<p>These are FITS binary tables not FITS images so the normal FITS image tools very likely  won't read them. You have a couple of options to examine and manipulate them:</p>

<ul>
<li>Use the <a href="https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftools/fv/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">'fv' tool</a> which works on FITS images or tables (and integrates with <code>ds9</code>)</li>
<li>Use <a href="http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/topcat/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">TOPCAT</a>, a very powerful tool for examining, plotting and many other operations on all formats of tables (not just FITS ones)</li>
<li>Use Python and <a href="http://docs.astropy.org/en/stable/table/index.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">AstroPy Tables</a> e.g.</li>
</ul>

<pre><code>from astropy.table import Table

table = Table.read('EN2_STAR_CHR_0102990364_20070206T133547_20070401T235934.fits') 
table
&lt;Table length=71042&gt;
          DATE                DATEJD            DATEHEL       STATUS ...     BG    CORREC_RED CORREC_GREEN CORREC_BLUE
  yyyy-mm-jjThh:mi:ss    COROT JULIAN DAY   COROT JULIAN DAY         ... ELECTRONS ELECTRONS                          
        bytes23              float64            float64       int32  ...  float32   float32     float32      float32  
----------------------- ------------------ ------------------ ------ ... --------- ---------- ------------ -----------
2007-02-06T13:35:47.000   2593.06626508258 2593.0705519515977     16 ... 373.35654        0.0          0.0         0.0
2007-02-06T13:44:19.000  2593.072191038021 2593.0764776164892      0 ... 378.81073        0.0          0.0         0.0
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-25T21:52:16.650Z
'fv' worked for me.
qqqqq
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-28T23:00:46.893Z
Mentioning so that it saves other people time. I attempted to install TOPCAT. It needed JRE.  But the download site of JRE seems to require an ORACLE id. I gave up at that point.
qqqqq
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-29T01:09:49.293Z
Hmm, this seems to be something Oracle have changed recently. The [Open JDK](https://jdk.java.net/13/) should work just as well (and doesn't require signing up)
astrosnapper
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-25T18:07:41.053Z
2019-10-25T18:07:41.053Z
astrosnapper
<p>I downloaded fits file using wget script from <a href="https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/datasethelp/ETSS_CoRoT.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/datasethelp/ETSS_CoRoT.html</a>
I am not able to view the file. I tried atsromagic and DS9 .  After File->Open I get an error message "..error while reading.." .It happens with both softwares. 
Is anyone able to view these files? If yes, which software did you use?
Another possibility is that using using wget script on windows it got corrupted. Is there a command line tool to check integrity/validity of fits file?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-25T08:38:36.197Z
Can you please specify which fits file you downloaded?
samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-25T21:34:34.397Z
@samcarter AN2_STAR_0000000020_20070131T110634_20070402T071215.fits  wget -O AN2_STAR_0000000020_20070131T110634_20070402T071215.fits .  The script to download is http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/data/ETSS/corot_astero/FITSfiles/IRa01/AN2_STAR_0000000020_20070131T110634_20070402T071215.fits -a corot_astero_IRa01_wget.log
qqqqq
<ds9><fits-header>
CoRoT FITS files read error
qqqqq
# CoRoT FITS files read error

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-10-25)

I downloaded fits file using wget script from <https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/datasethelp/ETSS_CoRoT.html>
I am not able to view the file. I tried atsromagic and DS9 . After File->Open I get an error message "..error while reading.." .It happens with both softwares.
Is anyone able to view these files? If yes, which software did you use?
Another possibility is that using using wget script on windows it got corrupted. Is there a command line tool to check integrity/validity of fits file?

**Tags:** ds9, fits-header
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Can you please specify which fits file you downloaded?  
> **username_0**: @samcarter AN2_STAR_0000000020_20070131T110634_20070402T071215.fits  wget -O AN2_STAR_0000000020_20070131T110634_20070402T071215.fits .  The script to download is http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/data/ETSS/corot_astero/FITSfiles/IRa01/AN2_STAR_0000000020_20070131T110634_20070402T071215.fits -a corot_astero_IRa01_wget.log  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-10-25. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

These are FITS binary tables not FITS images so the normal FITS image tools very likely  won't read them. You have a couple of options to examine and manipulate them:

Use the 'fv' tool which works on FITS images or tables (and integrates with ds9)
Use TOPCAT, a very powerful tool for examining, plotting and many other operations on all formats of tables (not just FITS ones)
Use Python and AstroPy Tables e.g.

from astropy.table import Table

table = Table.read('EN2_STAR_CHR_0102990364_20070206T133547_20070401T235934.fits') 
table

          DATE                DATEJD            DATEHEL       STATUS ...     BG    CORREC_RED CORREC_GREEN CORREC_BLUE
  yyyy-mm-jjThh:mi:ss    COROT JULIAN DAY   COROT JULIAN DAY         ... ELECTRONS ELECTRONS                          
        bytes23              float64            float64       int32  ...  float32   float32     float32      float32  
----------------------- ------------------ ------------------ ------ ... --------- ---------- ------------ -----------
2007-02-06T13:35:47.000   2593.06626508258 2593.0705519515977     16 ... 373.35654        0.0          0.0         0.0
2007-02-06T13:44:19.000  2593.072191038021 2593.0764776164892      0 ... 378.81073        0.0          0.0         0.0

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: 'fv' worked for me.  
> **username_0**: Mentioning so that it saves other people time. I attempted to install TOPCAT. It needed JRE.  But the download site of JRE seems to require an ORACLE id. I gave up at that point.  
> **username_2**: Hmm, this seems to be something Oracle have changed recently. The [Open JDK](https://jdk.java.net/13/) should work just as well (and doesn't require signing up)  

---

