6.5 Other Network Resources

  A Usenet newsgroup, sci.astro.fits, is devoted to FITS. For those who prefer, there is an associated fitsbits mailing list. To subscribe, send electronic mail to fitsbits-request@fits.cv.nrao.edu. This newsgroup/mailing list is the principal forum for FITS discussions and announcements. Developments in the evolution of new extensions will appear there: reservation of type names, information on where to find particular proposals, discussions of the proposals, and notification of actions by the regional and international FITS bodies. The FITS Support Office uses this forum to announce developments such as progress on updates to the standard or a new edition of this User's Guide. Developers of publicly available FITS software packages also announce their packages here. In addition to the announcements, there is general discussion of FITS practices. The FITS Support Office maintains a monthly posting describing where FITS information can be obtained, which is posted as well to the newsgroups sci.answers and news.answers and is consequently automatically available at Usenet FAQ archives.

The exploder dishfits@nrao.edu was created to facilitate discussions on the subject of FITS formats for single dish radio astronomy. This exploder is now gatewayed to the newsgroup adass.fits.dishfits. To subscribe send electronic mail to dishfits-request@nrao.edu. Traffic on this exploder is archived at the NRAO site.

HEASARC has set up an electronic mail listserver called heafits for FITS issues that are specific to high energy astrophysics. To subscribe to the heafits list, send the following one-line electronic mail message to listserv@legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov:

subscribe heafits Your Name

where ``Your Name'' is your actual first and last names. Messages to the actual mailing list should be sent to heafits@legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov. An archive is at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/listserv/heafits/maillist.html. There is a link to it from the HFWG page.

An anonymous ftp directory of FITS material is maintained at the European Southern Observatory. Its address is ftphost.hq.eso.org (IP 134.171.8.4).