FITS files can contain several images (or more generally n-dimensional arrays) and tables. Is there a way to automatically open images e.g. with the ds9 application and tables with the TOPCAT application when I double-click the FITS file in the Mac OS X Finder?
I'm thinking of something like FITS Explorer from AstroSoft, but free and nicely integrated into the Mac (i.e. Finder, Quicklook).
If such a thing doesn't exist, what is your workflow for browsing and opening images and tables in FITS files?
I just found QLFits which is a Mac OS X Finder QuickLook plugin that display some FITS header info and an image simply by hitting SPACE after selecting a FITS file in the Finder.
The same guy wrote FITSImporter:
a Spotlight plugin that allow you make spotlight queries against dedicated FITS header keywords. It provides also additional information in the "Get Info" panel of the Finder (⌘-I).
Both are open source (GPL licence), the code is available on github: QLFITS, FITSImporter.
They are not perfect though (e.g. I didn't see a way to get at the different extensions in a multi-extension FITS file, although the description says there is; and you can't use QLFits to browse tables) and development seems to have stopped, but still well worth a try!