Here is something I have openly wished for that I should state here in the Asterisk*: a Virtual Reality type program that will allow the user to "fly" through NSL FITS data. The idea would be that module would ask for a FITS file to upload and then allow the user examine this data by flying around in it. The background will appear as a gray-black bumpy plain, while stars will appear as snow capped mountains. The grayscale color map can be kept the same so that higher pixels can appear the most white.
The unexposed edge of the field would be a big drop-off, while the Galactic plane would appear as a big ridge with many stellar spikes on it. Flying up to cosmic ray hits would show them to be strange structures with steep drop offs, while stars always seem to have the same broad point spread function, just of different heights.
I would be grateful if someone with VRML experience could try this. I think such a program could help students and scientists alike better understand and visualize the data.
- RJN
Software wish list: VRML module for NSL FITS data
VRML module
These guys implemented a similar application for their astronomical images. I will look more into it to find the details of how they did it.
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