From fitsbits-request Mon May 1 15:52:14 1995 X-VM-Message-Order: (1 3 5 11 16 6 14 2 7 15 17 18 19 12 4 8 9 13 20 21 10 22 23 24) X-VM-Summary-Format: "%n %*%a %-17.17F %-3.3m %2d %4l/%-5c %I\"%s\"\n" X-VM-Labels: nil X-VM-VHeader: ("Resent-" "From:" "Sender:" "To:" "Apparently-To:" "Cc:" "Subject:" "Date:") nil X-VM-Bookmark: 24 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1338" "Mon" "1" "May" "1995" "15:51:56" "-0400" "William Pence" "pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<199505011951.PAA15957 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "29" "Re: Using FITSIO in PC:s" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995050119:51:56" "Using FITSIO in PC:s" (number " " mark " William Pence May 1 29/1338 " thread-indent "\"Re: Using FITSIO in PC:s\"\n") nil] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA03122; Mon, 1 May 95 15:52:14 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <199505011951.PAA15957 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> From: William Pence Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Cc: hpollari at cc.Helsinki.FI Subject: Re: Using FITSIO in PC:s Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 15:51:56 -0400 Heikki Pollari wrote: > I'd like to ask if anyone has experience on using the FITSIO package for writing > bintables in PC. In the user's guide the catalog includes Microsoft Fortran > and Lahey Fortran. Currently we don't have any PC Fortran compiler but we are > going to purchase one that could easily be used to compile the FITSIO routines. > > Is it possible to call the FITSIO routines from C programs in PC using > suitable C and Fortran Complilers? This is all possible, however, the DOS 640k memory limit seriously restricts the size of programs using FITSIO, so get a Fortran compiler that doesn't have this limitation if at all possible. If one must use a compiler with this memory limit, there are a few simple modifications that can be made to the FITSIO code to reduce the minimum memory requirements (at the expense of limiting the number or size of the FITS files that are opened). See the FITSIO User's Guide in the beta release of FITSIO V4.0 for more details. It is available via anonymous ftp from legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov in /software/fitsio/beta/. It is also possible to use the 'f2c' program to compile FITSIO if one does not have a real Fortran compiler. A set of C macros are provided with FITSIO (in the file cfitsio.h) to make it easier to call FITSIO from C programs. Bill Pence HEASARC, NASA/GSFC From fitsbits-request Tue May 9 16:35:31 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["372" "" "9" "May" "1995" "14:17:25" "GMT" "Steve Welch" "sjw at solitaire.cv.nrao.edu" "<3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk>" "16" "Where is there a FITs ftp site?" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995050914:17:25" "Where is there a FITs ftp site?" (number " " mark " Steve Welch May 9 16/372 " thread-indent "\"Where is there a FITs ftp site?\"\n") nil] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA07414; Tue, 9 May 95 16:35:31 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> Organization: MSSL Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!maui.cc.odu.edu!kuroshio.ccpo.odu.edu!xanth.cs.odu.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!uwm.edu!news.alpha.net!news.mathworks.com!gatech!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!uknet!bcc.ac.uk!mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk!news Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: Steve Welch Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Where is there a FITs ftp site? Date: 9 May 1995 14:17:25 GMT Hi, I am new to News, and to fits also, so . . . I am looking for a method to easily open a FITs file so that it can be saved into another format. I think that there is an ftp site dedicated ti fits somewhere, but I can't remember where. Does anyone know of this, or have any suggestions, before I set about reinventing a wheel? Regards Steve sjw at mssl.ucl.ac.uk From fitsbits-request Wed May 10 01:07:17 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["832" "" "9" "May" "1995" "18:39:04" "GMT" "Peter Barvoets" "zardoz at albany.net" "<3oocs8$3i8 at apollo.albany.net>" "30" "Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995050918:39:04" "Where is there a FITs ftp site?" (number " " mark " Peter Barvoets May 9 30/832 " thread-indent "\"Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?\"\n") "<3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA08033; Wed, 10 May 95 01:07:17 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3oocs8$3i8 at apollo.albany.net> Organization: AlbanyNet: info at albany.net Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!apollo.albany.net!usenet References: <3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: Peter Barvoets Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site? Date: 9 May 1995 18:39:04 GMT Steve, Try the following: http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/ Fits archive at NRAO or http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/FITS.html This has a fits faq etc. I have a question perhaps you can help me with. When I try to get a fits image from a perticular site, the "image" comes as a text of odd characters, it doesn't give me the opportunity to download it directly to disk. I use Netscape for this and usually, when retrieving an image, netscape allows me to download the image to disk where I can then view it using l-view or whatever. since netscape prints out the file for a fits image as if it were text, I cannot view the image using the fitsviewer I have. If the image is indeed text, netscape will only display the code. Are fits images text based? and if so, how do I download to view? Thanks for any help on this -PB From fitsbits-request Wed May 10 01:07:17 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["832" "" "9" "May" "1995" "18:40:14" "GMT" "Peter Barvoets" "zardoz at albany.net" "<3oocue$3i8 at apollo.albany.net>" "30" "Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995050918:40:14" "Where is there a FITs ftp site?" (number " " mark " Peter Barvoets May 9 30/832 " thread-indent "\"Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?\"\n") "<3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA08035; Wed, 10 May 95 01:07:17 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3oocue$3i8 at apollo.albany.net> Organization: AlbanyNet: info at albany.net Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!apollo.albany.net!usenet References: <3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: Peter Barvoets Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site? Date: 9 May 1995 18:40:14 GMT Steve, Try the following: http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/ Fits archive at NRAO or http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/FITS.html This has a fits faq etc. I have a question perhaps you can help me with. When I try to get a fits image from a perticular site, the "image" comes as a text of odd characters, it doesn't give me the opportunity to download it directly to disk. I use Netscape for this and usually, when retrieving an image, netscape allows me to download the image to disk where I can then view it using l-view or whatever. since netscape prints out the file for a fits image as if it were text, I cannot view the image using the fitsviewer I have. If the image is indeed text, netscape will only display the code. Are fits images text based? and if so, how do I download to view? Thanks for any help on this -PB From fitsbits-request Wed May 10 16:09:16 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["2292" "" "10" "May" "1995" "13:15:07" "GMT" "Dick Edgar" "edgar at oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu" "<3oqe8r$20gm at news.doit.wisc.edu>" "48" "Re: FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . ." "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051013:15:07" "FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . ." (number " " mark " Dick Edgar May 10 48/2292 " thread-indent "\"Re: FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . .