Re: Common and uncommon goals and software

[<aah@nofs.navy.mil>]

Jure revised his list of stored parameters.  A couple of comments.
Again, RA and DEC are derived parameters.  You needn't
add them to each star.  It is a simple formula to go
from plate constants to RA,DEC, so I suggest anyone using
the FITS table (which requires software to read anyway)
to add such a single-line formula to the reading process.
  Likewise, airmass is a derived parameter that depends
not only on the RA,DEC but the DATE/UT and the site location.
It is of little value until you do the photometric transformation,
so why include it in the FITS table.  Each of these parameters
takes space and you want to keep the tables to their minimum
size.  Remember, we are talking about 1M stars per night.
  Finally, total DN is identical to magnitude (with appropriate
scaling, of course); you can go from one to the other.
So it is redundant to include total DN.
  On the optional parameters:  error analysis should not be
optional.  Catalog matching is a derived parameter and should
not be part of the FITS starlist table but rather part of the
merging process further down the data pipeline.
Arne