FITS4Win2 is the successor to FITS4Win which was made freely available in 2004. Though FITS4Win is no longer supported, it is still available for free download here . FITS4Win v1 supports 16-bit and 32-bit Windows systems up to and including Windows XP, providing a FITS Image viewer, FITS header viewer and Windows Explorer thumbnail generator.
FITS4Win2 is more than an upgrade of FITS4Win, rather a ground-up rewrite, integrating FITS files with the latest Microsoft technologies for Windows Images and Metadata. Supporting 32 and 64-bit Windows Vista and Windows 7 in an entirely new way unique to the latest Windows operating systems. FITS4Win2’s goal though, is the same as FITS4Win's goal was in 2004. To provide FITS image and metadata accessibility similar to mainstream image formats like TIF, BMP and JPG. FITS4Win1 provided a partial solution, but FITS4Win2 is currently much closer to fulfilling that goal.
FITS4Win2 brings FITS4Win into the 21st century by allowing FITS images to become viewable in the latest generation of Windows image viewers via a custom WIC (Windows Image Component) image decoder. As well, FITS header data is integrated into the Windows Metadata Property System so that FITS metadata is accessible in windows as Image Properties. Both WIC and the new Metadata system were introduced with Windows Vista and further developed into Windows 7 and now Windows 8.
With FITS4Win2 installed, FITS files are no longer just an icon requiring specialist software to do deal with. They are an integrated Windows image format, viewable throughout Windows with customised image properties.
FITS4Win2 functionality.
1.
FITS Image Viewer. The FITS4Win2 FITS image decoder adds the ability for FITS images to be
viewed throughout Windows as previews and thumbnails or loaded as images. In Windows Explorer
and File Dialogs as well as in any WIC-compliant image viewer like Windows
Photo Viewer or any third-party WIC compliant viewer like the free Fast Picture Viewer
WIC is Microsofts new extensible architecture for Windows image handling. So new, it is still gaining momentum. WIC will undoubtedly become more widely supported as new image-aware, windows-based applications are developed. FITS4Win2 already provides the ability for them to load FITS images.
2. Property Viewer. The FITS4Win2 metadata reader integrates FITS header data into the Windows Property System, enabling Windows to display and process FITS metadata as selectable image properties, in the same way as image metadata like EXIF.
Where possible, FITS metadata is mapped to standard windows image and photo properties like, Author, Subject, Camera Model, Lens Model, Focal length, etc.
For other important FITS keywords that have no equivalent standard image property, FITS4Win2 provides custom image properties like, *Object RA, *Object DEC, etc.
Click here to see the complete list of supported properties.
Some properties are displayed by default throughout Windows. In file tips, dialog boxes and preview panes, providing access to an unprecedented amount of information from FITS images any time they are visible and from wherever you happen to be working with them.
3. F4W2HDU (FITS4Win2 Header Data Utility) is a bulk header update utility specifically for updating FITS4Win2 property keywords. The utility simplifies searching, creating and updating FITS4Win2 Property keyword values. So much so, that it is not required that you ever need to explicitly match image properties to FITS keywords in order to find the relevant detail to update. F4W2HDU goes further than being FITS4Win2-only, and really is deserving of it's own manual, which you can read here
After ordering from the FITS4Win2 ordering page, you will receive an email containing:
· A download link to the latest FITS4Win2 zip file at Astroshed.com
· Login details so you can access the download area.
· Your registration name and code which will need to be entered during installation.
NOTE: FITS4Win2 V1.0.0 Users: If you currently have FITS4Win2 V1.0.0 installed, you must uninstall it from Control Panel, with Add/Remove Programs before installing a later version.
V1.0.1 and later versions use a new installer technology that is not compatible with the V1.0.0 installer, so it must be uninstalled manually.
·
The download and registration details mentioned below were provided to you in an email with the subject "FITS4Win2 Download and Registration"
Download the FITS4Win2 installer from the link
provided in your registration email.
· Depending on whether you are installing the 32-bit or 64-bit version, you will have.
FITS4Win2Install32_01_01.exe or FITS4Win2Install64_01_01.exe
Note that the actual version may be different to the _01_01 in these examples.
· You must run the required installer as Administrator. This is done on the intended machine in Windows Explorer, by: right-clicking the installer executable and selecting “Run as Administrator” from the menu.
License Registration
|
The first step of installation is registration. A registration form will appear that looks similar to this one.
