The Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) Library package for Linux, and Mac OS X consists of a collection of routines to carry out various useful functions associated with FITS image files. Besides the source code for the library, a demonstration program, "testfits", which illustrates the library's capabilities and shows how to code the subroutines into your own customized applications, is included. The source code for subroutines from the MIIPS Plot Package and subroutines to display images on Enhanced SAOimage are included as well.

The latest version of the FITS package was uploaded on March 24, 2008

The operations in the demonstration program which can be carried out on one or more FITS files are:

1) Reads all or part of a row of data and prints it on the terminal.

2) Plots one or more rows, columns, or a cut at any angle through a file. More than one image extension (map) can be plotted at once. The plot can be directed to one or more of the devices supported in the MIIPS Plotting Package. The location of a cut at an arbitrary angle can be selected either manually or interactively with SAOimage (Enhanced version).

3) Reads an XY area and prints it on the terminal.

4) Displays a FITS image on SAOimage (Enhanced version only, obtainable from http://www.chara.gsu.edu/~gudehus/enhanced_saoimage.html)

5) Writes all or part of a row to a new or existing FITS file. The following data formats can be used: I1 (Unsigned 8-bit integer), I2 (16-bit twos-complement binary integer), I4 (32-bit twos-complement binary integer), R4 (IEEE single precision floating point), R8 (IEEE double precision floating point, C8 (Complex - real and imaginary are R4), and C16 (Complex - real and imaginary are R8. When writing complex data, the number of planes is required to be 2.

6) Writes values to an XY area for a new or existing FITS file.

7) Permits one to rotate a FITS file by + or - 90 degrees, or 180 degrees. The size of the output map is automatically chosen from the size of the input map.

8) Performs simple arithmetic on a chosen plane of a map in a FITS file.

9) Performs a simple crop on a chosen set of maps in a file. All maps and planes within the maps are cropped to the same size. The results can be saved to the same set of maps, or a new set of maps appended to the same, a different, or a new FITS file.

10) Allows one to copy selected maps from an input file to an output file.

11) Copies a selected set of maps from one file to a set of planes in a map in another file.

12) Prints the header of a FITS file. Both the primary and the selected map header will be printed. The command also counts the number of blank and nonblank keycards.

13) Writes a COMMENT or HISTORY keycard to the header of an existing FITS file.

14) Updates or creates a keycard with a string value, e.g., AUTHOR, CTYPEn, BUNIT, DATE, DATE-OBS, etc.

15) Updates or creates the BSCALE and BZERO keycards for an existing file.

16) Replaces a keycard with blanks.
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