COMMISSION 5: DOCUMENTATION AND ASTRONOMICAL DATA

PRESIDENT:            W.D.Heintz
VICE-PRESIDENT:       G.A.Wilkens
ORGANISING COMMITTEE: O.B.Dlushnevskaya, B.Hauck, C.Jaschek, P.Lantos, S.Mitton,
                      L.Schmadel, F.Spite, C.E.Worley
		      
    The report period 1982-84 was characterized by an again increased volume of 
material processed in data and abstracting centers, and by a growing clientele
particularly of online services. The Working Groups of Commission 5 seek continued 
consultation with research object commissions so that the advanced documentation 
technology be efficiently employed toward specific demands of subject areas as to
indexing, tagging, comprehensive, selective and inter-discliplinary retrievals.
The guideline library for these purposes has been augmented by the First Dictio-
nary of the Nomenclature of Celestial Objects by A.Fernandez, M.-C. Lortet, and
F.Spite (Astr.Astrophys.Suppl. 52, no.4, 1983) and by the Guide to the Presenta-
tion of Astronomical Data by G.A.Wilkins (CODATA Bull.46, 1982); a new draft of 
the IAU Style Manual is before the IAU EC.

[1 non-relevant paragraph omitted.]

    The Working Groups present the following Progress Reports:
    
    Astronomical Data  (B.Hauck, IAU Representative in CODATA):

    The most visible activity of the WG was the arrangement of a course on data
handling in astronomy and astrophysics, which was held in Trieste, July 9-13, 1984,
and co-sponsored mainly by CNR (Italy), CODATA, and the Osservatorio Astronomico di
Trieste. There were over 50 participants, and the chief topics were: Data manage-
ment for data banks; astronomical catalogs; information transfer systems and stan-
dards; extraction methods for observational data; data handling in other sciences.
The proceedings will be published in the Mem.Soc.Astr.Ital.

[6 non-relevant paragraphs omitted.]

    Standardisation of Data Exchange  (Special Task Force; P.Grosbol):
    
    The Task Force on the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) was created by
Commission 5 during the XVIII GA in 1982, where Resolution C1 recommended the FITS
tape format for the interchange of astronomical image data and other digital arrays
between observatories. In cooperation of the North American AAS group and the Euro-
pean Software Coordination group, the two main functions of the Task Force are:
(1) to channel comments and suggestions on the use of FITS for data interchange,
and (2) to explore the possibilities for extending the FITS tape format to include
table and catalog data. The current results, including presentations at the Course
in Trieste (1984), are as follows:

    (1) Close contacts between the groups have been established; the problems,
comments and suggestions raised are collected, and discussed at intervals. The
main item that came up in the groups and in a Panel Discussion at Trieste were:
(a) a need for a booklet on how to use FITS; (b) a list of commonly used non-
standard FITS keywords and their meaning would also be helpful; (c) concern on
the 'small' physical block size on FITS tapes has been expressed by a number of
major institutions.

    (2)  After extensive discussion a proposal for Generalized FITS Extensions
(with applications to tables and catalogs) was published in the Astronomical Image
Processing Circular no.10, and presented at Trieste. The proposed FITS extension
format has been implemented in prototype versions at NRAO and ESO. Table data ex-
change between these institutions proceeded without problems. The extension is
being examined by datacenters for the purpose of catalog exchange. Sample programs
of encoding and decoding have been prepared in addition to a test tape which con-
tains the Nilson Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies.


Reference: Transactions of the International Astronomical Union, Vol. XIXA (1985),
Reports on Astronomy, pp. 7-9.