\"\n") "<3optbv$dvp at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA11541; Wed, 10 May 95 16:09:16 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3oqe8r$20gm at news.doit.wisc.edu> Organization: University of Wisconsin - Astronomy Department Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!maui.cc.odu.edu!xanth.cs.odu.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!uwm.edu!newsspool.doit.wisc.edu!news.doit.wisc.edu!oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu!edgar References: <3optbv$dvp at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: edgar at oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu (Dick Edgar) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . . Date: 10 May 1995 13:15:07 GMT In article <3optbv$dvp at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> Steve Welch writes: !Earlier I posted a msg asking for information about any FITs ftp sites. Thanks !to Donald C Wells for his swift reply and suggestion of ! !http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/ and ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/ ! !Donald suggested that I post more details about what I am doing - so for !general interest, and in case anyone else has done anything similar . . . ! snip... ! !Now for FITs . . . Prior to the testing of the whole telescope, CCD images !were just made up, and could be useful engineering test patterns. While this !is still true, now that there is realistic data available, we can do better. !To make the design of the real-time software easier, I would like to read the !FITs data in (offline) and write it into a new file type, where the data is !simply a long list of integers, one to a line. The integers will be the !energy of the pixels, and their position in the list will imply the coordinate !eg in the simplest of the several cases, first in the list is the energy of !the bottom leftmost pixel, and so on along the bottom row, and so on. ! !I am surely not the first to do this sort of thing, but if it turns out that !I am the first subscriber to this list to do so - I'll post a follow up to !give my findings. ! There is a package of very useful programs for handling FITS files of many descriptions known as FTOOLS. It's available from ftp://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/software (or some similar directory). Have a look while you're there at the other stuff in the archive; it pertains to a large variety of other x- and gamma-ray astronomy missions & instruments. They have a web page at http://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/. This site is maintained by the HEASARC, the NASA/Goddard High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (and they do an excellent job, by the way, in my opinion). In particular, one of the FTOOLS programs called fimgdmp (ftools image dump) does almost exactly what you want: lists values of pixels in a FITS image. --------- Richard J. Edgar (edgar at uwast.astro.wisc.edu) University of Wisconsin--Madison, Department of Astronomy "An astrophysicist is someone who sees something working in practice, and wonders whether it will work in principle." -- Harvey Liszt From fitsbits-request Wed May 10 19:48:39 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["2063" "" "10" "May" "1995" "18:42:29" "GMT" "William Thompson" "thompson at orpheus.nascom.nasa.gov" "<3or1el$qp7 at post.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "46" "Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051018:42:29" "Where is there a FITs ftp site?" (number " " mark " William Thompson May 10 46/2063 " thread-indent "\"Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?\"\n") "<3oocs8$3i8 at apollo.albany.net>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA11899; Wed, 10 May 95 19:48:39 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3or1el$qp7 at post.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!kuroshio.ccpo.odu.edu!xanth.cs.odu.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!ames!newsfeed.gsfc.nasa.gov!orpheus.nascom.nasa.gov!thompson References: <3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> <3oocs8$3i8 at apollo.albany.net> Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: thompson at orpheus.nascom.nasa.gov (William Thompson) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site? Date: 10 May 1995 18:42:29 GMT Peter Barvoets writes: >I have a question perhaps you can help me with. When I try to get a fits >image from a perticular site, the "image" comes as a text of odd >characters, it doesn't give me the opportunity to download it directly to >disk. I use Netscape for this and usually, when retrieving an image, >netscape allows me to download the image to disk where I can then view it >using l-view or whatever. since netscape prints out the file for a fits >image as if it were text, I cannot view the image using the fitsviewer I >have. >If the image is indeed text, netscape will only display the code. >Are fits images text based? and if so, how do I download to view? If the HTTP server does not specify otherwise, a WWW browser such as Mosaic or Netscape will try to guess what kind of file it is. FITS files start out with an ASCII header followed by binary data. The computer will see that the first part of the file is in ASCII and will assume that the rest of the file is ASCII as well. There are several ways to take care of this. One way is to modify the way that the computer guesses the file type. I understand that in Unix this involves modifying the file /etc/magic, but am unfamiliar with the details. Another way to take care of this is for the server to associate MIME data types with filenames. It appears that it becoming standard to use "image/x-fits" for FITS files. Personally, I believe that this is only appropriate for files that actually contain images, i.e. SIMPLE = "T" NAXIS = 2 No extensions No groups For more general kinds of FITS files, I believe that "application/x-fits" is a better MIME type to use. The latter is more in line with other scientific data formats which are not restricted to 2D images, such as "application/x-hdf" for HDF files and "application/x-netcdf" for NetCDF files. My own HTTP server is configured to serve any files with the extension ".fts" as "image/x-fits" and any files with the extensions ".fits" or ".fit" as "application/x-fits". Bill Thompson From fitsbits-request Wed May 10 21:51:45 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1975" "" "10" "May" "1995" "08:26:39" "GMT" "Steve Welch" "sjw at solitaire.cv.nrao.edu" "<3optbv$dvp at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk>" "41" "FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . ." "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051008:26:39" "FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . ." (number " " mark " Steve Welch May 10 41/1975 " thread-indent "\"FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . .