[fitsbits] Re: creating WCS solution keywords?

[Doug Mink]

Michal Szymanski wrote:
 
> Now there is a growing number of public-domain software packages that
> can directly use the plate solution coeffs (PLT*, PP*, AMD*)
> stored in FITS header.
> 
> Are there any tools facilitating computing/creation of these
> coefficients for a given frame? I guess they can be created in IRAF
> in the process of "registering" a frame but frankly speaking I'd prefer
> some stand-alone utility not requiring IRAF use.

Look at the WCSTools package at

http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/software/wcstools/

It is entirely in C, can deal with both FITS and IRAF .imh images and can
read the Digitized Sky Survey plate solutions as well as both fit and
read a similar polynomial plate solution.  Full support for the FITS WCS
polynomial will be built in as soon as the format is agreed upon.  Current
FITS WCS formats, including the proposed multiple WCS keywords are supported.

-Doug Mink
 Telescope Data Center
 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
 Cambridge, Massachusetts USA