COMMISSION 5: DOCUMENTATION AND ASTRONOMICAL DATA

Report of Meetings 21 and 27 Novenber 1985

CHAIRMAN:            W.D.Heintz


    Activities of the Commission, its Working Groups, and the representation in 
CODATA and ICSTI were reported and discussed. The Organising Committee has appro-
ved G.A.Wilkins and B.Hauck, respectively, as president and vice-president; P.Wayman
and G.Westerhout will replace Hauck and L.Schmadel on the OC, and nine new 
members raise the membership tally to 67. The major part of discussion was occu-
pied by efforts toward a reasonably comprehensive resolution text on nomenclature
(see "Designations", below, and IAU Resolution C3).

[4 non-relevant paragraphs omitted.]

Working Group on Astronomical Data  (IAU Commission 5)

Report of Meeting 26 November 1985

CHAIRMAN: B. Hauck                   SECRETARY:  A. Heck

    Chairman's Report:  B. Hauck summarised the WG activity over the past three
years, especially in relation with CODATA work.  The proceedings of the Trieste
School on "Data Handling in Astronomy" (1984) have been published in Mem.Soc.Astr.
Ital. 56 (1985). Subsequent discussion emphasized the two-way learning process of
the relationship with CODATA.

[7 non-relevant paragraphs omitted.]

SCIENTIFIC MEETING B:  Astronomical Catalogues - Transfer and Archiving

CHAIRMAN:  B.Hauck

    P.Grosbol: Extension of FITS to catalogues.  During the last three years the
Data Exchange Task Force has carried out a project of an extension of FITS (Flexi-
ble Image Transfer System) to tables and catalogs.  The detailed proposal is pub-
lished in the proceedings of the Trieste Seminar (Mem.Soc.Astr.Ital. 56, 437, 1985).
This extended format has been verified by exchange of catalogues between NASA WDC-
A, NRAO, and ESO.

    W.Warren:  Can we use FITS for catalogues?  The FITS format is suitable for
distributing machine readable catalogs on magnetic tapes, although the format in-
troduces certain constraints in the flexibility of tape characteristics and docu-
mentation. We intend to prepare FITS headers for major catalogs as time permits,
but will retain the capability to distribute catalogs as simple character coded 
files as at present.

    W.Warren:  General philosophy concerning modification and archiving of astro-
nomical catalogs.  We believe that the primary roles of astronomical data centers
are to acquire catalogs as produced, to prepare machine versions, to quality assure
them for completeness, homogeneity, and standard presentation of data, to add ade-
uate documentation (in particular when an original catalog is modified), correct-
tion of errors in consultation with authors, error-alert previous recipients of the
material, and to arrange dissemination with adequate accompanying information.
In a later discussion, Warren specified archiving conditions as: easy-to-use char-
acter form, uniform formatting of the data body, availability of documentation on
revised and corrected data, and (a FITS requirement) separation of text from data.
Further guidelines on the cooperation between authors and data operators are
deemed desirable.


Reference: Transactions of the International Astronomical Union, Vol. XIXB (1985),
pp. 97-99.