\"\n") nil] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA12326; Wed, 10 May 95 21:51:45 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3optbv$dvp at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> Organization: MSSL Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!caen!hookup!news.mathworks.com!gatech!swrinde!pipex!uknet!bcc.ac.uk!mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk!news Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: Steve Welch Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . . Date: 10 May 1995 08:26:39 GMT Earlier I posted a msg asking for information about any FITs ftp sites. Thanks to Donald C Wells for his swift reply and suggestion of http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/ and ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/ Donald suggested that I post more details about what I am doing - so for general interest, and in case anyone else has done anything similar . . . I am part of a team of people working on an instrument for an X-ray telescope. The CCDs and other 'front-end' parts of the telescope are being provided by other institutions, and my institution is providing (amongst other things) a hardware digital preprocessor for data reduction. A little while ago, some extensive testing was done with a 'bread-board' model of the telescope, and I have access to a stack of data in FITs format. I am currently designing a simulator of the telescope front-end for us to use at our lab for hardware testing. This simulator will be a mixture of hardware (a dedicated VME card designed by myself and a colleague) and software (mostly C, executing in VxWorks (a real-time UNIX extension). Now for FITs . . . Prior to the testing of the whole telescope, CCD images were just made up, and could be useful engineering test patterns. While this is still true, now that there is realistic data available, we can do better. To make the design of the real-time software easier, I would like to read the FITs data in (offline) and write it into a new file type, where the data is simply a long list of integers, one to a line. The integers will be the energy of the pixels, and their position in the list will imply the coordinate eg in the simplest of the several cases, first in the list is the energy of the bottom leftmost pixel, and so on along the bottom row, and so on. I am surely not the first to do this sort of thing, but if it turns out that I am the first subscriber to this list to do so - I'll post a follow up to give my findings. Regards Steve Welch sjw at mssl.ucl.ac.uk From fitsbits-request Wed May 10 22:35:43 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["688" "" "10" "May" "1995" "19:57:54" "GMT" "davis at space.mit.edu" "davis at space.mit.edu" "<3or5s2$k0m at senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>" "18" "Re: Using FITSIO in PC:s" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051019:57:54" "Using FITSIO in PC:s" (number " " mark " davis at space.mit.e May 10 18/688 " thread-indent "\"Re: Using FITSIO in PC:s\"\n") "<199505011951.PAA15957 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA12410; Wed, 10 May 95 22:35:43 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3or5s2$k0m at senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> Organization: Center for Space Research Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!maui.cc.odu.edu!kuroshio.ccpo.odu.edu!xanth.cs.odu.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!noc.near.net!news3.near.net!paperboy.wellfleet.com!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!gatech!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet References: <199505011951.PAA15957 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> Reply-To: davis at space.mit.edu Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: davis at space.mit.edu Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: Using FITSIO in PC:s Date: 10 May 1995 19:57:54 GMT In article <199505011951.PAA15957 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov>, William Pence writes: : Heikki Pollari wrote: : > Is it possible to call the FITSIO routines from C programs in PC using : > suitable C and Fortran Complilers? : : This is all possible, however, the DOS 640k memory limit seriously : restricts the size of programs using FITSIO, so get a Fortran compiler It may be worse than this due to the 64K segment limitations. I also suggest using f2c with the 32bit DJGPP compiler to get around both of these memory constraints. Right now I am working on a new fits library written entirely in C. I will make sure that it runs under DJGPP. --John From fitsbits-request Thu May 11 03:32:21 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["7518" "Thu" "11" "May" "1995" "09:40:21" "+0200" "Lucio Chiappetti" "lucio at ifctr.mi.cnr.it" "" "164" "Magic numbers, was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051107:40:21" "Magic numbers, was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?" (number " " mark " Lucio Chiappetti May 11 164/7518 " thread-indent "\"Magic numbers, was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?\"\n") "<3or1el$qp7 at post.gsfc.nasa.gov>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA12719; Thu, 11 May 95 03:32:21 EDT Return-Path: Organization: Istituto di Fisica Cosmica e Tecnologie Relative In-Reply-To: <3or1el$qp7 at post.gsfc.nasa.gov> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII From: Lucio Chiappetti Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Magic numbers, was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site? Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 09:40:21 +0200 (MET DST) On 10 May 1995, William Thompson wrote: > Peter Barvoets writes: > >I have a question perhaps you can help me with. When I try to get a fits > >image from a perticular site, the "image" comes as a text of odd [...] > There are several ways to take care of this. One way is to modify the way that > the computer guesses the file type. I understand that in Unix this involves > modifying the file /etc/magic, but am unfamiliar with the details. I enclose what I have recorded of an exchange about this topic occurred on sci.data.format. I hope it can be of some use (I played with the magic file some time ago but not for this). BTW the magic file is not always on /etc, e.g. on Ultrix is on /usr/lib/file. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucio Chiappetti - IFCTR/CNR | Ma te' vugl' da' quost avis a ti' Orsign via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano | Buttet rabios intant te se' pisnign Internet: LUCIO at IFCTR.MI.CNR.IT | Decnet: IFCTR::LUCIO | (Rabisch, II 46, 119-120) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article: 219 of sci.data.formats Newsgroups: sci.data.formats Path: sparc10!ghost.dsi.unimi.it!rpi!