FITS compression

[William Thompson]

William Pence <pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> writes:

>A Proposal for Representing Compressed Images in FITS Format
>------------------------------------------------------------

>A small group of us have been experimenting with ways to represent compressed
>images in FITS format and have drafted a proposal that we would like to submit
>for comments or suggestions from other FITS users.  The current draft proposal
>is available in html format at:

>http://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/fits/compress/compress_image.html

>or in postscript format at

>http://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/fits/compress/compress_image.ps

	(rest deleted)

This is a very interesting proposal.  However, if I understand it right, only
one column in a binary table could support compressed data, which is pretty
restrictive.  It would be better if multiple columns could be compressed to
better match the present capabilities of binary tables.  Otherwise, for some of
us at least, it would be a major change in the way that binary tables are
organized.  For example, in our own project, we use different columns for
different wavelengths.

William Thompson