You must enter valid Registration details exactly as received in the registration email. If these details are not entered now (e.g. you press Close), the installation will rollback and FITS4Win2 will not be installed.
|
|
If you encounter any issue that results in registration failure with valid registration details, please contact me at eddiet@astroshed.com. If possible, provide any error messages or codes that appeared and a brief description of what happened, as this may help me isolate the cause.
Once the Registration details have been successfully entered the installer will continue and you may see these dialog boxes. Respond to each as noted below.
|
|
|
Click Yes |
Click Allow |
· The installer will now check that the required .NET Framework 4.0 is installed.
The FITS4Win2 installation will next check that .NET Framework 4.0 is installed. The full .NET 4.0 is needed by FITS4Win2 v1.01 and later. If it is already installed then you need nothing else.
FITS4Win2 from v1.01, requires the full .NET 4.0 Runtime. The client profile alone is not sufficient.
If you are running Windows 7, chances are good that .NET 4.0 will already be installed. If .NET 4.0 is not installed, the FITS4Win2 installer will detect this and attempt to download and install it now.
An internet connection is required for this. If the internet is not available from the target FITS4Win2 machine, and .NET 4.0 is not installed, then you will need to put .NET 4.0 on that computer some other way, before FITS4Win2 can be installed.
You could, for example:
Download the 48.1MB standalone .NET 4.0 installer from here: .NET Framework 4.0 Redistributable
Then, either burn it to a CDROM, or put it on a removable hard drive to get it installed onto the required computer.
With .NET 4.0 installed, the FITS4Win2 installation is complete.
Note: If .NET 4.0 is installed during FITS4Win2 installation, a reboot will be necessary. The FITS4Win2 installation will continue when the computer restarts.
All FITS image display with FITS4Win2 is done without needing any file association with the FITS image types. FITS4Win2 will leave your original FITS Viewer/Editor in charge.
Selecting Preview from the file menu will display FITS images in the Windows Photo Viewer for previewing, but without requiring Photo Viewer to be associated with the FITS file types. This applies to previews only (i.e. anytime you select preview from a menu for a FITS file).
Selecting Open on a FITS file will load it into the associated viewer or editor, if one exists.
If FITS4Win2 is installed onto a computer without a pre-existing FITS file association, you can still preview FITS images and have full FITS4Win2 functionality without any program associated with FITS images.
If in this case, if you attempt to open a FITS image, Windows will ask you to make a file association. This has nothing whatsoever to do with FITS4Win2 and it will not appear in the application selection list. With FITS4Win2 installed however, you can now associate FITS images with any WIC-compliant viewer such as the Windows Photo Viewer, or the free Fast Picture Viewer.
In summary, file associations are irrelevant to FITS4Win2. They are only relevant to specific viewing/editing software. With FITS4Win2, all WIC-compliant image loaders/viewers become FITS-compatible and can then be associated with FITS images if desired.
FITS4Win2 supports reading of uncompressed mono and RGB, 8, 16 and 32-bit FITS images via a WIC Decoder.
Using WIC allows FITS images to be accessible to Windows as a supported image type and therefore readable by all WIC-compliant image viewers within Windows.
Though WIC is bitmap-based, it introduces newly supported Bitmap data types, including 16-bit and 32-bit mono and RGB. FITS4Win2 loads images into their equivalent bit-depth bitmap counterparts thereby retaining the original bit-depth.
Selecting to Preview FITS images will open automatically into the Windows Photo Viewer.
Stretching
Raw, unprocessed astronomical images usually have a very low dynamic range with much of the object information buried in the low end of the histogram.
In order to get at least some useful data visible on the screen, FITS4Win2 performs a rudimentary linear stretch when images with low dynamic range are detected.
Bayer Matrix Support - One Shot Colour (OSC) Cameras
Bayer Matrixes are not explicitly supported by FITS4Win2, but they will still be read and displayed. Even though many OSC camera manufacturers save their images as FITS files, they are not FITS-compliant due to the fact that they require special (and unknown) processing of the matrix in order to retrieve the colour information.
FITS4Win2 will read and process OSC pixel information as it does with any other FITS image, but it will not display any colour and the displayed image will appear monochrome.
OSC FITS header data is read normally by the FITS4Win2 property handler, making OSC metadata properties fully available.
