Exporting Data in FITS Format for other Programs

It is not uncommon to want to export spectra for use by other programs. A typical application may be the plotting of single spectra for journal-quality plots:

CO 3-2 map of NGC 2024
Click for full-size version

The CFITS program provides the ability to convert between FITS and CLASS format. GFITS provides the same functionality for GILDAS format images. The following example shows a CLASS file being read by CFITS, a single spectrum is selected from the file, plotted, and written to a FITS file:

    $ cfits
    I-SIC,  Normal keyboard mode
    Default macro extension is .class
    CFITS> file in wl16-c18o2-1.dat
    CFITS> find
    I-FIND,  738 observations found
    CFITS> las\list
   553;  4 RHOOPH       C18O(2-1)    SMT-10M-B71    -24.000  -120.000 Eq  8885
   [etc.....etc.....etc....]
    CFITS> dev xland black
    I-X,  X-Window default version $Revision: 4.49 $ $Date: 1997/10/22 13:23:46
    I-X,  Device DISPLAY :0.0
    I-X,  Screen characteristics 16 planes, TrueColor
    I-X,  Backing Store NOT supported
    I-X,  Vendor The XFree86 Project, Inc; release 4003
    I-X,  Protocol X11 ;revision: 0
    I-X,  Screen size (mm) : height: 241, width: 333
    I-X,  Screen pixels : height: 864, width: 1152
    W-X,  B&W Window, dithering used for images
    Graphics device /dev/tty successfully defined as a XLANDSCAPE BLACK
    CFITS> get 553
    I-GET,  Entry 748 Observation 553; 4 Scan 8885
    CFITS> plot
    CFITS> write rho-oph.fits
    CFITS> exit
    $
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Craig Kulesa
Last modified: Mon Aug 6 22:53:06 MST 2001