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!lynx.unm.edu!Mr-Hyde.aoc.nrao.edu!laphroaig!cflatter From: cflatter at nrao.edu (Chris Flatters) Subject: Re: Data format 'signatures' for the FAQ Message-ID: <1993Aug26.192719.13210 at Mr-Hyde.aoc.nrao.edu> Sender: news at Mr-Hyde.aoc.nrao.edu Reply-To: cflatter at nrao.edu Organization: NRAO References: Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 19:27:19 GMT Lines: 46 In article 93Aug26120427 at fits.cv.nrao.edu, dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu (Don Wells) writes: >The proposed FAQ for sci.data.formats should address the problem of >how to recognize the format of an arbitrary data file. It will never >be possible to provide a definitive answer to this question, but it is >practical to provide a set of heuristic classification rules, because >every data format has a characteristic "signature" which can be >recognized by a simple test applied to the first part of a file. > >The data format classification rules should be expressed in the form >of a portable program. As a start in this direction I have produced a >prototype. File fits.cv.nrao.edu:/pub/signatur.tar.Z includes the >source for signatur.c (which I append), a Makefile, one sample binary >data file and the output from a test run. Fetch the file with >anonymous-FTP in binary mode, then do commands 'uncompress >signatur.tar.Z', 'tar xvf signatur.tar' and 'make'. The make will >compile signatur.c and will execute a series of test cases which >demonstrate the four possible error exits plus the two levels of >output for data file tests. Of course system administrators of UNIX systems could be be persuaded to add the signatures to the /etc/magic file used by the find(1) command. The following patterns will recognize a FITS data file and distinguish between the 5 FITS data types. If you want to use these you may want to cut and paste them from this message since blanks and tabs are significant. # Magic number patterns for FITS data files 0 string SIMPLE = T FITS >109 string 8 8-bit integer data >108 string 16 16-bit integer data >107 string 32 32-bit integer data >107 string -32 32-bit IEEE floating-point data >107 string -64 64-bit IEEE floating-point data I assume that HDF, netCDF and others also have distinguishing patterns. OpenWindows 3.x users can also make the filemanager recognise FITS files by registering the "SIMPLE = T" string with the binder. This would allow a distinctive icon to be associated with FITS files and/or a program (eg SAOimage) to be run if the icon is double clicked. NB: file(1) is a POSIX.2a command but POSIX.2a does not specify how file(1) should recognise file types so although a POSIX.2a system must have file(1) it need not necessarily have an /etc/magic database. Chris Flatters cflatter at nrao.edu Article: 220 of sci.data.formats Path: sparc10!ghost.dsi.unimi.it!rpi!uwm.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!ames!skates.gsfc.nasa.gov!Hypatia!leb From: leb at Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov (Lee E. Brotzman) Newsgroups: sci.data.formats Subject: Re: Data format 'signatures' for the FAQ Date: 26 Aug 93 19:45:51 GMT Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- InterNetNews site Lines: 21 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu (Don Wells) writes: >The proposed FAQ for sci.data.formats should address the problem of >how to recognize the format of an arbitrary data file. ... >As a start in this direction I have produced a prototype. Couldn't this be done just as easily by defining the signatures in /etc/magic and letting the 'file' command do the work? I have 'file' for my MS-DOS machine as well on all the Unix boxes, and I think there may be some VMS variant out there. For instance, I think a suitable entry for FITS would be: 0 string SIMPLE FITS >30 string T standard file >30 string F w/ non-standard extensions -- -- Lee E. Brotzman Internet: leb at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov -- Hughes STX DECNET: NDADSA::BROTZMAN -- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center BITNET: ZMLEB at GIBBS Article: 222 of sci.data.formats Newsgroups: sci.data.formats Path: sparc10!ghost.dsi.unimi.it!batcomputer!caen!destroyer!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!news.cso.uiuc.edu!xongmao!chouck From: chouck at xongmao.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Chris Houck) Subject: Re: Data format 'signatures' for the FAQ Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 22:36:03 GMT Message-ID: References: <1993Aug26.192719.13210 at Mr-Hyde.aoc.nrao.edu> Sender: usenet at news.cso.uiuc.edu (Net Noise owner) Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Lines: 27 cflatter at nrao.edu (Chris Flatters) writes: >Of course system administrators of UNIX systems could be be persuaded to >add the signatures to the /etc/magic file used by the find(1) command. >The following patterns will recognize a FITS data file and distinguish >between the 5 FITS data types. If you want to use these you may want to >cut and paste them from this message since blanks and tabs are significant. > ># Magic number patterns for FITS data files >0 string SIMPLE = T FITS >>109 string 8 8-bit integer data >>108 string 16 16-bit integer data >>107 string 32 32-bit integer data >>107 string -32 32-bit IEEE floating-point data >>107 string -64 64-bit IEEE floating-point data > >I assume that HDF, netCDF and others also have distinguishing patterns. # Data file checking codes 0 long 0x0e031301 HDF file 0 long 0x43444601 XDR-based netCDF file Are valid tests. Dunno the magic number for CDF. -Chris Houck HDF Group NCSA Software Development Group From fitsbits-request Thu May 11 08:19:02 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["698" "Thu" "11" "May" "1995" "08:18:40" "-0400" "Mike Corcoran" "corcoran at barnegat.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<199505111218.IAA13531 at barnegat.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "25" "Re: FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . ." "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051112:18:40" "FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . ." (number " " mark " Mike Corcoran May 11 25/698 " thread-indent "\"Re: FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . .\"\n") nil] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA13992; Thu, 11 May 95 08:19:02 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <199505111218.IAA13531 at barnegat.gsfc.nasa.gov> From: Mike Corcoran Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu, sjw at mssl.ucl.ac.uk Subject: Re: FOLLOW UP: What I am using FITs for . . . Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 08:18:40 -0400 Steve, You might also try looking at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/ofwg/ofwg_intro.html http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/ofwg/ofwg_samples.html for samples of FITS files and conventions adopted by the high energy group at Goddard and used by a number of X-ray astronomy missions (ROSAT, ASCA, XTE...). Best regards Mike Corcoran ******************************************************************************** Dr. Michael F. Corcoran High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD 20771 corcoran at barnegat.gsfc.nasa.gov LHEAVX::CORCORAN ******************************************************************************** From fitsbits-request Thu May 11 10:49:03 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["887" "" "10" "May" "1995" "15:29:06" "GMT" "Dick Edgar" "edgar at oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu" "<3oqm42$jg4 at news.doit.wisc.edu>" "20" "BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps?" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051015:29:06" "BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps?" (number " " mark " Dick Edgar May 10 20/887 " thread-indent "\"BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps?\"\n") nil] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA14273; Thu, 11 May 95 10:49:03 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3oqm42$jg4 at news.doit.wisc.edu> Organization: University of Wisconsin - Astronomy Department Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!portal.gmu.edu!europa.chnt.gtegsc.com!news.mathworks.com!news.alpha.net!uwm.edu!newsspool.doit.wisc.edu!news.doit.wisc.edu!oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu!edgar Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: edgar at oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu (Dick Edgar) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps? Date: 10 May 1995 15:29:06 GMT In the process of developing a set of FITS files for release, we observe that in all known cases the column names in FITS BINTABLE extensions seem to be in all capital letters. These are the values of the TTYPEnnn keywords in the BINTABLE header. Is this practice required, recommended, or just left over from Fortran and VMS usage? I can find nothing in the NOST FITS standard, or in the BINTABLE specification paper (Cotton, Tody, & Pence, A&A this spring) that requires this. Also, since these data are x-rays destined for archival at the HEASARC, I would appreciate some comment from the HEASARC OGIP on this issue. many thanks --------- Richard J. Edgar (edgar at uwast.astro.wisc.edu) University of Wisconsin--Madison, Department of Astronomy "An astrophysicist is someone who sees something working in practice, and wonders whether it will work in principle." -- Harvey Liszt From fitsbits-request Thu May 11 11:35:47 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["513" "Thu" "11" "May" "1995" "11:35:40" "-0400" "Arnold Rots" "arots at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<199505111535.LAA08676 at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "19" "Re: BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps?" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051115:35:40" "BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps?" (number " " mark " Arnold Rots May 11 19/513 " thread-indent "\"Re: BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps?\"\n") "<3oqm42$jg4 at news.doit.wisc.edu>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA14621; Thu, 11 May 95 11:35:47 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <199505111535.LAA08676 at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov> In-Reply-To: <3oqm42$jg4 at news.doit.wisc.edu> from "Dick Edgar" at May 10, 95 03:29:06 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24beta] Content-Type: text Content-Length: 512 From: Arnold Rots Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: edgar at oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu (Dick Edgar) Cc: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps? Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 11:35:40 -0400 (EDT) Indeed, there is nothing in the standard that says you can't use lower (or mixed) case. It's a habit that's left over from ..., well, you said it already. I am using mixed case in the XTE FITS files for most character string values, to improve readability. The OGIP/HEASARC position is that one can use whatever one wants, in this respect, but should not regard those string values case- sensitive. I.e., use: TTYPE1 = 'ThisColumn' but consider it equivalent to: TTYPE1 = 'THISCOLUMN' - Arnold Rots From fitsbits-request Thu May 11 11:41:31 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1311" "Thu" "11" "May" "1995" "10:40:31" "-0500" "edgar at oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu" "edgar at oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu" "<9505111540.AA00946 at oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu>" "37" "Re: BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps? " "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051115:40:31" "BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps?" (number " " mark " edgar at oldstyle.as May 11 37/1311 " thread-indent "\"Re: BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps? \"\n") "<199505111535.LAA08676 at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA14634; Thu, 11 May 95 11:41:31 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <9505111540.AA00946 at oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 11 May 95 11:35:40 EDT." <199505111535.LAA08676 at xebec.gsfc.nasa.gov> X-Mts: smtp From: edgar at oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: Arnold Rots Cc: edgar at oldstyle.astro.wisc.edu (Dick Edgar), fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: BINTABLE TTYPE values in all caps? Date: Thu, 11 May 95 10:40:31 -0500 > Indeed, there is nothing in the standard that says you can't > use lower (or mixed) case. It's a habit that's left over > from ..., well, you said it already. > > I am using mixed case in the XTE FITS files for most character > string values, to improve readability. The OGIP/HEASARC > position is that one can use whatever one wants, in this > respect, but should not regard those string values case- > sensitive. I.e., use: > > TTYPE1 = 'ThisColumn' > > but consider it equivalent to: > > TTYPE1 = 'THISCOLUMN' > > > - Arnold Rots This is pretty much what we wanted to do for DXS FITS files. However, perhaps I should point out that the Ftools seem to care about case in column names; if you have TTYPE1 = 'ThisColumn' in the FITS file, and you try to use FPLOT to plot THISCOLUMN, it can't find it. The IDL astro library is worse: it upcases your inputs but *not* the names from the FITS file, so it simply can't find columns that aren't upper case. Easy enough to fix, but the end user shouldn't have to do that. Thanks for the reply. --------- Richard J. Edgar (edgar at uwast.astro.wisc.edu) University of Wisconsin--Madison, Department of Astronomy "An astrophysicist is someone who sees something working in practice, and wonders whether it will work in principle." -- Harvey Liszt From fitsbits-request Thu May 11 12:45:53 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1638" "" "10" "May" "1995" "22:21:30" "GMT" "Adam Bernstein" "adam at csi.jpl.nasa.gov" "<3ore9a$rca at grover.jpl.nasa.gov>" "33" "Downloading w/ Netscape (was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?)" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051022:21:30" "Downloading w/ Netscape (was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?)" (number " " mark " Adam Bernstein May 10 33/1638 " thread-indent "\"Downloading w/ Netscape (was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?)\"\n") "<3oocue$3i8 at apollo.albany.net>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA14739; Thu, 11 May 95 12:45:53 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3ore9a$rca at grover.jpl.nasa.gov> Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!maui.cc.odu.edu!xanth.cs.odu.