FITS Metadata and Windows Explorer Setup
Note: Windows Libraries, such as the "Pictures" library, cannot be permanently customised. If you do customise the view of a Windows Library, you will find that it will revert back to it's original view at some point. It is recommended that you do not use windows libraries for storing FITS images. Keep them in standard folders and your views can be fully and permanently customised.
FITS4Win2 functionality is available immediately after installation. But to make the most of it, a little Windows configuration is needed.
View selection - Windows Explorer provides a number of views that you can switch between. FITS4Win2 enhances all views for FITS images. For Metadata and Properties, there is only one view that allows user-selection of visible property values. The Details View .
If you want to customise Windows Explorer Details View to show specific FITS information for your needs, here is how to go about it.
Changing Explorer Views – This is done using the Change your view list.
|
|
Configuring Details View
|
|
|
|
Selecting Details View as shown above will reveal a set of default file properties that apply to all files. Namely, File Name, File Create Date, File Type and File Size in this example.
Although FITS properties are now visible in the preview pane and file tips, they are not yet visible in the Detail View.
To view our new FITS Properties in Details View we must first select them as described next in, Selecting FITS Properties.
|
|
Selecting FITS Properties
|
|
<<< To include the new FITS properties, right-click on the column heading button bar. The Choose Details List will appear as shown below.
|
Note that the columns can be arranged by left-clicking and dragging the button to either side.
|
|
The Choose Details list contains all of the Windows properties in alphabetical order.
Except for standard file and system properties that apply to all files, only the properties created by FITS4Win2 are guaranteed to be returned for FITS images.
The full list of FITS properties exposed by FITS4Win2 is listed below. Some are standard Windows properties and some are new, custom FITS properties which are prefixed by an *.
Scroll through the list and check the box next to each property you want Explorer to display.
Select OK, when done.
If you like your new customised view and want to make it standard for all of your FITS folders, see the section on Standardising your custom folder view
|
With a custom Explorer View configured as described above, you have the full flexibility of Windows Explorer available to FITS images with all of the new FITS properties.
You can for example, order the FITS file list by any of the properties, simply by clicking on the appropriate column title. The Column Title in Explorer triples as a Column Heading, an Ordering Button and a Drop-down Property list.
|
If you click the drop-down list for any property, you will see an ordered list of all the unique property values for the FITS files in the current folder. Dimensions in this example, lists the image dimensions of all the images in the folder.
Notice that each of the image dimensions has a checkbox next to it.
If you select one or more of these checkboxes, Explorer will display only the FITS images with the chosen dimensions, hiding all others.
This functionality exists for all properties and provides an enormous amount of flexibility in searching, sorting and organising FITS images.
This functionality is not limited to Explorer. it is also available in all file open and save dialog boxes regardless of the application being used.
|
Column Titles are also sort buttons and selection lists |
Supported Properties - The FITS4Win2 Property List
This is the complete list of FITS properties available in FITS4Win2 V1.01. Any or all of these can be selected and viewed in Windows Explorer’s Details view.
All of these properties are already included by default in Windows Explorer’s Preview Pane, which is visible in any and all Explorer View modes.
|
Windows Property |
From FITS Keyword(s) |
Notes |
|
Author |
OBSERVER or AUTHOR |
The name of the person who took the image |
|
Bit Depth |
BITPIX |
Bits per pixel. No sign is displayed for Floating Point or Double Precision. Combine “Bit Depth” with “*Data type” (below), if needed. |
|
Camera Model |
INSTRUME |
The name of the camera model or type |
|
Date Taken |
DATE-OBS or DATE |
(Local Time) Date/Time when the exposure commenced. Read the note below. |
|
Dimensions |
NAXIS1 x NAXIS2 |
“Horizontal x Vertical” image dimensions in pixels |
|
Exposure Time |
EXPTIME or EXPOSURE |
Exposure time in seconds |
|
Focal Length |
FOCALLEN |
Focal Length in Millimetres |
|
Lens Model |
TELESCOP |
The name of the lens or telescope |
|
Subject |
OBJECT |
The subject of the image |
|
Title |
OBJECT |
The title of the image |
|
|
|
|
|
*Air Mass |
AIRMASS |
Optical path length through the earth’s atmosphere |
|
*Aperture |
