From fitsbits-request Tue Mar 2 12:44:21 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["3846" "" "2" "March" "1993" "04:21:31" "GMT" "Hanan Herzog" "herzog at ux5.lbl.gov " nil "103" "Need database program for organizing and managing many fits" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA22480; Tue, 2 Mar 93 12:44:21 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <1muncbINN59 at overload.lbl.gov> Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!concert!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!overload.lbl.gov!ux5.lbl.gov!herzog From: herzog at ux5.lbl.gov (Hanan Herzog) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: Need database program for organizing and managing many fits Date: 2 Mar 1993 04:21:31 GMT Hi, The following was sent to me by a colleague: "We will soon encounter the problem of many images (requested and archived) and no overview over them. We would like to set up some kind of database considering the image header information and the directory in which the image is. This program should enable us to do searches for one or several properties of the image. [stuff deleted]. The header information of the images should be saved and completeted in ways to make it possible to search after object types, exposure times and also several properties at a time. (f.e. result all galaxies with 120s exposure times or result the exposure times and coordinates for all spiral galaxies) [stuff deleted]. Do you know a database program which could do that or could you search FTP sites for a program like that?" I replied to the original message stating that I did not know of a program that would do what was needed. I added I would post a message to UseNet asking, though. Any information would be helpful. FTP sites, vendors, anything, would be appreciated. Please reply by e-mail. I will forward reponses directly to my associate. Hanan Herzog (herzog at lbl.gov) Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory From fitsbits-request Wed Mar 3 10:02:15 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1956" "Wed" "3" "March" "1993" "13:48:28" "GMT" "BARTHOLDI Paul" "bartho at scsun.unige.ch " nil "61" "Re: Need database program for organizing and managing many fits" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA24530; Wed, 3 Mar 93 10:02:15 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <1993Mar3.134828.21780 at news.unige.ch> Organization: University of Geneva Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!ira.uka.de!scsing.switch.ch!news.unige.ch!obssd3!bartho References: <1muncbINN59 at overload.lbl.gov> From: bartho at scsun.unige.ch (BARTHOLDI Paul) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: Re: Need database program for organizing and managing many fits Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1993 13:48:28 GMT Hanan Herzog (herzog at ux5.lbl.gov) wrote: : Hi, : The following was sent to me by a colleague: : "We will soon encounter the problem of many images (requested and : archived) and no overview over them. We would like to set up some kind : of database considering the image header information and the directory : in which the image is. ... : Any information would be helpful. FTP sites, vendors, anything, : would be appreciated. I would very strongly sugest that you look at the /rdb 'unix' relational data base. It runs both on unix machines and on PC using any unix shell emulator. The basic idea is to work with pure ascii files and use the unix facilities as the environment/shell, in particular the i/o redirections and pipes. The net result is a fast to very fast RdB, that is VERY easy to use (both to set up new dB and for interrogations), and that is not costly by any means. It is so easy to use that since more than a year it as become one of my basic tool for most of my work. You can contact the /rdb maker at rsw at rsw.rsw.com Bye the way, I am an astronomer and have nothing to do with them, except that I bought their product some time ago, and am now more than satisfied. Best regards, Paul Bartholdi. +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dr Paul Bartholdi bartho at obs.unige.ch | | Observatoire de Geneve bartho at scsun.unige.ch | | 51, chemin des Maillettes bartho at cgeuge54.bitnet | | CH-1290 Sauverny 02284682161350::bartho (X.25-psi) | | Switzerland 20579::ugobs::bartho (decnet-span) | | +41 22 755 26 11 (phone) | | +41 22 755 39 83 (fax) +45 419 209 obsg ch (telex) | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ From fitsbits-request Thu Mar 4 05:40:51 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["16459" "Thu" "04" "March" "93" "11:09:05" "ITA" "Lucio Chiappetti" "lucio at ifctr.mi.cnr.it" nil "341" "Re: NOST FITS User's Guide new version 3.0" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA27758; Thu, 4 Mar 93 05:40:51 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9303041040.AA27758 at fits.cv.nrao.edu> Return-Path: Message-Id: <9303041040.AA27752 at fits.cv.nrao.edu> Organization: Istituto di Fisica Cosmica e Tecnologie Relative In-Reply-To: Message of Thu, 7 Jan 1993 14:07:00 GMT from X-Acknowledge-To: Resent-Sender: Lucio Chiappetti From: Lucio Chiappetti Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Resent-From: fitsbits-request To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: Re: NOST FITS User's Guide new version 3.0 Date: Thu, 04 Mar 93 11:09:05 ITA Resent-Date: Thu, 04 Mar 93 11:09:05 ITA On Thu, 7 Jan 1993 14:07:00 GMT you said: >Version 3.0 of the NOST FITS User's Guide is now available. It ...omissis... >Version 3.0 is currently available in printed form only. Steps are >under way toward producing an electronic version. The initial process >will be to try to capture the PostScript file, but the goal is to >eventually have the Guide available in the same three forms as the >Standard: LaTeX, PostScript and flat ASCII. Suggestions on how to >expedite this process are welcome. The native format is Microsoft >Word on Macintosh. > I kept the above mail in evidence awaiting to receive my paper copy, and while disposing of it now that I received it, I thought worth to reply to the above request for suggestions. One further possibility to be considered ALONG with the other forms proposed above is to store the Mac MS-Word file in "Macbinary" form on some Unix or VMS host. This will allow all people with a Mac connected to the network to retrieve the document directly. Most network software for Macintosh allows storage of files in Macbinary form (I have TSSNet DECNET, LAN Workplace TCP-IP and Brown University tn3270 TCP-IP running on my Mac and all allow it). This format is widely used by anonymous ftp servers which store Macintosh stuff. Another possibility, which could make happy users of MS-Word on both Mac's and MS-DOS PCs, is to store the file in RTF format. From MS-Word choose Save as... from the File menu, click on the button to choose the format, and select "Interchange format (RTF)", possibly the bottommost choice in the pop-up. This file format is suitable for ASCII transfer over the network. It can then be ingested by MS-Word on Mac and IBM PC's as well as by several others word processing programs. I used this succesfully to exchange documents with MS-Word and WordPerfect at other sites. The above solutions may be