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A technical panel was appointed by the IAU (International Astronomical Union) FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) Working Group in early 2007 to propose updates and clarifications to the FITS Standard document which defines the rules for the FITS data format. The last major revision to this document was made in 1999. The technical panel produced a first draft of the proposed new Standard document which was then made available for public coment from 23 July 2007 to 22 October 2007 and subsequently by the four Regional FITS committees. Comments were received on about 40 different topics. The panel has responded to these comments and produced a revised draft document. Links are available to a summary of the public comments and the technical panel's response to those comments, as well as to the revised new draft of the Standard document.

Documentation about the first v3.0 draft document (now obsolete) is also available:

The "Summary" document provides a brief overview and justification for the main proposed changes.

The draft version 3.0 of the FITS Standard shows all the proposed changes. The "Differences" document highlights the differences between the current version 2.1b of the FITS Standard and the new proposed version 3.0. The deleted text is typeset in a red crossed-out font, and the new added text is typeset in a blue underlined font. This document should be viewed or printed on a color-capable device. For technical reasons, not every change is highlighted in this document (e.g., the formatting of all the tables in the document). The current version 2.1b of the FITS Standard is also available here for comparison purposes:

It should be emphasized that these are only proposed changes to the FITS Standard; they have not yet been formally approved by the regional FITS committees, nor by the IAU FITS Working Group.

Please send any comments about these proposed changes or any other suggestions for improving the FITS Standard document to the FITSBITS email list, or it's linked newsgroup at:

Email: fitsbits@nrao.edu
Newsgroup: sci.astro.fits

Comments may also be submitted to any member of the FITS technical panel that produced these recommendations:

William D. Pence (Chair), NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center
Lucio Chiappetti, IASF Milano, INAF, Italy
Clive G. Page, University of Leicester, UK
Richard Shaw, National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Elizabeth Stobie, University of Arizona