[AstroPy] PyFITS IndexError

[Miguel de Val Borro]

Hello,

I have problems reading FITS files from the Herschel Science Archive
generated using their Java data processing system. The file
http://www.mps.mpg.de/data/outgoing/deval/hsa.fits
has a binary table that cannot be accessed by index or name as shown
below.

When the line hdulist[1].data.field(0) is run a few times in the
interpreter the data is finally printed.  How can I read this kind of
file using PyFITS?

Best regards,
Miguel

>>> pyfits.__version__
'2.3.1'
>>> hdulist = pyfits.open('hsa.fits')
>>> hdulist[1].data.field(0)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IndexError                                Traceback (most recent call last)

/home/miguel/HssO/103P/data/fits/<ipython console> in <module>()

/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyfits/core.pyc in __getattr__(self, attr)
   6240             if size:
   6241                 self._file.seek(self._datLoc)
-> 6242                 data = _get_tbdata(self)
   6243                 data._coldefs = self.columns
   6244                 data.formats = self.columns.formats

/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyfits/core.pyc in _get_tbdata(hdu)
   5165     Get the table data from input (an HDU object).
   5166     """
-> 5167     tmp = hdu.columns
   5168     # get the right shape for the data part of the random group,

   5169     # since binary table does not support ND yet


/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyfits/core.pyc in __getattr__(self, attr)
   6251             class_name = str(self.__class__)
   6252             class_name = class_name[class_name.rfind('.')+1:-2]
-> 6253             self.__dict__[attr] = ColDefs(self, tbtype=class_name)
   6254 
   6255         elif attr == '_theap':

/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyfits/core.pyc in __init__(self, input, tbtype)
   4887                     if col <= _nfields and col > 0:
   4888                         cname = _commonNames[_keyNames.index(keyword)]
-> 4889                         dict[col-1][cname] = _card.value
   4890 
   4891             # data reading will be delayed


/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyfits/core.pyc in __getattr__(self, name)
    438             self._extractKey()
    439         elif name in ['value', 'comment']:
--> 440             self._extractValueComment(name)
    441         else:
    442             raise AttributeError, name

/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyfits/core.pyc in _extractValueComment(self, name)
   1450 
   1451                 # drop the ending "&"

-> 1452                 if _val[-1] == '&':
   1453                     _val = _val[:-1]
   1454                 longstring = longstring + _val

IndexError: string index out of range