regarded as complementary only to the "standard" possibilities : Postscript, TeX and ASCII. Among the "standard" cases I would favour the Postscript solution, perhaps storing the file in Unix compress form (also). Producing a Postscript file from the MS-Word Print command is immediate with the System 7 LaserWriter driver (which can be installed also under System 6 as I did). The following points are worth noting, based on my experience of exchanging such files with other sites. The Mac Postscript file has a long prologue for the LaserWriter. I ignore whether the file can be printed /distributed without this bulky part, but it will not make any harm to leave it in. I experienced no problems in ftp-ing the ps file to Unix and letting Internet users retrieve it. Sometimes instead Decnet users had some problems. I believe they are related to the fact that some records in the ps file (I presume in the prologue) are very long, and the file is created by default on VMS as VARIABLE or STREAM_LF. Then Decnet COPY gets confused by long records. THe trick which generally works it to ftp the file to the VMS host in binary mode (one can even ftp itself onto the same host) : this way the VMS file is created as FIXED 512 and gives no problem. Concerning usage of plain ASCII files, the following is the trick I use to produce ASCII files with good legibility from MS-Word. I SELECT the entire file, than change it to a fixed spacing font like Courier 10 pt. The usage of fixed spacing improves the legibility preserving at best the justification. The choice of a size like 10 pts makes the lines about 72 characters long, which is OK for most printers, terminals, and mailing through gateways. Then I choose Save as... from the File menu, and click on the format button. In the popup I choose "Text only with divided lines" (this is the third entry from the top, I am unsure of the wording since my MS-Word version is in Italian). The purpose of this is to insert a hard carriage return at the end of each line (if you choose "Text only" hard CRs will go only at end of paragraphs, which makes the file illegible on most systems). Of course the file has to be saved with another name. The justification may not LOOK nice on the Mac, but IT DOES once the file is copied over to another computer. Of course any fancy font, boldface, underline, figures, headers and footers are lost, and tables are not handled nicely (they could be converted to tabbed text in advance within MS-Word) Concerning generation of TeX/LateX from MS-Word I cannot give any suggestion, but I would be very interesting in hearing what you can find (perhaps passing thru an intermediate RTF file ?) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A member of G.ASS : Group for Astronomical Software Support ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucio Chiappetti - IFCTR/CNR Milano | U N I C U I Q U E via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano - Italy | System Manager Internet: LUCIO at IFCTR.MI.CNR.IT | FORTUNAE SUAE Decnet: IFCTR::LUCIO (39610::LUCIO) | Bitnet: EXOSAT at IMISIAM | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From fitsbits-request Fri Mar 5 07:32:18 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["2066" "Thu" "4" "March" "1993" "23:32:05" "GMT" "William Thompson" "thompson at serts " nil "56" "Re: Need database program for organizing and managing many fits" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA04892; Fri, 5 Mar 93 07:32:18 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt, MD USA Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!ukma!news1.gsfc.nasa.gov!serts!thompson References: <1muncbINN59 at overload.lbl.gov> <1993Mar3.134828.21780 at news.unige.ch> From: thompson at serts (William Thompson) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: Re: Need database program for organizing and managing many fits Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 23:32:05 GMT bartho at scsun.unige.ch (BARTHOLDI Paul) writes: >Hanan Herzog (herzog at ux5.lbl.gov) wrote: >: Hi, >: The following was sent to me by a colleague: >: "We will soon encounter the problem of many images (requested and >: archived) and no overview over them. We would like to set up some kind >: of database considering the image header information and the directory >: in which the image is. ... >: Any information would be helpful. FTP sites, vendors, anything, >: would be appreciated. >I would very strongly sugest that you look at the /rdb 'unix' relational >data base. It runs both on unix machines and on PC using any unix shell >emulator. The basic idea is to work with pure ascii files and use the >unix facilities as the environment/shell, in particular the i/o redirections >and pipes. (rest deleted) It seems to me that the original poster was looking for something already set up to do more-or-less what he needed to do. Not to denigrate /rdb or anything, but once you start talking about doing programming with a generic database, then there is an incredibly large world of software available to the user. I think that it's fair to say that *any* database software should be able to do the simple job described here. The questions that come into my mind are: 1) How large is the database going to be, i.e. how many entries and how much data per entry? I would then make sure that the selected product could handle that amount of data. 2) How many people are going to be accessing this data, and how often? In other words, how much traffic will there be in accessing the database. It may be that these are not going to be a problem, but you should at least think about it. I've been looking at database software for doing something very similar for keeping track of some spacecraft data. If this is a mission critical application, and you have a budget that can handle it (i.e. $10,000 and up), I suggest that you look at the following products: Oracle Ingres Sybase Informix Interbase Progress Bill Thompson From fitsbits-request Fri Mar 5 08:59:30 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["4895" "Fri" "5" "March" "1993" "06:28:16" "GMT" "Lee E. Brotzman" "leb at gsfc.nasa.gov " nil "101" "Re: Need database program for organizing and managing many fits" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA04943; Fri, 5 Mar 93 08:59:30 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt, MD USA Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!tulane!ukma!news1.gsfc.nasa.gov!leb References: <1muncbINN59 at overload.lbl.gov> From: leb at gsfc.nasa.gov (Lee E. Brotzman) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: Re: Need database program for organizing and managing many fits Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 06:28:16 GMT herzog at ux5.lbl.gov (Hanan Herzog) writes: >Hi, > > The following was sent to me by a colleague: > >"We will soon encounter the problem of many images (requested and >archived) and no overview over them. We would like to set up some kind >of database considering the image header information and the directory >in which the image is. This program should enable us to do searches >for one or several properties of the image. [stuff deleted]. The >header information of the images should be saved and completeted in >ways to make it possible to search after object types, exposure