APERTURE, APTDIA or APT-DIA |
Lens or Telescope Aperture in Millimetres |
|
*Binning |
XBINNING x YBINNING |
Image Binning used in this image |
|
*Calibrated |
CALIBRAT |
Image has been calibrated. 0 or F, 1 or T |
|
*Data type |
Derived (see notes) |
The Data Type used to store the image data. (Unsigned Char, Integer, Unsigned Integer, Floating Point or Double Precision) |
|
*Filter |
FILTER |
The Filter used for this image. Note that filter naming is arbitrary. Entered via the image capture software |
|
*Gain |
GAIN or EGAIN |
CCD Gain |
|
*Guider Exp |
TRAKTIME |
Exposure time of the guider in Seconds |
|
*Image Date UT |
DATE-OBS or DATE |
(UT) Same as Date Taken, without the local time conversion (See note below). |
|
*Image Type |
IMAGETYP |
The usual four types are Light, Flat, Dark or Bias but as with Filter, naming is arbitrary |
|
*Object RA |
OBJCTRA |
Object Right-Ascension |
|
*Object DEC |
OBJCTDEC |
Object Declination |
|
*Object ALT |
OBJCTALT or CENTALT |
Object Altitude |
|
*Object AZ |
OBJCTAZ or CENTAZ |
Object Azimuth |
|
*Object HA |
OBJCTHA |
Object Hour Angle |
|
*Pedestal |
PEDESTAL |
Pedestal value added to pixel data |
|
*Pixel Size |
XPIXSZ x YPIXSZ |
Pixel dimensions in microns |
|
*Read Noise |
READNOIS |
CCD Read Noise |
|
*Saturation |
SAT_LEVE |
Pixel saturation level for the camera |
|
*Site LAT |
SITELAT |
Site Latitude |
|
*Site LONG |
SITELONG |
Site Longitude |
|
*Software |
SWCREATE |
Name of the software that created the image |
|
*Temp |
CCD-TEMP or SET-TEMP |
CCD Camera temperature in Celsius. |
The Windows Property column is the name that appears in the property selection list and property list column titles.
A couple of issues you may have noticed about the property list:
A note on the “Date Taken” property: Always use UTC for saving your images!
The “Date Taken” property is an internal Windows property that displays the Local Date and Time when the image was taken.
This image property is displayed for all images. The metadata definition for “Date Taken” is a UTC dateTime and FITS is no different.
In order to display a local date and time, Windows automatically adjusts “Date Taken” to local time by using the Time Offset from your computers Locale settings. Sometimes with surprising results.
Some image capture software allow you to save Local Time to DATE-OBS and/or DATE. This is not standard practice, and very misleading when no supporting data is created to specify the time scale used.
As 'Date Taken' is assumed by Windows to be UTC, the displayed date will be a UTC time-offset adjusted local time. We want a UTC time-offset adjusted UTC time, in order to display the correct Local Time. So, it is recommended that FITS images always save UTC dates for DATE-OBS and DATE. This issue applies only to FITS images with DATE-OBS saved as local time. Filetypes other than FITS, generally follow the metadata standard and save UTC DateTime for Date Taken.
Another undesireable outcome manifests when images are taken from say, a remote observatory in a different time zone to the viewer. If the FITS images were properly saved using UTC time at your remote observatory on the other side of the world, Windows will use the Time offset from your local viewing computer to calculate the local time before displaying 'Date Taken'. This will result in “Date Taken” showing the local time at your computer location, not the remote telescope location, when the image was taken. It will still be the correct local time, at the viewer location, not the telescope. Microsoft may not have considered the possibility of camera and photographer being physically seperated across time zones, when implementing this behaviour. The issue does not only apply to FITS, but to any image type that contain 'Date Taken' metadata.
The FITS4Win2 property "*Image Date UT" prevents these issues, by providing an unadjusted DATE-OBS dateTime value.
Multiple possible keywords for one property:
In some cases, there is more than one FITS keyword that represents a single property. For example, the EXPTIME and EXPOSURE FITS keywords can hold exactly the same “Exposure Time” property value. FITS4Win2 will find either.
In the unusual case where both keywords exist, whichever one is first in the header, will be used. Unless there is a serious metadata integrity problem, the two values should be identical anyway.
Properties and/or Values not displayed:
In general, windows will only display a property if a value for it has been found in the FITS header.
There are two places where the property name is displayed when no value exists in the header.
· The File Properties/Details panel that you get by right-clicking a FITS image and selecting Properties.
· The Explorer Details View, where columns have been selected for display.
Some keywords are mandatory in FITS image files, such as NAXES, BITPIX, etc. others, like CCD-TEMP, OBJCTRA and OBJCTDEC, must be populated by the creating application.
