Std. date/time/RA/Dec FITS keywords?

[Robert Mutel]

Readers of sci.astro.research may be interested in a collection of programs for FITS images called ATFtools.
It includes a tool for inserting world coordinates into a FITS image header by pattern matching to the 
Guide Star Catalog. The program (wcs) uses the nominal ra, dec, keywords (along with keyword crpix for
plate scale) to roughly locate the image center and either an online or CD-ROM GSC database to do the pattern
matching. The programs have been ported to several UNIX systems (Linux, Solaris, Unixware) and Windows-95. 
There are also tools for batch photometry, FITS  header editing, and multiple image alignment. and cropping.

The Windows-95 port is available at
<a href="http://www-astro.physics.uiowa.edu/atf_atftools.html>ATFtools</a>

The UNIX port will be available for ftp access in early June.


Robert Mutel
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Iowa, Iowa City IA 52242
Telephone: 319-335-1950      FAX: 319-335-1753
Email: rlm at astro.physics.uiowa.edu

Steve Allen wrote:
> 
> In article <4mt60p$1pn at pecos.msfc.nasa.gov>,
> Peter Bunclark  <psb at ast.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> >Tim DeBenedictis wrote:
> >> of different FITS-format images.  It would be nice to use the R.A., Dec.,
> >> date, and time information stored in the images' FITS headers, but
> >> unfortunately there does not seem to be any standard FITS keywords which
> >> provide this information...[deletia - mod.]