times >and also several properties at a time. (f.e. result all galaxies with >120s exposure times or result the exposure times and coordinates for >all spiral galaxies) [stuff deleted]. Do you know a database program >which could do that or could you search FTP sites for a program like >that?" Look into WAIS (Wide Area Information Server). Jim Fullton, when he was at the University of North Carolina used WAIS to build a query database of assorted FITS images. We have used it here at NASA experimentally to index, search, and retrieve PDS images, FITS images, and a variety of full text databases, including a reasaonbly complete set of abstracts from the major astronomical journals (ApJ, AJ, A&A, PASP, MNRAS, and JGR). The abstract search is publically available as the first product of Project STELAR, the STudy of Electronic Literature for Astronomical Research, recently demonstrated at the Phoenix AAS Meeting. The WAIS source file for accessing this database, containing about 60,000 abstracts, is the following: -----------------------------< abstracts.src >------------------------------- (:source :version 3 :ip-address "128.183.36.18" :ip-name "ndadsb.gsfc.nasa.gov" :tcp-port 210 :database-name "abstracts" :cost 0.00 :cost-unit :free :maintainer "stelar-info at Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov" :description " This database is made available by the STELAR Project, part of the Astrophysics Data Facility (ADF) at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. It currently provides access to machine-readable abstracts for eight leading academic journals of interest to the astronomical community (ApJ, ApJS, AJ, PASP, A&A, A&AS, MNRAS and JGR). These abstracts have been supplied by NASA/STI from a database prepared for NASA's RECON system by an independent abstraction service. The RECON system database contains abstracts from as early as the mid-1960's. The ADF will update the set of available abstracts on a regular basis. Comments, suggestions and/or corrections should be directed to the STELAR Project directly. Our electronic mail address is stelar-info at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT No copying, reproduction or downloading of any portion of this database in machine readable form, or resale of search results or multicopy distribution is allowed, except that data my be temporarily stored (for up to one month) in machine-readable form for reformatting or editing. Some information in this database is copyrighted. Copyright is not claimed in any part of original work prepared by a U. S. Government officer or employee as part of that person's official duties. DOCUMENT DELIVERY SERVICES You may obtain copies of referenced reports or articles through your local library, or by contacting the NASA STI Program. You may submit your requests for reports to the STI Program User Services by telephone using (301)621-0390; or FAX your request to (301)621-0134; or mail your request to 800 ELkridge Landing Road, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090; or via INTERNET using ACCESS at MAIL.CASI.NASA.GOV. Please include the accession number of the report in your request for copies. Your requests for journal articles should be submitted to the STI Program's contractor for published literature, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Requests to the AIAA can be made using (212)247-6500; or FAX your request to (212)582-4861. " ) ---------------------------------< CUT HERE >-------------------------------- Cut out everything between the dashed lines and save as file abstracts.src in your wais-sources directory. For queries just use a sentence that describes the topic you are interested in, like "ultraviolet galaxies in Virgo". There are a few other WAIS source files for smaller databases (the AAS Jobs Register, for instance) available by anonymous FTP from host hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov. -- Lee E. Brotzman Internet: leb at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov -- Hughes STX DECNET: NDADSA::BROTZMAN -- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center BITNET: ZMLEB at GIBBS -- -- Lee E. Brotzman Internet: leb at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov -- Hughes STX DECNET: NDADSA::BROTZMAN -- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center BITNET: ZMLEB at GIBBS From fitsbits-request Sat Mar 6 01:33:45 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1142" "Fri" "5" "March" "1993" "14:45:59" "GMT" "Archie Warnock" "warnock at gsfc.nasa.gov " nil "21" "Re: Need database program for organizing and managing many fits" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA01268; Sat, 6 Mar 93 01:33:45 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt, MD USA Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!concert!gatech!ukma!news1.gsfc.nasa.gov!warnock References: <1muncbINN59 at overload.lbl.gov> From: warnock at gsfc.nasa.gov (Archie Warnock) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: Re: Need database program for organizing and managing many fits Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:45:59 GMT leb at gsfc.nasa.gov (Lee E. Brotzman) writes: >Look into WAIS (Wide Area Information Server). Jim Fullton, when he was at the >University of North Carolina used WAIS to build a query database of assorted >FITS images. We have used it here at NASA experimentally to index, search, and >retrieve PDS images, FITS images, and a variety of full text databases, >including a reasaonbly complete set of abstracts from the major astronomical >journals (ApJ, AJ, A&A, PASP, MNRAS, and JGR). WAIS can index just the names of the files, but the indexer is also smart enough to index the contents of the files and to stop when it hits the first non-ASCII character, so you can actually index the _headers_ of the FITS files, and not have to worry about hosing the database with the non-header data. Very clever. Very slick. I've actually done this with some sample Voyager images - indexing the PDS labels. -- _______________________________________________________________________ -- Archie Warnock Internet: warnock at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov -- Hughes STX "Unix --- JCL For The 90s" -- NASA/GSFC From fitsbits-request Mon Mar 8 10:58:01 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["484" "" "8" "March" "1993" "15:46:34" "GMT" "Gert Gottschalk" "gottsch at mikro.ee.tu-berlin.de " nil "15" "Negative bitpix values and SAOIMAGE" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA06862; Mon, 8 Mar 93 10:58:01 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <1nfpoqINNiok at mailgzrz.TU-Berlin.DE> Organization: TUBerlin/ZRZ Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!concert!