[fitsbits] Question(s) regarding development of proprietary FITS manipulation software. . .

[Maren Purves]

On Wed, 19 Sep 2007, Mark Calabretta wrote:
> On Tue 2007/09/18 10:14:52 MST, gberz3 wrote
> in a message to: fitsbits at donar.cv.nrao.edu
>
>> 8-byte increments and converted to a double.  That will then allow me
>> to map RGB pixel data to a buffer.
>
> I bet you'd have trouble believing how controversial the proposal to add
> colour capability to FITS is.  However, this question continues to rear
> its colourful head.
>
> Never mind.  You will find my initial thoughts on how it should be done
> at http://listmgr.cv.nrao.edu/pipermail/iaufwg/2006-February/000470.html

Mark,

I just reread that. I can see that. You're talking about something
like Wien's law, or maybe Wien's law in false colors, or maybe perceived
colors. My understanding of the OP's question/interpretation is that
there's color information intrinsic to FITS images (or FITS data arrays
of any sort). If I use something like GAIA (Dave Berry, comment 
appreciated) I can set my color pallette (sp?), I can cut levels
to bring out the details I'm after, be they astronomical or instrument
intrinsic faults (like channel edges, a problem we're in the process
of trouble shooting), I can cut lines across and do a lot more things
that have nothing to do with color. Where I'm at I find e.g. ellipticities
of images (or rather getting rid of them) much more interesting than
colors. (Dave Berry, concerning GAIA, I'm perfectly happy with our
default color scheme)

Aloha,

Maren
(UKIRT instrument (control, not data reduction) s/w eng, currently
mostly dealing with WFCAM operations issues, which aren't even
image quality, in spite of that I should be doing CGS4 development
work - and not speaking for my employer here)