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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">One week gone, one to go before the BoF deadline…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Feel free to forward this to other FITS fora.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Rob<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none;padding:0in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">On 8/21/23, 8:17 PM, "Seaman, Robert Lewis - (rseaman)" wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">Howdy, Friends of FITS,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">Registration is open for ADASS XXXIII (click through from
<a href="https://adass2023.lpl.arizona.edu">https://adass2023.lpl.arizona.edu</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">The deadline for proposing Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) sessions is fast approaching on September 1. Are there volunteers to organize this year’s FITS
BoF? As LOC chair, I’ll have to beg off from submitting the abstract.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">This FAQ answer for a popular astrophotography package may serve as a conversation starter for the agenda:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.0in"><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">4.6 Why has
the FITS format been deprecated in PixInsight?</span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.0in"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"> </span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:1.0in;line-height:15.0pt">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">FITS is an obsolete, inefficient and poorly defined format. It is a source of endless interoperability problems. In our opinion, the blind adoption of the FITS format may be the worst mistake made by the astronomy
community.</span></i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:12.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.0in;line-height:15.0pt">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">We have created the XISF format because we need a contemporary, really extensible, efficient, interoperable and well defined file format. For more information, see the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://pixinsight.com/xisf/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#3333FF">XISF
resources page</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>on our website and the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://pixinsight.com/doc/docs/XISF-1.0-spec/XISF-1.0-spec.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:#3333FF">XISF
Version 1.0 Specification</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>document.</span></i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.0in"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"> </span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">Perhaps a focus on practical issues like:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">How to encourage broader and more efficient library support for FITS<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">Developing translation tools such as XISF <-> FITS<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">A schema mapping FITS header keywords to binary table extensions<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3">
<![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">Evaluating additional algorithms for FITS tile compression<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">If some would prefer an astronomical data format BoF broader than FITS, I might suggest two separate abstracts with the notion of scheduling these
as back-to-back sessions. Which is to say that I reject the premises of the FAQ above, but even if I didn’t, FITS requires ongoing maintenance whatever new formats come along.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">Rob<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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