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Old 14-10-2010, 08:31 PM
Dennis
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Fits Liberator 3.0 has been released (ESA)

Hello,

I just read on Yahoo Groups that Fits Liberator 3.0 has been released for both the Windows and Mac platforms. Also, it looks like it is now a stand-alone application and does not require Photoshop for it to run.

I just downloaded and installed it, opened a FITs file in CS5 and all appeared well!

Here is the link:

http://www.spacetelescope.org/projec.../download_v30/

Cheers

Dennis
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  #2  
Old 14-10-2010, 09:40 PM
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NorthernLight (Max)
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Hi Dennis,

good news I assume. But please allow me a question that may has been answered quite often:

what are FITS files good for?

Is it that one can use 32bit data and manipulate it in Photoshop? Or is it just a little more fancy or is there a deeper mysterium behind it?

I use DSS and CS2 and would like to use the full 32bit data that comes out of the stack. Is that why people like FITS-files?

I really donīt know but would like to!

Cheers
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  #3  
Old 14-10-2010, 10:13 PM
The_Cat (Jeremy)
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For those who are interested here is a copy of the email :




-----Original Message-----
From: ESA/Hubble Information Centre [mailto:hubble@eso.org]
Sent: Saturday, 2 October 2010 12:39 AM
To: fitsliberator@eso.org
Subject: ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator Version 3 Released - Now
stand-alone and open source

Dear all

Today, the third - and best - version of the popular ESA/ESO/NASA FITS
Liberator image-processing software has been released with several
significant improvements.

As with the previous versions of the FITS Liberator, the new version
makes another leap towards making the creation of colour images from raw
astronomical observations easier and faster. The FITS Liberator
continues to support the FITS and PDS formats, preferred by astronomers
and planetary scientists respectively, which enables data to be
processed from a wide range of telescopes and planetary probes,
including ESO's Very Large Telescope, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space
Telescope, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, ESA's XMM-Newton Telescope
and Cassini-Huygens or Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The new FITS Liberator incorporates a faster and more streamlined
workflow. The CPU-intensive calculations have been optimised, thanks to
significantly improved memory management, and this allows for time
savings of up to 35%. For large images the savings in efficiency are
even more pronounced, also thanks to a delayed application of stretch
functions.

After consultation with the image-processing community it was decided to
make the FITS Liberator a stand-alone application, so that Adobe
Photoshop is no longer required to run it. Although Adobe Photoshop is
the preferred application for producers of advanced colour outreach
images from large observatories worldwide, a stand-alone application
will add more flexibility and be accessible by a wider user base. The
FITS Liberator now saves TIFF files, and opens them with one click in
virtually any image-processing software, including Photoshop.
Furthermore the software allows several instances of the user interface
to be open simultaneously on Windows, again leading to significant time
savings.

To sustain the future development of the software the entire source
code, consisting of nearly 30 000 lines of code is being released as
open source, and anyone wishing to contribute to future versions of the
programme may do so.

More information, download links and contacts are available on:
http://www.spacetelescope.org/announcements/ann1013/


Best regards,
The FITS Liberator team
___________________________________ ____________
Fitsliberator mailing list
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  #4  
Old 15-10-2010, 08:06 AM
rally
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Max,

Certain cameras (acquisition programs) only save their files in a FITS format (Flexible Image Transport System)

This format amongst other things allows the embedded storage of information relevant to astro imagers and other fields of science in whats called the FITS Header.
- eg what filters have been used, the celestial coordinate system being used and location, what calibration processes have been used and applied, subject name and details, temperature of the camera, type of camera, focal length of the telescope and many other standard and custom pieces of information (meta data), site, terrestrial location etc etc

Many imaging acquisition packages insert their own data and allow the user to add custom data at the time of taking the image.

Some image processing packages can read FITS files others cant or dont do it properly - FITS Liberator allows the conversion of the FITS file to a format that they can read, previously it was a Photoshop PlugIn - now its been released as a standalone converter.
Since Photoshop5 was released on Mac, FITS files couldn't be opened at all ! - so its been a long awaited release.

If you dont already need it then it probably doesn't matter to you, but if you get involved in astro imaging with a dedicated camera it will probably eventually become a requirement.

Rally
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  #5  
Old 15-10-2010, 08:37 AM
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Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)
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I installed this, without success, on my 27" iMac several weeks ago. The installer package was intact, and went through the motions of a typical Mac instal - i.e. smoothly. Problem was that it left no application in the Applications folder - at all. I tried it a couple of times and downloaded the installer a second time. Still no success.

Downloaded and installed it manually after that and it seems to run just fine.

I think I still WAY prefer it as a Photoshop plug-in. It's more immediate. Applying experimental stretching functions and saving to a TIFF ("Save & Edit" simply and stupidly opens the file in Preview rather than your nominated editor) means that you then have to search for and re-open the file in Photoshop afterwards. Don't know how this will go for batch-opening of files into a Photoshop stack for instance. Photoshop CS4 now refuses to acknowledge FITS files - at all.

This has been a backward step for me.
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  #6  
Old 15-10-2010, 09:37 AM
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Bassnut (Fred)
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Its about time this came out for CS5, been waiting for it. Scaling and stretching in FITs liberator beats any other app hands down.

I agree totally though, that its a pain stand a alone, a PS plug in is far more convienient.

I just auto installed it on an i7 with 64bit win 7 and it worked fine.
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  #7  
Old 15-10-2010, 09:49 AM
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Terry B
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NorthernLight View Post
Hi Dennis,

good news I assume. But please allow me a question that may has been answered quite often:

what are FITS files good for?

Is it that one can use 32bit data and manipulate it in Photoshop? Or is it just a little more fancy or is there a deeper mysterium behind it?

I use DSS and CS2 and would like to use the full 32bit data that comes out of the stack. Is that why people like FITS-files?

I really donīt know but would like to!

Cheers
FITS files were originally for scientific uses. They are non compressed files that are similar to bitmaps. They can be used to record spectra in multiple wavelengths in the one file (called a FITS cube) and can record both optical images and radio data. The header records lots of useful info about the image including position data. With this data astronomy can be performed to find accurate positional data etc.
As to why you would use them for pretty pictures.
The cameras that are used for pretty pics can also be used to collect scientific data. If the images are taken as JPEG etc then they are of very limited scientific use so the default is to use fits files.
To convert them into image files for pretty pics is easy but the reverse process isn't.
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