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!wupost!uunet!math.fu-berlin.de!mailgzrz.TU-Berlin.DE!gottsch From: gottsch at mikro.ee.tu-berlin.de (Gert Gottschalk) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: Negative bitpix values and SAOIMAGE Date: 8 Mar 1993 15:46:34 GMT Hi there, I am using saoimage (under X11r5) to view fitsimages. Now it seems that the 16 Bit that saoimage reads are signed (-32768 ... +32767). This gives me some trouble with colormaps and their manipulation. (I can't get to a Backgroundsignal of 0) Is there a simple tool that eats fits format tells me the pixelrange and transforms this range into a usersupplied new range (preferrably linear) and writes out a new fits file with the new range ? greetings, Gert Gottschalk From fitsbits-request Tue Mar 9 15:41:36 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["202" "Tue" "9" "March" "93" "15:41:36" nil "fitsbits-request" "fitsbits-request" nil "5" "" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA10394; Tue, 9 Mar 93 15:41:36 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <1993Mar9.184450.5660 at cfa203.harvard.edu> Organization: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!darwin.sura.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!paperboy.osf.org!hsdndev!cfa203!news References: <1nfpoqINNiok at mailgzrz.TU-Berlin.DE> From: alberto at cfa203.HARVARD.EDU (Alberto Accomazzi) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: Re: Negative bitpix values and SAOIMAGE Date: 9 Mar 93 18:44:50 GMT > Hi there, > > I am using saoimage (under X11r5) to view fitsimages. Now it seems that > the 16 Bit that saoimage reads are signed (-32768 ... +32767). This gives > me some trouble with colormaps and their manipulation. (I can't get to > a Backgroundsignal of 0) Did you try $ saoimage -fits -min 0 -max 32767 -linear file.fits (you can make the max be whatever you want to be). If you want to interpret the data as unsigned (overriding the standard FITS interpretation) you can try: $ saoimage -u2 cols rows -min min_val -max max_val -skip header_size file.fits where header_size is a multiple of 2880. > Is there a simple tool that eats fits format tells me the pixelrange and > transforms this range into a usersupplied new range (preferrably linear) > and writes out a new fits file with the new range ? IRAF can do that. Look at the help pages on imstatistics and imarith in the images package. - Alberto ========== Alberto Accomazzi Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics alberto at cfa.harvard.edu 60 Garden Street, MS 39 (617) 495-7076 Cambridge, MA 02138 USA From fitsbits-request Tue Mar 9 16:03:07 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["371" "Tue" "9" "March" "93" "16:03:28" "EST" "William Pence" "pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov " nil "9" "Porting FITSIO to Crays and Alphas" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA10426; Tue, 9 Mar 93 16:03:07 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <9303092103.AA01530 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> From: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Cc: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov Subject: Porting FITSIO to Crays and Alphas Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 16:03:28 EST I've had several inquiries about porting the FITSIO subroutine library to Cray supercomputers and to DEC Alpha workstations. Has anyone already made either of these conversions (he said hopefully), or is there someone with access to either of these machines that would be interested in helping to make the ports? Thanks in advance, Bill Pence pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov From fitsbits-request Fri Mar 12 06:31:52 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1486" "Fri" "12" "March" "1993" "07:45:39" "GMT" "Luca Fini" "lfini at sisifo " nil "29" "Opinions on standards wanted" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA17219; Fri, 12 Mar 93 06:31:52 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <1993Mar12.074539.3578 at arcetri.astro.it> Organization: Osservatorio di Arcetri Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!concert!gatech!rpi!ghost.dsi.unimi.it!sisifo.arcetri.astro.it!sisifo!lfini Reply-To: lfini at arcetri.astro.it From: lfini at sisifo (Luca Fini) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: Opinions on standards wanted Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 07:45:39 GMT [ Article crossposted from sci.astro ] [ Author was Luca Fini ] [ Posted on Thu, 11 Mar 1993 10:55:58 GMT ] Hi everybody. I've got to make a short presentations on the topic: "Standards in Astronomy", and I'd like to know some ideas of scientists actively working in astronomy on the subject. Here are some of the questions I'd like to have answers to: Is it important to enforce the use of standards? Do you love/hate some of them? Do they actually exists? Are they evil or good? Do you think there are areas where they should be introduced? Go to hell you and your standards? There is no limit on the kind of standard you may think of (but not be limited to): data exchange/storage (e.g. FITS); data analysis packages, programming languages/environments, graphic presentation packages, remote archive access procedures, etc., etc. I think the best way to answer should be via e-mail. I'd be glad to summarize and post the result of this survey. Cheers, +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Luca Fini | | Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri Tel. +55 2752 253 | | L.go E.Fermi, 5 Fax.: +55 220039 | | 50125 Firenze e-mail: lfini at arcetri.astro.it | | Italia | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ From fitsbits-request Fri Mar 12 10:39:53 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1957" "Fri" "12" "March" "93" "16:22:21" "ITA" "Lucio Chiappetti" "lucio at ifctr.mi.cnr.it" nil "40" "Info on \"OGIP FITS\" standard" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA18636; Fri, 12 Mar 93 10:39:53 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9303121539.AA18636 at fits.cv.nrao.edu> Return-Path: Message-Id: <9303121539.AA18630 at fits.cv.nrao.edu> Organization: Istituto di Fisica Cosmica e Tecnologie Relative X-Acknowledge-To: Resent-Sender: Lucio Chiappetti From: Lucio Chiappetti Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Resent-From: fitsbits-request To: FITS discussion list , WGAS discussion list Subject: Info on "OGIP FITS" standard Date: Fri, 12 Mar 93 16:22:21 ITA Resent-Date: Fri, 12 Mar 93 16:22:21 ITA I am involved in the definition of data formats (images, spectra, time profiles and photon lists) for the X-ray missions SAX and XMM/EPIC. Our definition is already at a quite advanced stage, but still not frozen, and is based on a native format, which however is immediately mappable to FITS. The main issue here is the semantics of the keywords associated to a given file, and the related conventions. In a recent meeting an ESTEC colleague mentioned the "OGIP FITS conventions" and the case for compatibility with them. He also voluntereed to distribute some related documentation. Since I have never seen such topic discussed on FITSBITS or WGAS (I am posting this to both lists) I would like to know more : - Are these OGIP conventions a "private" convention of GSFC, or it is intended to propose them as a draft standard in the traditional FITS way ? - Is the related documentation restricted in access or usage ? And if not is it available electronically ? - How stable are those conventions ? I mean, are they frozen ? Are they liable to change duirng development dramatically ? etc. etc. - Are these conventions open for discussion in the context of future missions in which European and Eastern countries may be involved (e.g. SAX, Spektrum-RG, XMM etc.) ? Any further information will be appreciated. