[fitsbits] Ftools 5.1 software release

[William Pence]

                  FTOOLS 5.1 Release

A new version of the Ftools software package for manipulating FITS files
has recently been released.  Ftools 5.1 runs on most UNIX platforms and
is part of a larger package called HEASOFT which is freely available at

  http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/lheasoft

or the mirror sites in the UK and Japan:

  http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/lheasoft/
  http://heasoft.astro.isas.ac.jp/lheasoft/

The Ftools package contains about 100 general utility programs for 
creating, modifying, and viewing the contents of any FITS image or
table, as well as a several hundred more specialized programs designed
to analyze FITS data files from high-energy astrophysics missions.

For users who do not need the entire Ftools package, the following
commonly used programs are available separately:

  fv -  a powerful FITS file viewer and editor 
        (also runs on Windows and MacOS platforms)

  fverify - verifies that the FITS file conforms to all the 
            requirements of the latest FITS Standard.

  fcopy - a deceptively simple tool that copies a FITS file.
         It can also perform complicated filtering operations
        on the output file (e.g., copy only selected rows of a
        table, create new table columns, compute 1-D and 2-D 
        histogram images from table columns).

  fdump - prints out the contents of FITS headers and FITS tables

  fmodhead - add, delete, or modify FITS header keywords

  fplot - plot columns of data in FITS tables

Any questions or problems related to Ftools should be sent to:
ftoolshelp at athena.gsfc.nasa.gov