FITSINIT (to initialise
a FITS tape for writing)
The tapes that you are going to use, to create the D-tape and C-tape,
should initialised using this command. This process involves writing a
single file at the beginning of the tape and positioning the tape at the
end of this file also known as the tape header. During this process,
the program will request a tape name. The name should be of the form
:
TELESCOPE TAPE-TYPE RUN-NUMBER
where TELESCOPE specifies the telescopes where you are working (e.g. WHT, INT or JKT), TAPE-TYPE specifies whether the tape to be created will be a C-Tape or a D-Tape and the RUN-NUMBER will be the run number assigned to you by your Support Astronomer. Thus, if you're are working in the WHT and you wish to create a C-Tape with run number of 3456, the tape name will be
WHTD3456
For any given run, you should always use the same tape name for both C and D tapes and put the same data on both tapes.
This command will always position the tape at the beginning of the first
file, thus subsequent writes will destroy any existing data. In essence
you should use this command only once on each tape.
FITSOUT (to create a tape containing FITS images)
This program is used to create both "C" and "D" tapes. Before this program can be used, you should run the FITSINIT utility to prepare your tapes. If the tapes already contain data that you wish to keep, then do not run the FITSINIT utility. The steps that should be followed to create your tapes are as follows:
1) Change to the data directory where the files are located and execute the command fitsout.
2) When prompted for the tape device, enter the tape device that you are using. The tape device must be preceded with an "n" to prevent the tape from rewinding. For example :
device: /dev/rmt/0n
3) When prompted for the block size, select the default.
4) You will then be prompted for the run number of the first image. This should be a value between 100000 and 399999.
5) You will then be prompted for the run number of the last image. This should be a value between 100000 and 399999.
The selected FITS images will then be written to the tape.