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Reading FITS

The INTAPE-command is used to convert FITS (or IHAP) files to the internal MIDAS format:
INTAPE file_list id device [flag]
where file_list is a list of absolute position numbers of files (if input is from tape) to be read with 1 being the first file (e.g. 1, 3, 5, 50-60 would read from the 1st, 3rd, 5th file plus files 50 through 60 included), and id is an identification prefix of the names of the files created. Tape devices will be rewound if the driver does not maintain the absolute position of the tape. This may take a significant amount of time on some devices. It is easier to read many files from disk (with INTAPE) if their names are constructed with the given prefix, a four digit number and the extension `.mt'. It is also possible to read a single file from disk by specifying its full name including extension in which case any extension may be given.

The flag is a list of three one character flags which specifies the amount of information listed on the senior terminal and in the log file and the storage format of the data (see help file for full description).

The INTAPE command can be used to read FITS files directly from disk. However, it is not convenient due to the naming scheme used. For this purpose, it is better to use:

INDISK/FITS in_files [out_spec] [option]
where in_files specifies the FITS files to be converted (note: wildcard characters are supported). The out_spec can be used to control the names of the resulting FITS files. If the original file name is stored in the FILENAME keyword in the FITS header, it is possible to use this name for the output file by specifying the option ON. For a more detailed description of the command check with the help-text.


next up previous contents index
Next: Writing FITS Up: Conversion between FITS and Previous: File naming
Petra Nass
1999-06-09