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!uwm.edu!fnnews.fnal.gov!nntp-server.caltech.edu!netline-fddi.jpl.nasa.gov!grover.jpl.nasa.gov!grover.jpl.nasa.gov!adam References: <3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> <3oocue$3i8 at apollo.albany.net> Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: adam at csi.jpl.nasa.gov (Adam Bernstein) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Downloading w/ Netscape (was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?) Date: 10 May 1995 22:21:30 GMT In article <3oocue$3i8 at apollo.albany.net>, Peter Barvoets writes: [...] |> I have a question perhaps you can help me with. When I try to get a fits |> image from a perticular site, the "image" comes as a text of odd |> characters, it doesn't give me the opportunity to download it directly to |> disk. I use Netscape for this and usually, when retrieving an image, |> netscape allows me to download the image to disk where I can then view it |> using l-view or whatever. since netscape prints out the file for a fits |> image as if it were text, I cannot view the image using the fitsviewer I |> have. |> You need to go to the File menu in Netscape, choose "Save next link as...", and then tell it where to store the file. Then click the link to the image you want to download, and it will be saved directly to disk. Alternatively, if the FITS files all have .fits or some such as the extension, you can tell Netscape to automagically call up your external FITS viewer when you download one of them. You'll need to add a MIME type for FITS, with the chosen viewer as the application -- check your documentation. Adam -- ------------------------------------------------------------- Adam Bernstein Jet Propulsion Lab Avionic Equipment Section, MS 198-235 Tracking Sensors Group 4800 Oak Grove Dr. http://dragon.jpl.nasa.gov/~adam/ Pasadena, CA 91109 adam at dragon.jpl.nasa.gov Phone: 818 354-0783 or adam.c.bernstein at jpl.nasa.gov FAX: 818 393-6105 ------------------------------------------------------------- From fitsbits-request Thu May 11 20:35:16 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["903" "" "11" "May" "1995" "13:44" "EDT" "Barry M. Schlesinger" "bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<11MAY199513440361 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "23" "Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051117:44:00" "Where is there a FITs ftp site?" (number " " mark " Barry M. Schlesin May 11 23/903 " thread-indent "\"Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?\"\n") "<3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA16542; Thu, 11 May 95 20:35:16 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <11MAY199513440361 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!kuroshio.ccpo.odu.edu!xanth.cs.odu.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!ames!newsfeed.gsfc.nasa.gov!nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov!bschlesinger References: <3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry M. Schlesinger) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site? Date: 11 May 1995 13:44 EDT In article <3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk>, Steve Welch writes... >Hi, > >I am new to News, and to fits also, so . . . > >I am looking for a method to easily open a FITs file so that it can be saved >into another format. I think that there is an ftp site dedicated ti fits >somewhere, but I can't remember where. Does anyone know of this, or have any >suggestions, before I set about reinventing a wheel? After seeing a number of responses, I am happy to see this message finally arrived here. An additional source of FITS information is at ftp://nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits/ (or ftp://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/fits/ if using a Mosaic Web browser.) The file basics_info.txt has specific discussion of a number of different software packages, including those that can convert FITS files that are images into other formats. Barry Schlesinger FITS Support Office NSSDC/ADF From fitsbits-request Fri May 12 00:36:28 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1138" "Thu" "11" "May" "1995" "19:20:18" "GMT" "Stan Voynick" "svoynick at netcom.com" "" "28" "FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051119:20:18" "FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS" (number " " mark " Stan Voynick May 11 28/1138 " thread-indent "\"FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS\"\n") "<3or1el$qp7 at post.gsfc.nasa.gov>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA16843; Fri, 12 May 95 00:36:28 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!maui.cc.odu.edu!kuroshio.ccpo.odu.edu!xanth.cs.odu.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!venus.sun.com!cs.utexas.edu!news.sprintlink.net!noc.netcom.net!netcom.com!svoynick References: <3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> <3oocs8$3i8 at apollo.albany.net> <3or1el$qp7 at post.gsfc.nasa.gov> Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: svoynick at netcom.com (Stan Voynick) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 19:20:18 GMT In article <3or1el$qp7 at post.gsfc.nasa.gov>, William Thompson wrote: > >My own HTTP server is configured to serve any files with the extension ".fts" >as "image/x-fits" and any files with the extensions ".fits" or ".fit" as >"application/x-fits". > >Bill Thompson On a related subject, but off in a different direction: This brings up a question I have been meaning to ask. Is there a common usage convention for 3-char filename extensions for FITS files (e.g. on PC's)? We are using "FTS" for files which are only images (single image with NAXIS=2 or multiple image "movies" with NAXIS=3) with no extensions or anything "special". But elsewhere, I also see "FIT" used (e.g. as the filename default in FITSView for Windows...). Are these, FTS and FIT - commonly used for different purposes, or relatively interchangeably? If they're interchangeable, is one or the other more common? I've checked through the spec, the user's guide, and some other resources, but most of them try to stay platform-independent. Comments or pointers to information? - Stan V - From fitsbits-request Fri May 12 11:01:00 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1569" "" "12" "May" "1995" "00:53:44" "-0400" "Lee E. Brotzman" "leb at clark.net" "<3oupko$6p5 at clark.net>" "28" "Re: FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051204:53:44" "FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS" (number " " mark " Lee E. Brotzman May 12 28/1569 " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS\"\n") ""] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA18610; Fri, 12 May 95 11:01:00 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3oupko$6p5 at clark.net> Organization: Clark Internet Services, Inc., Ellicott City, MD USA Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!gatech!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news.sprintlink.net!news.clark.net!news.clark.net!not-for-mail References: <3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> <3oocs8$3i8 at apollo.albany.net> <3or1el$qp7 at post.gsfc.nasa.gov> Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: leb at clark.net (Lee E. Brotzman) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS Date: 12 May 1995 00:53:44 -0400 svoynick at netcom.com (Stan Voynick) writes: >This brings up a question I have been meaning to ask. Is there a common >usage convention for 3-char filename extensions for FITS files (e.g. on >PC's)? We are using "FTS" for files which are only images (single image >with NAXIS=2 or multiple image "movies" with NAXIS=3) with no extensions >or anything "special". But elsewhere, I also see "FIT" used (e.g. as the >filename default in FITSView for Windows...). For the CD-ROMs I produced for th Astronomical Data Center, and the CD-ROMs I am currently working on for the American Astronomical Society, I use 'FIT' as the extension for FITS files. I've been using this convention for about five years now, but don't claim it as a precedent. Why FIT? Well when I downloaded a FITS file from a Unix box, where the extension is almost always 'fits', to a DOS box, the 's' just got dropped, leaving 'FIT' on the poor little DOS box. CD-ROMs using ISO 9660 Data Interchange Level 1 use DOS-style 8.3 file names (actually the names are even a little *more* restrictive than DOS), so the 'FIT' stayed. The best reason to use 'FIT', rather than 'FTS' is that 'FIT' is pronouncable: "That FITS file is FIT for use." 