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A member of G.ASS : Group for Astronomical Software Support ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucio Chiappetti - IFCTR/CNR Milano | U N I C U I Q U E via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano - Italy | System Manager Internet: LUCIO at IFCTR.MI.CNR.IT | FORTUNAE SUAE Decnet: IFCTR::LUCIO (39610::LUCIO) | Bitnet: | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From fitsbits-request Fri Mar 12 18:21:27 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["3294" "Fri" "12" "March" "93" "18:21:43" "EST" "William Pence" "pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov " nil "67" "RE: \"OGIP FITS\" standard" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA19542; Fri, 12 Mar 93 18:21:27 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <9303122321.AA04678 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> From: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU, wgas at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Cc: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov Subject: RE: "OGIP FITS" standard Date: Fri, 12 Mar 93 18:21:43 EST Lucio Chiappetti wrote: >In a recent meeting an ESTEC colleague mentioned the "OGIP FITS conventions" >and the case for compatibility with them. He also voluntereed to distribute >some related documentation. > >Since I have never seen such topic discussed on FITSBITS or WGAS (I am >posting this to both lists) I would like to know more : As a member of the OGIP, I will attempt to give an unofficial answer to the questions that were presented. First, OGIP stands for the 'Office of Guest Investigator Programs' at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. The OGIP provides guest observer support for various high-energy astrophysics missions including the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, ROSAT, Astro-D, and XTE. Also under the OGIP is a group called the HEASARC which, among other things, is developing and promoting multimission FITS format standards for use by these missions. > - Are these OGIP conventions a "private" convention of GSFC, or it is > intended to propose them as a draft standard in the traditional FITS > way ? Our goal is to develop standards which can be used throughout the high-energy astrophysics community, not just within the OGIP. We are following a 2-pronged approach to develop the standards. On one hand, we are designing specific FITS formats for use by particular missions. These formats then serve as a model for future missions with similar types of data. On the other hand, we are beginning to draft general guidelines for the FITS format for certain general classes of high-energy data, such as light curves, spectra or event data. > - Is the related documentation restricted in access or usage ? > And if not is it available electronically ? The documentation will be freely available. One distribution channel that the HEASARC uses is it's biannual Journal called "Legacy" which usually contains some FITS related articles. Legacy is currently sent to a very wide distribution list, both within and outside the high-energy community. If anyone wishes to be added to the distribution list, and/or receive copies to the first 2 issues that have been published, they should send a request to HEASARC::TYLER or tyler at heasrc.gsfc.nasa.gov In the future, we plan to make each Legacy article available electronically, but this will probably not be available for a few more months. > - How stable are those conventions ? I mean, are they frozen ? Are > they liable to change duirng development dramatically ? etc. etc. We are currently trying to reach an internal concensus withing the OGIP for some some of these standards. In particular, we will soon have a draft document on the standard formats for light curve and event data files that are used in timing analysis. So the standards are certainly not frozen, but as we beginning using these formats within the OGIP, it will naturally become more difficult to make major changes. > - Are these conventions open for discussion in the context of future > missions in which European and Eastern countries may be involved > (e.g. SAX, Spektrum-RG, XMM etc.) ? Yes, we will certainly welcome discussion on our drafts. It would be in everyone's interest to try to reach agreement on standards that all high-energy research groups could use. Bill Pence HEASARC From fitsbits-request Mon Mar 15 13:35:48 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1923" "Mon" "15" "March" "93" "19:25:26" "ITA" "Lucio Chiappetti" "lucio at ifctr.mi.cnr.it" nil "34" "RE: \"OGIP FITS\" standard" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA03483; Mon, 15 Mar 93 13:35:48 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9303151835.AA03483 at fits.cv.nrao.edu> Return-Path: Message-Id: <9303151835.AA03474 at fits.cv.nrao.edu> Organization: Istituto di Fisica Cosmica e Tecnologie Relative In-Reply-To: Message of Fri, 12 Mar 93 17:40:58 -0500 from X-Acknowledge-To: Resent-Sender: Lucio Chiappetti From: Lucio Chiappetti Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Resent-From: fitsbits-request To: Multiple recipients of list Cc: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: RE: "OGIP FITS" standard Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 19:25:26 ITA Resent-Date: Mon, 15 Mar 93 19:25:26 ITA On Fri, 12 Mar 93 17:40:58 -0500 William Pence said: >As a member of the OGIP, I will attempt to give an unofficial answer to the >questions that were presented. First, OGIP stands for the 'Office of Guest >Investigator Programs' at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. The OGIP provides >guest observer support for various high-energy astrophysics missions including >the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, ROSAT, Astro-D, and XTE. Also under the >> - Are these conventions open for discussion in the context of future >> missions in which European and Eastern countries may be involved >> (e.g. SAX, Spektrum-RG, XMM etc.) ? > >Yes, we will certainly welcome discussion on our drafts. It would be in >everyone's interest to try to reach agreement on standards that >all high-energy research groups could use. I have received so far, concerning my posting about "OGIP FITS", the above "unofficial" reply from Bill Pence, and another (official ?) reply by Mike Corcoran (concerning ROSAT, with some additional material), which I presume was posted only to me. Both replies stated interest in continuing a discussion on this. What is the best way to do it ? Over WGAS and/or fitsbits ? Over some other list ? Or just privately ? I'd like to solicit comments from other possibly interested parties. