[fitsbits] 16-bit floats {External}

[Steve Allen]

On Wed 2025-07-23T13:34:54+0100 Thomas Robitaille via fitsbits hath writ:
> I am aware of some modern projects that would benefit from having 16-bit
> floats, since they consider it to be sufficient in precision to store very
> large datasets, and using 16-bit floats would perform a lot better than
> using compression on 32-bit floats for example, and 16-bit floats would
> allow a larger dynamic range than using 16-bit ints with BSCALE/BZERO.

This is not a breaking change, and with little more discussion than we
already see today an informal agreement cold quickly go into use and
then be adopted.
I think the harder part about making this change is establishing
the auspices under which the IAU FITS working group currently acts.

--
Steve Allen                    <sla at ucolick.org>              WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory--ISB 260  Natural Sciences II, Room 165  Lat  +36.99855
1156 High Street               Voice: +1 831 459 3046         Lng -122.06015
Santa Cruz, CA 95064           https://www.ucolick.org/~sla/  Hgt +250 m