NAME

Astro::FITS::Header::NDF - Manipulate FITS headers from NDF files

SYNOPSIS

  use Astro::FITS::Header::NDF;

  $hdr = new Astro::FITS::Header::NDF( Cards => \@cards );
  $hdr = new Astro::FITS::Header::NDF( Items => \@items );
  $hdr = new Astro::FITS::Header::NDF( ndfID => $indf );
  $hdr = new Astro::FITS::Header::NDF( File => $file );

  $hdr->writehdr( $indf );
  $hdr->writehdr( File => $file );

DESCRIPTION

This module makes use of the Starlink NDF module to read and write to an NDF FITS extension or to a .HEADER block in an HDS container file. If the file is found to be an HDS container containing multiple NDFs at the top level, either the .HEADER NDF or the first NDF containing a FITS header is deemed to be the primary header, and all other headers a subsidiary headers indexed by the name of the NDF in the container.

It stores information about a FITS header block in an object. Takes an hash as an argument, with either an array reference pointing to an array of FITS header cards, array of Astro::FITS::Header::Item objects, or a filename, or (alternatively) an NDF identifier.

Currently, subheader support is readonly.

METHODS

configure

Reads a FITS header from an NDF.

  $hdr->configure( Cards => \@cards );
  $hdr->configure( ndfID => $indf );
  $hdr->configure( File => $filename );

Accepts an NDF identifier or a filename. If both ndfID and File keys exist, ndfID key takes priority.

If the file is actually an HDS container, an attempt will be made to read a ".HEADER" NDF inside that container (this is the standard layout of UKIRT (and some JCMT) data files). If an extension is specified explicitly (that is not ".sdf") that path is treated as an explicit path to an NDF. If an explicit path is specified no attempt is made to locate other NDFs in the HDS container.

writehdr

Write a FITS header to an NDF.

  $hdr->writehdr( ndfID => $indf );
  $hdr->writehdr( File => $file );

Accepts an NDF identifier or a filename. If both ndfID and File keys exist, ndfID key takes priority.

Returns undef on error, true if the header was written successfully.

NOTES

This module requires the Starlink NDF module.

SEE ALSO

NDF, Astro::FITS::Header, Astro::FITS::Header::Item Astro::FITS::Header::CFITSIO

AUTHORS

Tim Jenness <t.jenness@jach.hawaii.edu>, Alasdair Allan <aa@astro.ex.ac.uk>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2001-2002 Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. All Rights Reserved.