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A member of G.ASS : Group for Astronomical Software Support ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucio Chiappetti - IFCTR/CNR Milano | U N I C U I Q U E via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano - Italy | System Manager Internet: LUCIO at IFCTR.MI.CNR.IT | FORTUNAE SUAE Decnet: IFCTR::LUCIO (39610::LUCIO) | Bitnet: | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From fitsbits-request Tue Mar 16 16:17:48 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1716" "Tue" "16" "March" "93" "16:18:03" "EST" "William Pence" "pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov " nil "31" "High Energy FITS Format Standards" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA06864; Tue, 16 Mar 93 16:17:48 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <9303162118.AA01615 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> From: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: wgas at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Cc: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU, pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov Subject: High Energy FITS Format Standards Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 16:18:03 EST Lucio Chiappetti has asked what is the best forum for discussing data format issues related to high energy astrophysics missions like ROSAT, AstroD, AXAF, SAX, Spektrum-RG, XMM, XTE, etc. The purpose of such discussions would be to define conventions for the use of FITS standard formats to store similar types of high energy astrophysics data. This would involve defining standard names for FITS keywords and table columns and designing standard table column layouts for different types of data, all within the current FITS standard. Discussions of expanding the FITS standard, e.g., to define new types of FITS extensions, would be beyond the scope of this discussion group. My own preference would be to have a separate mail exploder specificly for discussion of High Energy Astrophysics data related issues. I think the WGAS and FITSBITS groups are both too broad in nature for this purpose which would make it difficult to reach a concensus. It would be better to have a smaller and more focused group to discuss these specific issues. There would be no attempt to limit membership to this discussion group, but I would expect the core members to be the 1 or 2 people from each high energy astrophysics mission that are most directly concerned with data format issues, as well as the writers of general analysis software for this type of data. The HEASARC already maintains a mail distribution list like this consisting of people interested in FITS data formats for the CGRO, ROSAT, AstroD, and XTE missions. These people are mainly located at GSFC, but there are a few at other sites. We would be happy to expand the membership of this list to include anyone interested in these issues. -Bill Pence From fitsbits-request Wed Mar 17 16:31:19 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1460" "Wed" "17" "March" "1993" "10:12:39" "GMT" "Luca Fini" "lfini at sisifo " nil "30" "Opinion on standards (reposting)" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA09818; Wed, 17 Mar 93 16:31:19 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <1993Mar17.101239.3877 at arcetri.astro.it> Organization: Osservatorio di Arcetri Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!concert!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!batcomputer!ghost.dsi.unimi.it!sisifo.arcetri.astro.it!sisifo!lfini Reply-To: lfini at arcetri.astro.it From: lfini at sisifo (Luca Fini) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: Opinion on standards (reposting) Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 10:12:39 GMT [ Article crossposted from sci.astro ] [ Author was Luca Fini ] [ Posted on Tue, 16 Mar 1993 08:04:54 GMT ] Hi everybody. I've got to make a short presentations on the topic: "Standards in Astronomy", and I'd like to know some ideas of scientists actively working in astronomy on the subject. Here are some of the topics I'd like to hear about: - Is it important to enforce the use of standards? - Do you love/hate some of them? - Do they actually exists? - Are they evil or good? - Do you think there are areas where they should be introduced? - Go to hell you and your standards! Some areas of interest might be (but not limited to): data exchange/storage (e.g. FITS); data analysis packages, programming languages/environments, graphic presentation packages, remote archive access, document formatting, etc., etc. I think the best way to answer should be via e-mail. I'd be glad to summarize and post the results. Cheers, +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Luca Fini | | Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri Tel. +55 2752 253 | | L.go E.Fermi, 5 Fax.: +55 220039 | | 50125 Firenze e-mail: lfini at arcetri.astro.it | | Italia | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ From fitsbits-request Wed Mar 17 21:31:35 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["12358" "" "17" "March" "93" "21:47:14" "GMT" "James Bryan" "bryan at astro.as.utexas.edu " nil "252" "FITS images to DOS-PC by tape" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA10835; Wed, 17 Mar 93 21:31:35 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <87143 at ut-emx.uucp> Organization: McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!natinst.com!news.dell.com!milano!shrike!ut-emx!astro.as.utexas.edu!bryan From: bryan at astro.as.utexas.edu (James Bryan) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: FITS images to DOS-PC by tape Date: 17 Mar 93 21:47:14 GMT I need to move FITS images from a UNIX-operated computer at the telescope to a DOS-operated PC via 8-mm tape. Finding a tape drive for the PC has not been difficult. Finding the interface software and board is a problem. Does such UNIX-to-DOS software for FITS exist? James Bryan From fitsbits-request Fri Mar 19 11:24:15 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["8786" "Fri" "19" "March" "1993" "13:07:00" "GMT" "Barry Schlesinger" "bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov " nil "172" "FITS basics and information (periodic posting)" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA17386; Fri, 19 Mar 93 11:24:15 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt, MD USA Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!concert!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!ames!nsisrv!news1.gsfc.nasa.gov!nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov!bschlesinger From: bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry Schlesinger) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: FITS basics and information (periodic posting) Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 13:07:00 GMT Followups to: poster Keywords: Message-ID: <19MAR199309073427 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov> Organization: NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 This basic FITS information is posted and updated periodically for the benefit of new readers and the reference of old readers. FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) is a data format designed to provide a means for convenient exchange of astronomical data between installations whose standard internal formats and hardware differ. A FITS file is composed of a sequence of Header Data Units (HDUs). The header consists of keyword=value statements, which describe the format and organization of the data in the HDU and may also provide additional information, for example, about the instrument or the history of the data. The data follow, structured as the header specifies. The data section of the HDU may contain a digital