[fitsbits] DATE-OBS versus TIME-OBS

[William Thompson]

I'd like to get some input from the FITS community about the proper use of the
DATE-OBS keyword.  In a proposal for the FITS header for an upcoming NASA
mission, the date and time were split up into two keywords, e.g.

	DATE-OBS= '2002-01-22'
	TIME-OBS= '00:40:05.407'

I, however, argue that more modern usage would combine these into a single
keyword, e.g.

	DATE-OBS= '2002-01-22T00:40:05.407'

I'm told that the split format was chosen for backwards compatibility.  My own
opinion is that it is the software which should be made backwards compatible,
while the FITS file format should represent the most modern usage.

How are other groups handling this?

William Thompson