ESO official data interface specifications are defined and maintained by the ESO Data Interface Control Board (DICB).

Data Interface Specification

Data Interface Control Document v.7 (ESO designation: ESO-­044156, old designation: GEN-SPE-ESO-19400-0794), released 2 September 2022, is the current official version of the document. Interested parties can request older versions of the DIC Document or (if available) drafts of the new versions by sending a request to DICB.

Data Dictionaries

The detailed data interface specifications for VLT are described in context dependent data dictionaries. There exists a dictionary for each instrument, telescope, etc.
The format of the ESO Data Dictionaries is described in chapter 7 of the Data Interface Control Document.

Released dictionaries can be obtained upon request. Please contact dicb at eso.org.

Useful links

• FITS Support Office at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• FITS documentation
• Online FITSfile verifier
• IAU FITS Working Group

The ESO Data Interface Control Board is composed of members from the Instrumentation Division, Software Development Division, Data Management Division, Archive Facility and La Silla Paranal Observatory.