image, but, except for the first, *it doesn't have to*. Other possible formats include tables and multidimensional matrices that are not images. The first HDU must contain a multidimensional matrix or no data at all; the data in subsequent HDUs, called extensions, may be of any type, consistent with certain rules. The "Image" in the name comes from the original use of the format to transport digital images, but it's not just for images any more. FITS is not principally a graphics format designed for the transfer of pictures; it does not incorporate "FITS viewers", packages for decoding the data into an image. Users must develop or obtain separate software to convert the data from the FITS file into a form that can be readily displayed. As has been discussed in this newsgroup, and in alt.sci.astro.fits before it, the Extended Portable Bitmap Toolkit (pbm+) can be used for converting many FITS files to such a format. However, support is not guaranteed for all FITS files where the data are in the form of an image. In particular, there may be problems when the data matrix members are in IEEE floating point format (BITPIX<0) or the matrix has more than two dimensions (NAXIS>2). Archie Warnock and Ron Baalke have announced release of version 7.8 of the IMDISP program. IMDISP is an interactive image processing program that runs on an IBM PC computer and supports FITS input. IMDISP 7.8 is available via anonymous ftp at ames.arc.nasa.gov [128.102.18.3] in a file called imdisp78.zip in the pub/SPACE/SOFTWARE subdirectory and at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov in the pub/software/imdisp subdirectory. It is also available through Simtel-20 [192.88.110.20] at PD1:IMDISP78.ZIP. Additional discussion of FITS->image converters appears in this newsgroup from time to time. The fundamental references on FITS are the following four papers, often referred to collectively as the "Four FITS Papers". These papers are the formal standard for FITS, endorsed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Wells, D. C., Greisen, E. W., and Harten, R. H., "FITS: a flexible image transport system," Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 44, 363-370, 1981. Greisen, E. W. and Harten, R. H., "An extension of FITS for small arrays of data," Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 44, 371-374, 1981. (NOTE: The format described in this paper has been used almost exclusively to transport radio interferometry and is likely to be replaced by other formats in the future. Writing data other than radio interferometry data using this format is not recommended.) Grosbol, P., Harten, R. H., Greisen, E. W., and Wells, D. C., "Generalized extensions and blocking factors for FITS," Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 73, 359-364, 1988. Harten, R. H., Grosbol. P., Greisen, E. W., and Wells, D. C., "The FITS tables extension, Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 73, 365-372, 1988. A User's Guide for FITS, commissioned by NASA Headquarters, is maintained by the NASA/OSSA Office of Standards and Technology (NOST) FITS Support Office. This Guide is intended to be a tutorial for new FITS users. In addition to presenting the rules of FITS, it provides some of the history and reasoning behind the choice of the rules, adds recommendations on good practices, and discusses current developments in FITS. A new version, 3.0, was issued in January 1993. This document is at present available only in printed form, but steps are under way to generate a PostScript version that will work on many systems and a flat ASCII version. The NOST is sponsoring development of a formal standard for FITS. The goal is a document codifying FITS as endorsed by the IAU, eliminating some contradictions and ambiguities in the original FITS papers, that can be endorsed by the IAU FITS Working Group as the FITS standard. The document is being developed by a Technical Panel chaired by Dr. Robert J. Hanisch (STSci), with review by the astronomical community. Only minor revisions are expected to the draft currently available, version 0.3b, but the form of the standard is not final, and it does not supersede the four papers and Floating Point Agreement endorsed by the IAU as the official standard for FITS. The IAU has endorsed the Floating Point Agreement, which defines how floating point numbers are to be expressed in FITS. The basic agreement appears verbatim in the User's Guide, and the substance is incorporated in the Draft NASA FITS definition. The NOST maintains a file of FITS information available by anonymous ftp from nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov or DECnet copy from NSSDCA, in the directory FITS. It includes copies of the current NOST draft standard in flat ASCII, PostScript, and LaTeX. Style and index files are provided for the LaTeX form. Except that the ASCII form does not have an index, the copies in the three formats are identical; only one need be retrieved. A current list of the extension type (structure) names registered with the IAU FITS Working Group is maintained. Also available, in LaTeX form, is the text of the proposal for one of these new extension types, IMAGE. An AAREADME.DOC file describes the contents of the directory. A SOFTWARE subdirectory contains a program in C to read and list the headers of a FITS file and another file with information on publicly available FITS software packages. The ERRTEST subdirectory contains several versions of the same FITS file, a valid one and several with different kinds of header errors, for use in testing software to read FITS files. Be sure to use binary transfer for ftp access of FITS test files. Both the SOFTWARE and ERRTEST subdirectories include AAREADME.DOC files describing their content. Additional material can be obtained by anonymous ftp from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, from fits.cv.nrao.edu, in the directory FITS. The Documents subdirectory (case is significant) contains copies of the BINTABLE Binary Tables extension proposal, which is now under consideration by the FITS committees, and a draft describing a proposed method for incorporating data compression under FITS. It also contains text of the paper summarizing conclusions of a workshop on World Coordinates held in Charlottesville in 1988 that is serving as the basis for continuing discussion of world coordinates issues, some of which appears on this newsgroup from time to time. These documents are available in both LaTeX and PostScript forms. A number of additional documents are available in ASCII text form, including the proposal on physical blocking of FITS files on media other than tape and material on FITS, its history, and the FITS community. Printed copies of many of the documents listed above can be obtained from the NOST Librarian. Printed copies of the User's Guide and either paper or electronic copies of the Draft NOST Standard, for those without ftp access, are available. Because of restrictions set by the copyright holder, NOST can send copies of the four FITS papers only to non-profit organizations. The NOST can be reached as follows: (Postal) NASA/OSSA Office of Standards and Technology Code 633.2 Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD 20771 USA (Internet) nost at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (DECnet) NCF::NOST Telephone: (301)286-3575 8 a. m. - 5 p. m., U. S. Eastern Time If the Librarian is unavailable, a phone mail system takes the call after four rings. Please mention this posting in your request. Use the FITS office electronic mail address below for replies or questions. It is monitored by other NOST staff memebers when I am away from the office and provides a greater certainty of rapid response. Barry M. Schlesinger Coordinator, NASA/NSSDC NOST FITS Support Office (301) 513-1634 fits at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov NCF::FITS From fitsbits-request Wed Mar 24 18:18:01 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["648" "" "24" "March" "93" "21:33:43" "GMT" "Alex Wuensche" "alex at cfi.ucsb.edu " nil "15" "reading IRAS FITS files" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA00811; Wed, 24 Mar 93 18:18:01 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: Organization: Astophysics-UCSB Path: cv3.cv.nrao.edu!uvaarpa!darwin.sura.