'FTS' isn't pronouncable: "I'm having FITS trying to say F-T-S." ;-) -- -- Lee E. Brotzman E-mail: leb at clark.net -- Advanced Data Solutions Phone : 301-776-0324 -- "Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in -- the Universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." --- Calvin, 1990 From fitsbits-request Sun May 14 12:38:42 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["596" "" "14" "May" "1995" "15:11:13" "GMT" "William Thompson" "thompson at orpheus.nascom.nasa.gov" "<3p56ih$l69 at post.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "15" "Re: Downloading w/ Netscape (was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?)" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051415:11:13" "Downloading w/ Netscape (was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?)" (number " " mark " William Thompson May 14 15/596 " thread-indent "\"Re: Downloading w/ Netscape (was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?)\"\n") "<3ore9a$rca at grover.jpl.nasa.gov>"] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA26807; Sun, 14 May 95 12:38:42 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3p56ih$l69 at post.gsfc.nasa.gov> Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- Greenbelt, Maryland USA Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!gatech!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!agate!ames!newsfeed.gsfc.nasa.gov!orpheus.nascom.nasa.gov!thompson References: <3onthl$7oj at mssly3.mssl.ucl.ac.uk> <3oocue$3i8 at apollo.albany.net> <3ore9a$rca at grover.jpl.nasa.gov> Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: thompson at orpheus.nascom.nasa.gov (William Thompson) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: Downloading w/ Netscape (was Re: Where is there a FITs ftp site?) Date: 14 May 1995 15:11:13 GMT adam at csi.jpl.nasa.gov (Adam Bernstein) writes: >You need to go to the File menu in Netscape, choose "Save next link as...", >and then tell it where to store the file. Then click the link to the image >you want to download, and it will be saved directly to disk. I think that the "Save next link as..." menu item disappeared after version 1.0 of Netscape. At least it wasn't in some of the beta versions I tried, and I haven't checked the new version 1.1. In any case, another way to force Netscape (or Mosaic) to download a file is to hold down the shift key while clicking. Bill Thompson From fitsbits-request Tue May 16 21:04:29 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["850" "" "16" "May" "1995" "14:23" "EDT" "Barry M. Schlesinger" "bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<16MAY199514233031 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "18" "ANNOUNCE: FITS Support Office is on World Wide Web" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051618:23:00" "ANNOUNCE: FITS Support Office is on World Wide Web" (number " " mark " Barry M. Schlesin May 16 18/850 " thread-indent "\"ANNOUNCE: FITS Support Office is on World Wide Web\"\n") nil] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA04949; Tue, 16 May 95 21:04:29 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <16MAY199514233031 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!xanth.cs.odu.edu!night.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!newsfeed.gsfc.nasa.gov!nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov!bschlesinger Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry M. Schlesinger) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: ANNOUNCE: FITS Support Office is on World Wide Web Date: 16 May 1995 14:23 EDT The FITS Support Office is now on the World Wide Web. The URL is http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/astro/fits/fits_home.html The new home page has been adapted from the AAREADME.DOC for the FITS ftp directory. It provides convenient access to the material available at the FITS Support office, such as the "FITS Basics and Information," the "Definition of FITS", " A User's Guide for FITS," and the FITS Support Office software and test files. It contains links to other FITS information sources as well. Links to the new FITS page have already been implemented on the Astrophysics Data Facility home page and a COBE web page. Development of the FITS Web pages is continuing, with a home page section on current developments in FITS and a hypertext "Basics and Information" under construction. Barry Schlesinger NSSDC/ADF FITS Support Office From fitsbits-request Fri May 19 01:02:37 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1453" "" "18" "May" "1995" "21:28:18" "GMT" "Rob Seaman" "seaman at noao.edu" "<3pge5i$n7b at noao.edu>" "38" "FITS checksum proposal - new draft" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995051821:28:18" "FITS checksum proposal - new draft" (number " " mark " Rob Seaman May 18 38/1453 " thread-indent "\"FITS checksum proposal - new draft\"\n") nil] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA11166; Fri, 19 May 95 01:02:37 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3pge5i$n7b at noao.edu> Organization: National Optical Astronomy Observatories Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!caen!zip.eecs.umich.edu!newshost.marcam.com!hookup!news.mathworks.com!gatech!ncar!noao!seaman Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: seaman at noao.edu (Rob Seaman) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: FITS checksum proposal - new draft Date: 18 May 1995 21:28:18 GMT A new draft of the FITS checksum proposal, (dated 16 May 1995) is available from the directory ftp://iraf.noao.edu/misc/checksum, where you will find the following files: README original announcement with examples checksum.ps FITS Checksum Proposal - current draft checksum.ps.941220 original draft stb249851.fits FITS file w/ CHECKSUM and DATASUM keywords sum32.tar simple C program to calculate the 32 bit 1's complement checksum and to ASCII encode the checksum (w/ SunOS binary) FITS.sum.example pseudo FITS header with CHECKSUM keyword FITS.sum.zeroed same header with the checksum zeroed RFC internet RFC documents referenced The text has been rearranged for clarity, and the discussion expanded to better cover the per-HDU scope of the checksum, the ASCII encoding algorithm, and the method for incrementally updating the checksum. Thanks to Barry Schlesinger and Arnold Rots for their helpful comments. Rob Seaman Bill Pence -- Rob Seaman: seaman at noao.edu/520-318-8248 http://iraf.noao.edu/~seaman National Optical Astronomy Observatories PGP: 98 8D 8B 49 74 9A 41 88 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson AZ 85719 3A 43 87 54 51 BF 30 4B -- Rob Seaman: seaman at noao.edu/602-325-9248 National Optical Astronomy Observatories 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson AZ 85719 From fitsbits-request Sun May 21 17:18:26 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1913" "Sun" "21" "May" "1995" "21:32:42" "GMT" "Julian Roche" "trajan at