASCII text version may not be available for a short while after the announcement of a new version.) o "A User's Guide to FITS", published by the FITS Support Office, in LaTeX, and compressed and uncompressed PostScript o Revisions to version 1.0 of the "Definition of FITS" covering the specification of units that 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) In the same directory but accessible directly via http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/astro/fits/basics_info.html is the FITS Basics and Information that used to be regularly posted to sci.astro.fits and sci.data.formats. It continues to be revised to reflect current FITS developments. It contains the following material: o An overview of FITS o A list of FITS documents o A list of software packages that support FITS, including FITS-image converters for various platforms o A list of on-line FITS resources o A description of the FITS Support Office The hypertext version provides links to many of the documents, software, and network locations listed. The text version provides information on how to obtain much of this material. 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 think.com and at ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/wais-sources/nrao-fits.src. Some of the more noteworthy materials in this archive are o Drafts of proposed additions to the FITS standard and other drafts that may in the future be formally proposed o Text of any detailed proposals currently being discussed by the FITS committees 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 a FORTRAN and a beta (but well-tested) C version available, portable to a wide variety of machines. There is also the FTOOLS collection of software tools and the VERIFITS FITS conformance verifier. 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 ftp://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_info/ . 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: +1-301-441-4205 The FITS Support Office is operated under the guidance of the NASA/GSFC Astrophysics Data Facility. From owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Thu Aug 29 13:44:28 1996 Received: (from majdom at localhost) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) id NAA18412; Thu, 29 Aug 1996 13:44:28 -0400 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) with ESMTP id NAA18397; Thu, 29 Aug 1996 13:41:52 -0400 Received: from solitaire.cv.nrao.edu (news at solitaire.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.79]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.7.5/8.7.1/CV-2.1) with SMTP id NAA13334 for ; Thu, 29 Aug 1996 13:41:02 -0400 (EDT) Received: by solitaire.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.10) id AA21819; Thu, 29 Aug 96 13:40:57 EDT To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: 28 Aug 1996 21:17:20 GMT From: sla at umbra.ucolick.org (Steve Allen) Message-Id: <502d10$q2i at darkstar.ucsc.edu> Organization: UCO/Lick Observatory, Santa Cruz Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!news-server.ncren.net!concert!gatech!enews.sgi.com!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.erols.net!agate!news.ucsc.edu!umbra.ucolick.org!sla Subject: ASCII table tricks Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk >From the ASCII tables definition it appears that it would be possible to make a table which is truly human-readable by naive tools. Say that the table is written with 1-column gaps between the fields that contain the character '|', and that there is an extra column after the last field which contains an ASCII newline character. In this case the table would automatically appear on screen in a very presentable fashion. Or the gaps between fields could be multiple-character strings guaranteed not to occur in the body of any of the fields, and the end-of-row could be multiple characters (to make even DOS happy). In this case the data unit of the ASCII table could also conform exactly to the input format required by some database table dump/load tools. Furthermore, data unit of this kind of table would be relatively simple to edit using many text editors. The characters in the gaps would make it quite straightforward to preserve the structure. Does the standard permit this, or did I miss some constraint? Is anyone writing FITS ASCII tables with these intents? -- Steve Allen UCO/Lick Observatory Santa Cruz, CA 95064 sla at ucolick.org Voice: +1 408 459 3046 FAX: +1 408 454 9863 WWW: http://www.ucolick.org/~sla PGP public keys: see WWW From owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Fri Aug 30 08:42:23 1996 Received: (from majdom at localhost) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) id IAA25340; Fri, 30 Aug 1996 08:42:23 -0400 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) with ESMTP id DAA23239; Fri, 30 Aug 1996 03:28:50 -0400 Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu (root at cv3.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.2]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.7.5/8.7.1/CV-2.1) with ESMTP id DAA19140 for ; Fri, 30 Aug 1996 03:28:06 -0400 (EDT) Received: from poseidon.ifctr.mi.cnr.it (poseidon.ifctr.mi.cnr.it [155.253.2.87]) by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (8.7.5/8.7.1/CV-2.1) with SMTP id DAA18842 for ; Fri, 30 Aug 1996 03:28:02 -0400 (EDT) Received: by poseidon.ifctr.mi.cnr.it (5.65/1.34) id AA02413; Fri, 30 Aug 1996 09:31:14 +0200 Organization: Istituto di Fisica Cosmica e Tecnologie Relative Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 09:31:13 +0200 (MET DST) From: Lucio Chiappetti Subject: Re: ASCII table tricks To: Steve Allen Cc: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu In-Reply-To: <502d10$q2i at darkstar.ucsc.edu> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk On 28 Aug 1996, Steve Allen wrote: > >From the ASCII tables definition it appears that it would be possible > to make a table which is truly human-readable by naive tools. ... > Is anyone writing FITS ASCII tables with these intents? Is anyone using FITS ASCII tables at all nowadays, or not only BINTABLEs ? LC From owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Fri Aug 30 09:17:07 1996 Received: (from majdom at localhost) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) id JAA25484; Fri, 30 Aug 1996 09:17:07 -0400 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) with ESMTP id JAA25447; Fri, 30 Aug 1996 09:14:13 -0400 Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu (root at cv3.