iraf.net

It would be really useful if the "galactic" routine in astutil could use
the RA, DEC, and epoch from an image header in doing the conversion to
galactic coordinates, rather than requiring the input to be RA, DEC,
and epoch on a single line.Also, there is a slight silliness in the help page. It says
"The galactic coordinates are always 1950.0". Well,
the galactic coordinates of an object have no epoch. (the galactic center
doesn't move!) Presumably what the code does is do the spherical gemometry
using
RA, DEC of object precessed to 1950 with RA, DEC (1950) of galactic center.
But believe me, the output l and b are epoch-less!phil(incidently, making "galactic" a little more general (e.g., letting the
RA and DEC of the "pole" be something OTHER than that of the galactic center))
would allow you to get the ecliptic coordinates, say. I would like to see
this routine changed in such a way that you could specify either galactic
or ecliptic....