post.aladdin.co.uk" "<87281.trajan at post.aladdin.co.uk>" "37" "Re: FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995052121:32:42" "FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS" (number " " mark " Julian Roche May 21 37/1913 " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS\"\n") nil] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA21853; Sun, 21 May 95 17:18:26 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <87281.trajan at post.aladdin.co.uk> Organization: SoNet - The first Internet provider on the south coast Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!gatech!news.sprintlink.net!pipex!uknet!SoNet!news Reply-To: Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: "Julian Roche" Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: FITS filename extensions: FIT vs FTS Date: Sun, 21 May 95 21:32:42 GMT On 12 May 1995 00:53:44 -0400, Lee E. Brotzman wrote: >svoynick at netcom.com (Stan Voynick) writes: >>This brings up a question I have been meaning to ask. Is there a common >>usage convention for 3-char filename extensions for FITS files (e.g. on >>PC's)? We are using "FTS" for files which are only images (single image >>with NAXIS=2 or multiple image "movies" with NAXIS=3) with no extensions >>or anything "special". But elsewhere, I also see "FIT" used (e.g. as the >>filename default in FITSView for Windows...). > >For the CD-ROMs I produced for th Astronomical Data Center, and the CD-ROMs I >am currently working on for the American Astronomical Society, I use 'FIT' as >the extension for FITS files. I've been using this convention for about five >years now, but don't claim it as a precedent. Why FIT? Well when I downloaded >a FITS file from a Unix box, where the extension is almost always 'fits', to a >DOS box, the 's' just got dropped, leaving 'FIT' on the poor little DOS box. >CD-ROMs using ISO 9660 Data Interchange Level 1 use DOS-style 8.3 file names >(actually the names are even a little *more* restrictive than DOS), so the >'FIT' stayed. > >The best reason to use 'FIT', rather than 'FTS' is that 'FIT' is pronouncable: >"That FITS file is FIT for use." 'FTS' isn't pronouncable: "I'm having FITS >trying to say F-T-S." ;-) > >-- >-- Lee E. Brotzman E-mail: leb at clark.net >-- Advanced Data Solutions Phone : 301-776-0324 >-- "Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in >-- the Universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." --- Calvin, 1990 > Lee (and anyone else). Please help. Newbie! I am trying to find information on acclerations/distance travelled for spacecraft. Can you advise on an appropriate newsgroup? Is there anywhere to discuss the technical issues of spaceflight? From fitsbits-request Mon May 22 23:51:33 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["138" "" "22" "May" "1995" "21:46:01" "GMT" "Shea Lovan" "Shea at rot.ucsb.edu" "<3pr0mp$9kp at yuggoth.ucsb.edu>" "7" "IDL FITS front end" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995052221:46:01" "IDL FITS front end" (number " " mark " Shea Lovan May 22 7/138 " thread-indent "\"IDL FITS front end\"\n") nil] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA25470; Mon, 22 May 95 23:51:33 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <3pr0mp$9kp at yuggoth.ucsb.edu> Organization: UCSB Astrophysics Group Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!maui.cc.odu.edu!xanth.cs.odu.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!uwm.edu!news.alpha.net!news.mathworks.com!gatech!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!cs.ubc.ca!unixg.ubc.ca!info.ucla.edu!ucsbuxb.ucsb.edu!nntp.ucsb.edu!usenet Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: Shea at rot.ucsb.edu (Shea Lovan) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: IDL FITS front end Date: 22 May 1995 21:46:01 GMT I am running IDL for MS Windows. I am looking for and image processing front end to use. I appreciate any information. Thanks- Shea From fitsbits-request Tue May 23 14:13:06 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["437" "Tue" "23" "May" "1995" "14:36:04" "GMT" "Jason Cobill" "aq251 at freenet.carleton.ca" "" "13" "Where can I find FITS?" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995052314:36:04" "Where can I find FITS?" (number " " mark " Jason Cobill May 23 13/437 " thread-indent "\"Where can I find FITS?\"\n") nil] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA27716; Tue, 23 May 95 14:13:06 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!caen!zip.eecs.umich.edu!panix!news.mathworks.com!gatech!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!utnut!nott!cunews!freenet.carleton.ca!FreeNet.Carleton.CA!aq251 Reply-To: aq251 at FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Jason Cobill) Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: aq251 at FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Jason Cobill) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Where can I find FITS? Date: Tue, 23 May 1995 14:36:04 GMT As I understand it FITS is a standard... I take it there's documentation available? Where can I find it? Jason Cobill -- Do all the good you can, | At all the times you can, | Jason Cobill By all the means you can, | To all the people you can, | aq251 at freenet. In all the ways you can, | As long as ever you can. | carleton.ca In all the places you can, | - John Wesley, "His Rule" | :) :) :) :) :) From fitsbits-request Fri May 26 19:02:33 1995 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["792" "" "26" "May" "1995" "09:07" "EDT" "Barry M. Schlesinger" "bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<26MAY199509071335 at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "24" "Re: Where can I find FITS?" "^From:" nil nil "5" "1995052613:07:00" "Where can I find FITS?" (number " " mark " Barry M. Schlesin May 26 24/792 " thread-indent "\"Re: Where can I find FITS?\"\n") ""] nil) Received: by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-CV/1.8) id AA03978; Fri, 26 May 95 19:02:33 EDT Return-Path: Message-Id: <26MAY199509071335 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!xanth.cs.odu.edu!night.primate.wisc.edu!newsspool.doit.wisc.edu!uwm.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!ames!newsfeed.gsfc.nasa.gov!nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov!bschlesinger References: Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits From: bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry M. Schlesinger) Sender: fitsbits-request at fits.cv.nrao.edu To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu Subject: Re: Where can I find FITS? Date: 26 May 1995 09:07 EDT In article , aq251 at FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Jason Cobill) writes... > As I understand it FITS is a standard... I take it there's >documentation available? > > Where can I find it? > A comprehensive discussion of the basics of FITS, the available documentation and how to get it, software, and network repositories of FITS information is available at ftp://nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits/basics_info.txt (VAX/VMS) or ftp://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/fits/basics_info.txt Links to this discussion, documentation including the NOST Definition of FITS and Users Guide to FITS, and to other FITS network sites are available on the World Wide Web from http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/astro/fits/fits_home.html . Barry Schlesinger FITS Support Office NSSDC/ADF