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.2]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.7.5/8.7.1/CV-2.1) with ESMTP id JAA21814 for ; Fri, 30 Aug 1996 09:13:26 -0400 (EDT) Received: from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov [128.183.127.109]) by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (8.7.5/8.7.1/CV-2.1) with SMTP id JAA21604 for ; Fri, 30 Aug 1996 09:13:24 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from pence at localhost) by tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (LHEA9504/950407.s1) id JAA06260; Fri, 30 Aug 1996 09:12:07 -0400 Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 09:12:07 -0400 From: William Pence Message-Id: <199608301312.JAA06260 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: ASCII table tricks Cc: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov Sender: owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk Steve Allen wrote: > From the ASCII tables definition it appears that it would be possible > to make a table which is truly human-readable by naive tools. > > Say that the table is written with 1-column gaps between the fields > that contain the character '|', and that there is an extra column > after the last field which contains an ASCII newline character. > In this case the table would automatically appear on screen in a > very presentable fashion. ... > Does the standard permit this, or did I miss some constraint? The FITS Standard does not allow the ASCII newline character or any other ASCII control characters in an ASCII table. Section 8.1.5 states that "All data in an ASCII tables extension record shall be ASCII text ..." and "ASCII text" is defined to be the ASCII characters hexidecimal 20-7E. -Bill Pence NASA/GSFC From owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Sat Aug 31 16:11:50 1996 Received: (from majdom at localhost) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) id QAA02198; Sat, 31 Aug 1996 16:11:50 -0400 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) with ESMTP id AAA30752; Sat, 31 Aug 1996 00:12:26 -0400 Received: from solitaire.cv.nrao.edu (news at solitaire.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.79]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.7.5/8.7.1/CV-2.1) with SMTP id AAA23418 for ; Sat, 31 Aug 1996 00:11:34 -0400 (EDT) Received: by solitaire.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.10) id AA02326; Sat, 31 Aug 96 00:11:31 EDT To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: 30 Aug 1996 17:51:53 GMT From: sla at umbra.ucolick.org (Steve Allen) Message-Id: <5079np$ae7 at darkstar.ucsc.edu> Organization: UCO/Lick Observatory, Santa Cruz Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!maui.cc.odu.edu!news.larc.nasa.gov!news.msfc.nasa.gov!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.erols.net!agate!news.ucsc.edu!umbra.ucolick.org!sla References: <199608301312.JAA06260 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> Subject: Re: ASCII table tricks Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk In article <199608301312.JAA06260 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov>, William Pence wrote: >Steve Allen wrote: >> Does the standard permit this, or did I miss some constraint? > >The FITS Standard does not allow the ASCII newline character or any >other ASCII control characters in an ASCII table. Section 8.1.5 states >that "All data in an ASCII tables extension record shall be ASCII text ..." >and "ASCII text" is defined to be the ASCII characters hexidecimal 20-7E. But wait, playing standards lawyer for a moment I point out that section 8.1.5 is about "entries" in the table. In section 8.1.3 it states "The table is constructed from a two-dimensional array of ASCII characters." which means anything in 7-bit ASCII. I believe the standard is saying that the data fields themselves may only contain printable text, but that portions of the table outside the fields may contain other ASCII charcters. In particular, I believe this permits the tricks I suggested. If this is not what the standards writers intended then the language of section 8.1.3 needs clarification. -- Steve Allen UCO/Lick Observatory Santa Cruz, CA 95064 sla at ucolick.org Voice: +1 408 459 3046 FAX: +1 408 454 9863 WWW: http://www.ucolick.org/~sla PGP public keys: see WWW From owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Sat Aug 31 16:12:28 1996 Received: (from majdom at localhost) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) id QAA02208; Sat, 31 Aug 1996 16:12:28 -0400 Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8]) by tarsier.cv.nrao.edu (8.6.13/$Revision: 2.10 $) with ESMTP id GAA00795; Sat, 31 Aug 1996 06:16:46 -0400 Received: from solitaire.cv.nrao.edu (news at solitaire.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.79]) by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.7.5/8.7.1/CV-2.1) with SMTP id GAA23832 for ; Sat, 31 Aug 1996 06:15:50 -0400 (EDT) Received: by solitaire.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.10) id AA11529; Sat, 31 Aug 96 06:15:43 EDT To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1996 05:06:01 GMT From: gunja at the.pot.patch (Cannibis Stativa) Message-Id: <32252505.8118366 at news.ot.centuryinter.net> Organization: H.E.A.D.S. Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!portal.gmu.edu!news.sprintlink.net!news-dc-9.sprintlink.net!newsreader.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-atl-21.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-dc-2.sprintlink.net!news.ultranet.com!homer.alpha.net!uwm.edu!news-res.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!hunter.premier.net!news.cais.net!tezcat!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!uunet!in3.uu.net!news.ld.centuryinter.net!usenet Subject: stars test 2 Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Sender: owner-fitsbits at tarsier.cv.nrao.edu Precedence: bulk star lite, star brite, second star I've seen tonight. Peace, Pot, Micro-Dot!!!!! Remember...... "Three people can keep a secret.... If two of them are DEAD!!!!!" Gunja