xisf file conversion to fit

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dariv
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xisf file conversion to fit

Post by dariv »

I'm seeing more and more files in xisf format that people are sharing. Is there a conversion utility to get these files in a format supported by ST?
-DaRiv
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admin
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Re: xisf file conversion to fit

Post by admin »

XISF is a format that is specific to PixInsight. Unfortunately PixInsight actively discourages people to save in any other format (by means of a message / popup, as well as defaulting to XISF). "Strangely", to my knowledge, no conversion tools have to date been provided by the creators of this "open" format.

There is however this tool;
https://github.com/vrruiz/xisfits

It does require compiling yourself (it was built in Rust) and I haven't had much luck with it. It also highlights one of the big objections I have to XISF. The file format is insanely complicated for something that should be extremely simple; even this simple conversion tool, once compiled, weighs in at about 31MB due to all the dependencies and libraries needed! It's so over-engineered and inefficient it is not funny. :(

So, right now, the only thing that can convert XISF to FITS is PixInsight itself and I don't see that to changing in the future. For all intents and purposes it's a proprietary format.
Ivo Jager
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Re: xisf file conversion to fit

Post by admin »

Hi,

I managed to work around the bug in the current xisfits master.
If you run Linux, give this build a try; https://download.startools.org/xisfitsLinux64.zip
If you run Windows, let me know and I'll see if I can create a build.
Ivo Jager
StarTools creator and astronomy enthusiast
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