FITSview


   FITSview is a viewer for astronomical images in the FITS (Flexible
Image Transport System).  It runs under MS Windows and allows the user
to select and display images.  Celestial positions (including WCS)
and brightnesses of pixels in the image may be obtained.  Other
features include zoom and scroll, modyfing the color table, marking
positions of interest, printing the image and writing the image as a
bitmap file (.BMP).  Either regular FITS images or gzip (*.gz) compressed 
images may be viewed.

   FITSview can, in principle, be run on any system running Windows
3.1 or 95 (possibly on Windows 3.0 but this hasn't been tested).
The memory needed depends on the FITS images loaded but the program
will execute in 4 Mbyte or more of memory (more is definitely better).
The installation uses about 1.3 Mbyte of hard disk space but about 1
Mbyte of this is demonstration FITS (*.FIT) files which can be
deleted.  FITSview works best on displays with 256 colors but will do
what it can on others; two color displays give very little of
interest.

   FITSview can be installed using the SETUP program included with
FITSview.  Since the installation involves restarting Windows, all
other applications should be closed before beginning the installation
of FITSview.  To install FITSview from a ZIP file, copy the
FITSV130.ZIP file to a temporary directory and unzip.  Note: if you
plan to use the installation program provided, SETUP, this should be
a directory OTHER than the one you plan to install FITSview in
(default is C:\FITSVIEW).   If, for example, these files are in
C:\TEMP, start Windows (if it's not already running) and select the
Program Manager File/Run option and enter "C:\TEMP\SETUP" in the box
labeled "Command Line".  Clicking on the "OK" button will start the
installation.  (FITSview may also be installed manually by copying the
files into the desired directory and registering it with the Program
manager. )

   The only real decision to be made during the installation is the
directory into which the software is to be written.  The default is
C:\FITSVIEW; if you wish to put it somewhere else you can specify the
desired directory during the installation.  SETUP installs FITSview in
its own group; this can be changed using the Program Manager.
Previous versions of FITSview will be overwritten by the installation.

   A critical part of the installation is the updating of the
PROGMAN.INI file in the windows directory (typically C:\WINDOWS).
This must be done while Windows is not running.  If the installation
cannot exit windows, either because you selected "Cancel" at the
appropriate point or because running applications prevented this,
then the file should be updated manually.  Do this by exiting
Windows and in the Windows directory copying PROGMAN.TMP to
PROGMAN.INI.  A copy of the initial PROGMAN.INI is saved in
PROGMAN.BAK in case something goes wrong.  Alternately, close all
other applications and rerun the installation procedure.

   If for some reason you cannot get the SETUP program to install
FITSview,  a manual installation is fairly straightforward.  First,
create (if necessary) the directory where you want to install FITSview
(the mkdir command).  Then copy the fitsview files from the
directory/disk where you have the unzipped distribution of FITSview to
the installation directory 
(e.g. copy c:\TEMP\FITSVIEW.* C:\FITSVIEW\*.*).
The FITSview icon can then be installed in either an existing group or
its own window manager group using the program manager (File menu, New
item). The description is FITSview, the Command line is
C:\FITSview\FITSview (if that's where it's installed) and the working
directory is the directory where you want to keep the FITS files, for
example C:\FITS.

   A demonstration pair of FITS images, NGC1316R.FIT and NGC1316O.FIT,
is distributed with FITSview.  These images are in radio and optical
light of the same region of the sky and are suitable for blinking.
There is also a description of these files in NGC1316.DOC.

   This software is distributed free of charge by the National Radio
Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) which is operated by Associated
Universities Inc. (AUI) under cooperative agreement with the US
National Science Foundation (NSF).  Only very limited user support of
this software is available.  Suggestions and comments should be sent
to Bill Cotton at NRAO (bcotton@nrao.edu).  NRAO's headquarters
address is: NRAO, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903.
This Software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.