Or, an external FITS header editor may be used to insert the required values after file creation.
Unsupported FITS keywords:
It would be a lifetime achievement to try and create Windows Properties for all possible FITS keywords. There is also a significant performance requirement when reading and displaying properties from images as the mouse moves over them. For these reasons, only what I would consider generally useful FITS metadata has been included in the V1 property system.
This is not set in stone however. If you have a specific need for one or more FITS keywords that aren’t included here, please drop me a note at eddiet@astroshed.com and they might be included in a future update.
Standardising Views
Note: Windows Libraries, such as the "Pictures" library, cannot be permanently customised. If you do customise the view of a Windows Library, you will find that it will revert back to it's original view at some point. It is recommended that you do not use windows libraries for storing FITS images. Keep them in standard folders and your views can be fully and permanently customised.
Note that you don’t have to use Details View. You can standardise your views however you like and the process is the same. We will use Details View for this example.
Once you have setup the FITS properties you would like to display in your Details View, you may like it so much that you want all of your FITS image folders to appear the same way. Here is how to do it.
1. Select the folder that you have configured in Details View as above.
2. On the toolbar, click Organize, and then click Folder and search options.
3. In the Folder Options dialog box, click the View tab and then click Apply to Folders.
4. Now click Yes, and click OK.
All of your FITS image folders are now setup the same as the current folder, with your customised property and view selections.
Note that even if you set all folders to appear the same, each can be individually customised again if needed.
With FITS4Win2 is installed, you will notice that whenever you have a FITS file on the screen within Windows, or are performing file operations on them, FITS information will be right there with it.
|
File Operation Dialog boxes like File Open can display like this and are completely configurable with all of Explorers view available:
Here is Photoshop’s File Open Dialog box showing property details view with a Thumbnail
NOTE that FITS4Win2 will not allow you to actually load a FITS image into Photoshop as Photoshop is not WIC compliant.
To actually load the image into Photoshop you require a FITS plugin written exclusively for Photoshop, such as FITSPlug or FITS Liberator.
Naturally, I recommend FITSPlug but Liberator is also a fine tool! |
|
|
|
|
|
Delete, Copy, Move and Overwrite Dialog boxes have a fixed set of metadata displayed when operating on FITS files. Like this Delete dialog box example.
More or less FITS header information may be displayed in dialog boxes for different FITS files and is determined by the data in the FITS header. |
|
FITS in Explorer’s Preview Pane
By default, the Explorer Preview Pane is configured to display all available FITS properties, regardless of the Current View.
Even so, only data actually found in the header will display in the Preview Pane. Therefore, different images may display different property sets, as seen below.
If all supported properties exist in the image header though, they will all be displayed in the preview pane.
Preview Pane with Details view
Preview Pane with Large Icons view
FITS in Tooltips
|
|
A fixed set of FITS properties are displayed in tooltips, when the mouse cursor hovers over FITS file from anywhere in windows, as seen here.
As with all property displays, only properties that exist in the FITS file will be displayed. More or less properties may actually appear than are shown here.
|
|
Microsoft Office 2010 fully supports WIC images types enabling you to load FITS images directly into say, a Word document.
This 16-bit FITS image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, was directly loaded into this document with Word 2010 using the standard Insert/Picture function.
If you want to, you can directly load FITS images into Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint or any other current Microsoft product that deals with images.
The original 16-bit image was first sampled to a smaller size then resaved as 16-bit FITS for this example.
|
|
Screen Shots
Here are screen shots of some of the different FITS image views made available by FITS4Win2.
Click the images for a larger view
|
|
A single Explorer window showing a folder of raw FITS images.
Large Thumbnail View Preview On Preview manually sized to 50%
FITS Image metadata in preview pane. |
|
|
Two Explorer Windows and the Windows Photo Viewer.
Top: Various processed FITS Images in Details view With custom FITS properties selected.
FITS Properties in tooltip and preview pane
Image has been previewed with Windows Photo Viewer
Bottom: Selection of NOAO FITS images of galaxies containing minimal metadata, using the Large Thumbnail view
|
|
|
Extra Large Thumbnail View with extra-large preview image and extra-large preview pane for thumbnail and metadata.
Not a particularly useful view, but shows some of the arrangement possibilities. |
|
|
List View
Good for scrolling through a lot of files while scanning the metadata in the preview pane. |
