[fitsbits] Az/El and moving body basis system support

[Steve Allen]

On Fri 2002-04-19T10:18:47 +1000, Mark Calabretta hath writ:
> Further to Steve's reply, if by the above you mean a celestial frame
> in which the body is stationary, e.g. helioecliptic coordinates as
> opposed to heliographic coordinates, then no, they are not defined
> specifically.  Steve's answer still applies - just make up your own
> xLON/xLAT or yzLN/yzLT as in header construction examples 1 and 4.

Again, I'll ask a process question, in this case regarding the
canonization for values of xLON/xLAT and yzLN/yzLT

Suppose that someday it becomes clear that certain values of these
metasyntactic keywords should be standardized.

How exactly would that become clear in the first place?

I suppose that it would become clear in the context of a
sub-discipline which begins to make regular use of particular schemes.
For example, it could happen when the solar schemes proposed by
Thompson are in broad enough use by a number of different solar
astronomy sites.

But who determines "broad enough"?

I suppose it is the members of that discipline who would petition
to this discussion list and ask, e.g., that the lon/lat systems of
the Thompson proposal be given official status.
And then the regional committees will vote and the IAU will vote.

But does Thompson then have to publish that paper in A & A?
Or does it have to wait until the next release of the NOST standard?

Is any of this procedure written down anywhere?

--
Steve Allen          UCO/Lick Observatory       Santa Cruz, CA 95064
sla at ucolick.org      Voice: +1 831 459 3046     http://www.ucolick.org/~sla
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