thomson@cs.utah.edu (Rich Thomson) (11/01/90)
I recently FTP'd some images from NASA that were in FITS format, yet
another image format from the astronomy community. I have to admit
that the FITS format is pretty verbose in what it allows (and similar
in some respects to the format for "fields" used by Stardent's AVS
software).
Hoping to not have to re-invent the wheel, I'd like pointers to some
FITS code that I could use as a portion of or model for a program to
read FITS files into AVS. I don't particularly care what language its
in, but I'd prefer C or FORTRAN.
If nothing presents itself, I will continue working on a reader that
I've been creating (so far it just scans the file without really doing
anything). Once that reader is done, I'll be glad to post the source
to some appropriate place.
-- Rich
Rich Thomson thomson@cs.utah.edu {bellcore,hplabs,uunet}!utah-cs!thomson
``If everybody is thinking the same thing, is anybody thinking?'' --Bob Johnsonhitchner@riacs.edu (Lewis Hitchner) (11/07/90)
NASA now officially supports the FITS image format std. (a std. adopted
by the International Astronomical Union which has been in use by the
astronomy community for several years, though the IAU does not provide
any support for FITS, only an official santioning). NASA now has a FITS
Support Office that is part of the NASA Science Data System Standards
Office (NSDSSO -- this is the fed. govt after all, so we must use acronyms).
The purpose of this office is mainly to provide information for users,
not to perform code development. However, when this was announced last spring,
it was claimed they would collect together user contributed software. They
also have a "FITS Handbook", and I think they are working on an official FITS
standard document (none existed prior to 1990, as the "official" description
of FITS was one or two professional papers in the journal "Astronomy and
Astrophysics Supplements".
For info contact Barry Schlesinger at the FITS Office
301-794-4246
bschlesinger@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
P.S. more acronym translation: NSSDC = National Space Science Data Center
GSFC = Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA = you know this I hope
GOV = ditto
Lew Hitchner
RIACS at NASA Ames