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!network.ucsd.edu!ucsbcsl!cfi.ucsb.edu!alex From: alex at cfi.ucsb.edu (Alex Wuensche) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU Subject: reading IRAS FITS files Date: 24 Mar 93 21:33:43 GMT Hi. Does anybody around have a piece of code to read a FITS file block, and make it understandable? I mean, I have trouble in translating the character real (or integer) numbers. I've been trying to use the FITSIO library routines, but haven't found any that worked the way I wanted (maybe I don't know enough about FITS files yet, but they are not very well documented, anyway...). I'd prefer suggestions in Fortran, but any piece of information or code is welcome. Please, send me a personal mail, and, if I feel there are enough answers (i.e., more than 2 :-) ) and/or interest in the subject, I'll post a summary. Thanks a lot, Alex From fitsbits-request Thu Mar 25 11:32:50 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["982" "Thu" "25" "March" "93" "11:32:51" "EST" "William Pence" "pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov " nil "22" "Re: reading IRAS FITS files" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA03113; Thu, 25 Mar 93 11:32:50 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <9303251632.AA10065 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> From: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: alex at cfi.ucsb.edu Cc: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU, pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov Subject: Re: reading IRAS FITS files Date: Thu, 25 Mar 93 11:32:51 EST On 24 March 93 Alex Wuensche wrote: >Does anybody around have a piece of code to read a FITS file block, and >make it understandable? I mean, I have trouble in translating the character >real (or integer) numbers. Strictly speaking, it is impossible to decode an arbitrary FITS file 2880-byte block because the information needed to decode it may be contained in a previous block. So I think you are taking the wrong approach if you are trying to read a FITS file on a block by block basis. Instead, it is more useful to think of a FITS file as a continuous stream of bytes which make up a series of header keyword records followed by an optional set of data. This is view that the FITSIO interface provides which contains subroutines to read the header records or read the attached data records. This insulates the application programmer from having to worry about the internal blocked structure of the FITS files, which is irrelevant for most applications. -Bill Pence From fitsbits-request Wed Mar 31 17:34:37 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["2952" "Wed" "31" "March" "93" "17:34:48" "EST" "William Pence" "pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov " nil "65" "High Energy Astrophysics FITS group - HEAFITS" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA08946; Wed, 31 Mar 93 17:34:37 EST Return-Path: Message-Id: <9303312234.AA18082 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> From: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU To: fitsbits at fits.CV.NRAO.EDU, wgas at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Cc: pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov Subject: High Energy Astrophysics FITS group - HEAFITS Date: Wed, 31 Mar 93 17:34:48 EST This is to announce that a new electronic mail exploder, called HEAFITS, has been set up for the purpose of discussing issues related to FITS format files in High Energy Astrophysics (HEA). This is intended to be a more specialized group for discussion of HEA-specific FITS issues that would not necessarily be of interest to the majority of subscribers to the existing FITSBITS and WGAS mail exploders. There is no strict charter for what topics can be discussed within the HEAFITS group, but in general, the purpose of this mail distribution group is to promote the development of standards for FITS files containing data related to high energy astrophysics. This includes, but is not limited to, proposals for standard keyword names, or standard binary table layouts and column names to be used for different classes of HEA data. More general issues such as proposals for changes to the existing FITS Standard, or for new types of FITS extensions, should more properly be addressed to the FITSBITS group, rather than HEAFITS. There are two mail addresses associated with HEAFITS. The first address should be used to subscribe or unsubscribe to HEAFITS. Once you have subscribed, the second address should then be used for posting messages to the group, as explained in more detail below: TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE TO HEAFITS: To subscribe to this mail exploder, interested parties should send a one-line mail message to the following account: listserv at legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov The body of the mail message should contain one line with the following text: subscribe heafits Your Name where 'Your Name' is obviously your own name. To unsubscribe to the group, send a message to the the same address with the line: unsubscribe heafits We are currently in the process of automating this listserver mechanism, but in order to not further delay the start of this group the subscription and unsubscription process will be handled manually for the present. Therefore it may take up to a day from the time of your request before your name is actually entered into the subscription list. TO POST MESSAGES TO THE HEAFITS GROUP. Once you have subscribed to HEAFITS, you may then send messages to the other members of the group by addressing your mail to heafits at legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov (Note that these messages should _not_ be sent to the listserv address). I would suggest that new subscribers to this group wait until next week before posting any messages to the group, to allow for a critical mass of people to subscribe first. I will send out a message next week to all the subscribers, once it appears that there are enough people subscribed to make a meaningful discussion possible. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Pence High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (Internet) or HEASRC::PENCE