stjohn1@... wrote:

> Does anybody know if guide(8) can access GSC 2.3.2 data from hard disc?
> The files are of the form N0000000.fiz.

Sorry, no, Guide can't access them.

This is the first time I've heard of anyone having a copy of GSC-2.x
on hard drive... in fact, I thought it hadn't "gone public" yet, except
for VizieR and similar access.

Quite aside from problems in getting the data, I see that it's (still)
on the HTM (Hierarchical Triangular Mesh) scheme, instead of on any "normal"
RA/dec gridded scheme. That complicates any access mechanism tremendously.
(And may be one reason people are mostly using B1.0, which is a heck of
a lot easier to access.) I can't say that it's completely impossible that
the data can be made displayable in Guide, and I'll give it some thought...
but there would be some serious hurdles to clear.

Notes for the curious: B1.0 consumes about 80 GBytes, GSC-2.3.2
about 200 GBytes. I think the actual amounts of data are comparable
(similar number of stars and similar sorts of data about them), but
it looks as if the organization of GSC-2.3.2 inflates things badly.
There's some description of it at

http://gsss.stsci.edu/Catalogs/GSC/GSC2/gsc23/gsc23_release_notes.htm

-- Bill