FITS The Astronomical Image and Table Format
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FITS Documentation

Formal definition document for FITS

General introductory descriptions of the FITS format

World Coordinate System (WCS) conventions

Other FITS information

Published FITS Definition Papers

  1. FITS: A Flexible Image Transport System, Wells, D. C., Greisen, E. W., and Harten, R. H., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 44, 363-370, 1981. (HTML, PDF)
  2. An Extension of FITS for Groups of Small Arrays of Data, Greisen, E. W. and Harten, R. H., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 44, 371-374, 1981. (NOTE: The random groups format described in this paper has been used almost exclusively to transport radio interferometry and has now largely been replaced by binary tables. Writing data other than radio interferometry data using this format is not recommended.) (HTML, PDF)
  3. Generalized Extensions and Blocking Factors for FITS, Grosbøl, P., Harten, R. H., Greisen, E. W., and Wells, D. C., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 73, 359-364, 1988. (HTML, PDF)
  4. The FITS Tables Extension, Harten, R. H., Grosbøl. P., Greisen, E. W., and Wells, D. C., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 73, 365-372, 1988. (HTML, PDF)
  5. The FITS Image Extension, Ponz, J. D., Thompson, R. W., and Munoz, J. R., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 105, 53-55, 1994. (HTML, PDF). The original Image extension proposal document is also available: (Postscript, Latex Source)
  6. Binary Table Extension to FITS, Cotton, W. D., Tody, D. B., and Pence, W. D., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 113, 159-166, 1995. (HTML, PDF, Latex Source (draft)). The original Binary Table extension proposal document is also available: (Postscript, Latex Source)
  7. Definition of the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS), Hanisch, R. J., Farris, A., Greisen, E. W., Pence, W. D., Schlesinger, B. M., Teuben, P. J., Thompson, R. W., and Warnock, A., Astronomy & Astrophysics, 376, 359-380, 2001. (HTML, PDF). The PDF version includes only the main body of the paper and not the appendixes. This document has been replace by a newer version.
  8. Representations of World Coordinates in FITS, Greisen, E. W., and Calabretta, M. R., Astronomy & Astrophysics, 395, 1061-1075, 2002. (PDF, HTML). Reprints are also available from the author's web site in PDF format.
  9. Representations of Celestial Coordinates in FITS, Calabretta, M. R., and Greisen, E. W., Astronomy & Astrophysics, 395, 1077-1122, 2002. (PDF, HTML). Reprints are also available from the author's web site in PDF format.
  10. Representations of spectral coordinates in FITS, Greisen, E. W., Calabretta, M. R., Valdes, F. G., and Allen, S. L., Astronomy & Astrophysics, 446, 747-771, 2006. (PDF, HTML). Reprints are available from the author's web site.
  11. Representations of time coordinates in FITS. Time and relative dimension in space Rots, A. H., Bunclark, P. S., Calabretta, M. R., Allen, S. L., Manchester, R. N. & Thompson, W. T. 2015, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 574, A36, 2015 ( PDF format)

ADASS Conference Papers Related to FITS

This list only contains the papers that are primarily focused on FITS issues presented at the first 13 ADASS meetings.

ADASS I - 1991, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 25.

ADASS II - 1992, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 52.

ADASS III - 1993, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 61.

ADASS IV - 1994, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 77. ADASS V - 1995, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 101.

ADASS VI - 1996, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 125.

ADASS VII - 1997, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 145. ADASS VIII - 1998, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 172. ADASS IX - 1999, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 216. ADASS X - 2000, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 238. ADASS XI - 2001, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 281. (not currently available) ADASS XII - 2002, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 295. ADASS XIII - 2003, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 314.
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