GetImage is publically available but "unsupported" software developed by STScI to recontruct a DSS image for any position in the sky. Developed for VMS and Unix platforms, it is used internally at STScI to provide images of the sky to the astronomical community.

• V1.0 - original release
• V1.1 - Improvements to handle CDROMs under Unix
• V1.2 - Added CDROM jukebox capability
• V1.3 - Added capability to specify individual plates. NFS mounted jukeboxes
• V2.0 - Incorporated CFITSIO package, restructured plate list files.
• V3.0 - modified to include improved astrometry using the GSC-II/ICRS for HST cycle 15 onwards, and now includes standard FITS WCS keywords.

download code (5MB tar) | plate lists (1MB zip) | image headers (90MB zip)

PLEASE NOTE:
The DSS headers returned by GetImage V3.0 are significantly different from those returned by earlier versions.

1. They have been restructured in a more logical manner for human readability.
2. The latest FITS standard keywords have been used wherever possible - some old keywords have been replaced or dropped (eg. EPOCH) and new keywords have been added.
3. The headers now contain a primary HDU and either one or two FITS Table extensions.
4. The new header contains THREE (3) astrometric calibrations - PLEASE be sure you know what your software uses.

• The previously existing GSC-I astrometric coefficients for the original survey plate are retained in the header for backward compatibilty but should NOT be used for HST observation planning from cycle 15 onwards when HST switches to using GSC-II.
• The new GSC-II astrometric coefficients for the original survey plate have been added to the header along with the astrometric correction mask (first extension table) used.
• A new set of FITS WCS keywords that correspond to a local gnomic approximation to the GSC-II astrometry. This is dynamically computed and inserted into the headers as the image is returned to the user. This is the preferred astrometry to use - most software does not handle GSC-II astrometry but can use the new FITS WCS.