fits2ndf does not include HDU of binary table for SDFITS

Converting an SDFITS file to NDF I get the following structure:

CNV_OTF3223S004  <NDF>

   DATA_ARRAY     <ARRAY>         {structure}
      DATA(1)        <_UBYTE>        *
      ORIGIN(1)      <_INTEGER>      1

   MORE           <EXT>           {structure}
      FITS(8)        <_CHAR*80>      'SIMPLE  =                    T / fi...'
                                     ... 'COM...','ORIGIN  =
'Supercam'','END'
      FITS_EXT_1     <TABLE>         {structure}
         NROWS          <_INTEGER>      64
         COLUMNS        <COLUMNS>       {structure}
            CDELT2         <COLUMN>        {structure}
               COMMENT        <_CHAR*19>      'label for field   1'
               DATA(64)       <_DOUBLE>       0.098173249432384,
                                              ... -0.022024647309758
               UNITS          <_CHAR*8>       'deg Glon'

            CDELT3         <COLUMN>        {structure}
               COMMENT        <_CHAR*19>      'label for field   2'
               DATA(64)       <_DOUBLE>       -0.014729787100485,
                                              ... -0.015228609176948
               UNITS          <_CHAR*8>       'deg Glat'

            TSYS           <COLUMN>        {structure}
               COMMENT        <_CHAR*19>      'label for field   3'
               DATA(64)       <_DOUBLE>       41524.657977196,0,
                                              ... 8152.7942924153
               UNITS          <_CHAR*1>       'K'

            TRX            <COLUMN>        {structure}
               COMMENT        <_CHAR*19>      'label for field   4'
               DATA(64)       <_DOUBLE>       0,0,24.422266182385,0,0,0,0,
                                              ... 0,0,90219.208127594
               UNITS          <_CHAR*1>       'K'
...
End of Trace.

(where the last few columns have been left off). This conversion has a problem though in that it's missing a FITS header. The SDFITS file has a primary HDU and then a secondary HDU associated with the binary table. The secondary HDU is not included in the conversion.

For all I know this is intentional but I wasn't expecting a problem with a FITS file this simple. Am I meant to be using the EXTABLE parameter or something in order to import the HDU from another extension?

If you're seriously going to use the

structure, then as I was suggesting the other day I do need to define a MORE.FITS within the TABLE structure for the (additional?) headers.

EXTABLE might help, but you have two BINTABLE extensions with the same name. Whereas it should be an EXTTYPE='Single Dish' and give different EXTNAMEs for each instance.

Also while we're at it I need to write a cof_rdtab to reverse the process. Handle a

extension as a special case to recreate a single FITS extension, merging with its .MORE.FITS. The headers may be in a different order, looping through columns rather than here where it has all the TTYPEn than TFORMn, but it should be possible to recover all the data and metadata.

timj commented 10 years ago

Ok. It hadn't crossed my mind that HDUs associated with binary tables would be silently dropped. It's not required in the short term as I'm reading the SDFITS natively with CFITSIO. It does sound like the TABLE structure needs a FITS HDU element.

Starlink / starlink

fits2ndf does not include HDU of binary table for SDFITS #30