[fitsbits] FITS Resolutions

[William Pence]

This message is to report that effective 9 August 2004, the IAU FITS Working 
Group (see http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/iaufwg/iaufwg.html) has voted to 
approve 2 resolutions related to the FITS data format:

1.  FITS MIME types

By a unanimous vote the IAU-FWG has endorsed the proposal to create 2 new 
FITS MIME types ('image/fits' and 'application/fits') and recommends that it 
be submitted to the appropriate Internet controlling authorities for 
consideration as an Internet standard.  The MIME types serve as a standard 
means for Internet web servers to inform web client applications what type 
of file is being download.  The full proposal can be viewed at 
http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/fits/mime/ and in the near future will also be 
posted on the FITS Support Office web site at http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/. 
As is required by the IAU-FWG voting procedures, this proposal had 
previously been made available for public comment on this newsgroup and had 
been approved by the 3 existing regional FITS committees (i.e., North 
America, Europe, and Japan).

2.  Australia/New Zealand regional FITS committee

By a vote of 19-Yes, 1-No, and 2-Abstain the IAU-FWG has approved the 
creation of a new regional FITS committee to represent the various 
astronomical institutions in the Australia and New Zealand region. This 
committee will be chaired by Mark Calabretta.

Bill Pence
Chairman, IAU-FWG
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____________________________________________________________________
Dr. William Pence                          William.D.Pence at nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC Code 662         HEASARC         +1-301-286-4599 (voice)
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