Client-side Viewers for Use with the ADIL
This document provides links to places where users may obtain viewers
for the various kinds of documents provided by the Library. You
should consult your browser's on-line help to learn how integrate the
viewer with your browser.
See also these lists of resources for various platforms:
GIF and JPEG images
X-Windows, Microsoft Windows
- XV is a
full-featured image viewer that can display a number of image
formats outside your browser.
MacOS
FITS images
The Flexible Image Transport System--or FITS--is the standard format
in astronomy for storing images and transmitting them from one system
to another. FITS images differ from most of the images you probably
encounter on the Net in that the value stored in the pixels represents
scientific data (like amount of light from an area of the sky); thus,
no color table is usually associated with the image. An image
visualizer application applies a color table to the data in the image
so the image can be displayed. Such applications usually allow the
user to manipulate the colortable interactively to enhance particular
aspects of the data.
For more information about the FITS format, consult
NASA's
FITS Support Office Home Page.
NOTE: FITS images are downloaded from the ADIL to
browsers using the MIME-type application/x-fits
X-Windows
- AipsView is an
application for interacting with multiple FITS images in a
variety of ways. It includes a sophisisticated color editor.
-
SAOimage is a popular tool for interacting with FITS images
with the ability to interact with routines in the IRAF image
processing package.
-
SAOtng is "SAOimage: The Next Generation", featuring a more
sophisticated interface.
Microsoft Windows
-
FITSview is Bill Cotton's free FITS image visualizer that runs
on PCs.
Mac-OS
MPEG movies
We recommend you use an MPEG player that has a control panel that
allows you step through the individual frames of the movie and replay
the sequence without having to re-download it over the network.
X-Windows
-
mpeg_play: we recommend version 2.2 or later which includes a
control bar.
-
xplaygizmo: if your MPEG player does not have a control bar,
this provides you with one (for replaying and saving, but not for
stepping through the movie). For MPEG movies, you might as well
just get mpeg_play 2.2; however, this is also good for using with
your audio player.
Microsoft Windows
-
MPEGPLAY: the Berkeley MPEG Research group's player for
Windows.
See also the
Berkeley MPEG Research home page for additional information on
MPEG encoder, decoder, and player tools.
VRML visualizations
VRML stands for Virtual Reality Markup Language and is a way
to describe 3-D objects and spaces. The Library uses VRML to present
visualizaions of 3-D images which
may be explored with a VRML viewer.
X-Windows, Microsoft Windows
-
VRweb: a free, sophisticated VRML viewer.
For more information on VRML resources, check out the
NCSA
VRML Home Page.
PostScript files
X-Windows
Microsoft Windows
MacOS
- MacGS is a Macintosh
port of Ghostscript.
The Astronomy
Digital Image Library is a project of
Radio Astronomy Imaging
Team
at the National Center
for Supercomputing Applications on the campus of the
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Contact the ADIL:
adil@ncsa.uiuc.edu
User's Guide