Opportunity to Review NSDSSO Draft Standard for FITS

	The NASA Science Data Systems Standards Office (NSDSSO) Draft
Standard for the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) is now
available for review. This Standard is being developed by an
NSDSSO-sponsored Technical Panel chaired by Dr. Robert J. Hanisch
(Space Telescope Science Institute), with the goal of gaining
endorsement by the International Astronomical Union as the formal
standard for FITS.  It will be a formal codification of existing FITS
practices as defined in the four basic papers, the Floating Point
Agreement, and in other actions of the international and regional FITS
committees, not a revision.

	This purpose of distributing this Draft Standard is to provide
for review and to gather comments.  The Technical Panel will review
and respond to all comments.  The Panel will either incorporate the
substance of a comment into the Standard, or it will instead provide
the reasons for not doing so and describe any revision to the Standard
motivated by the comment.

	Copies of the standard are available in three ways: paper
copies, electronic mail transmission, and access to electronic copies
on either the Space Physics Analysis Network (SPAN) via default DECnet
copy commands or the Internet via TCP/IP anonymous FTP commands.
Electronic copies are available formatted for LaTeX, PostScript and
flat ASCII.  The NSSDCA computer is a VMS/VAX 8650; therefore,
filenames are case insensitive and disks and subdirectories are
indicated as: ANON_DIR:FITS~ for the disk "ANON_DIR" and the
directory "FITS". Retrieve the README. file first.  It describes the
files in the FITS directory, provides more detail on session and
retrieval procedures, and explains how to register comments with
NSDSSO. NSSDCA is a member of a VMS/VAX cluster, and the other
principal node, NSSDCB, can also accept default DECnet and anonymous
FTP requests.

                      Internet (TCP/IP)            SPAN (DECnet)
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Name:            NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV          NSSDCA
    Address:         128.183.10.4                  6.133  (6277)

    Name:            NSSDCB.GSFC.NASA.GOV          NSSDCB
    Address:         128.183.104.11                6.866  (7010)
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------


===============================================================================
==             default DECnet README. copy via SPAN                 ==
===============================================================================
ndadsa $ copy/log nssdca::anon_dir:fits~readme. *
%COPY-S-COPIED, NSSDCA::ANON_DIR:FITS~README.;1 copied to
                                                 DISKA":MEV~README.;2 (1 block)
===============================================================================
==             Anonymous FTP README. copy via Internet              ==
===============================================================================
ndadsa $ ftp nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov

NDADSA.GSFC.NASA.GOV MultiNet FTP user process 2.2(100)
Connection opened (Assuming 8-bit connections)
<NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV MultiNet FTP Server Process 2.2(11) at Mon 24-Dec-90
 9:17AM-EST

NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV>user anonymous
<anonymous user ok. Send real ident as password.

Password: MEV@NDADSA.GSFC.NASA.GOV
<Guest User MEV@NDADSA.GSFC.NASA.GOV logged into ANON_DIR:000000~ at Mon
 24-Dec-90 09:17, job 202003a1.
<Directory and access restrictions apply

NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV>cd anon_dir:fits~
<Connected to ANON_DIR:FITS~.

NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV>get readme.;1 readme.
<VMS retrieve of ANON_DIR:FITS~README.;1 started.
<Transfer completed.  316 (8) bytes transferred.

NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV>quit
<QUIT command received. Goodbye.

	To request a paper copy or an electronic mail copy, notify the
Standards Librarian.

Surface mail: 		NASA Science Data Systems Standards Office
			Code 933
			Goddard Space Flight Center
			Greenbelt, MD
			(USA)

Electronic Mail:

	(SPAN) 		NCF::NSDSSO
	(Internet)	nsdsso@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov

Telephone:
			(301) 286-3575
			7:30 AM - 4:00 PM
			(Eastern Time Zone)

	If requesting an electronic copy, specify LaTeX formatting,
PostScript, or flat ASCII.

	The deadline for comments will be 26 February 1991.

			Barry M. Schlesinger
			FITS Support Office

