FITS Astronomical

FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) is a grayscale uncompressed image format used by many astronomical organizations and NASA for the storage of space image data and digitized space and terrestial data from satellites.

This reader reads 8, 16 and 32 bit integer data, and 32 and 64 bit floating point data, converting them all to 8 bit grayscale. It does not currently read 16 bit floating point data.
This reader will extract any desired frame (via the Multiple Frames dialog) from a FITS file which contains multiple frames (images).
This reader supports only the basic header keywords, plus the "BLANK" optional keyword.

The FITS writer writes 8 bit versions only. It does not write more than one image to a file.

Recommended: many FITS images look better if the "Palette:Equalize:Brightness" function is performed after they're opened.

Options: to display the FITS options dialog, execute "Misc:Preferences:Readers:FITS".
 -- to display a window containing the header or the first 40 cards in the header,  check the "Display first 40 cards from header in information window" checkbox.
 -- For displaying pixels:
 ----- to display raw values for each pixel, click the radio button "Use raw values".
 ----- to display scaled values for each pixel, click the radio button "Find min & max values, then scale all values
to fill this min-max range [DEFAULT: looks best]".