CDS has announced the availability of Aladin V4. Details are available from the download page and summarized below. This version features plugin support as well as enhanced support for large images, FITS cubes and interaction with IDL and SExtractor.

NUMBER: 557
MODULE: splot
SYSTEM: -V2.13beta
DATE: Mon Dec 4 15:29:44 MST 2006
FROM: valdes

BUG: When the dispersion function for a spectrum is log sampled, e.g. DC-FLAG=1, and there is also a logical/physical pixel offset, i.e. LTV1 is not zero, then writing out a new spectrum with the 'i' key the results in a wrong WCS. There is no workaround.
STATUS: Fixed for a future release.

The Astronomy Tools and Applications Branch of the Space Telescope Science Institute wishes to announce the availability of version 3.6 of the Space Telescope Science Data Analysis Software (STSDAS). Concurrent with the STSDAS release, we have also released v3.6 of the TABLES external package.....

Changelog and download details in the body of the story.

NUMBER: 556
MODULE: splot, sarith, scombine, standard
SYSTEM: -V2.13Beta
DATE: Fri Oct 27 09:33:16 MST 2006

BUG: When matching one spectrum to another, the reference spectrum, for some operation (e.g. arithmetic, combining, standard star calibration) the first spectrum is converted to its natural WCS units. If the reference spectrum is in different units the result will be wrong. This is rare but a particular case is when SPLOT displays a spectrum in some units, possibly set by the display units in the header or by the task parameter, and then a binary arithmetic operation is performed using a second spectrum. Even if the second spectrum has the same display units it may be resampled to match the reference spectrum in the wrong units. The code solution is to always resample in the current units of the reference spectrum.

The workaround for the SPLOT example is to use the ":units" command to put the initial spectrum into the natural units of the second spectrum. After the arithmetic you can changes the units back if desired.

STATUS: Fixed for a future release.

An IRAF Birds-of-a-Feather session has been scheduled at the upcoming ADASS meeting in Tucson, Oct 15-18. The abstract for the BoF is below and we invite everyone to attend. An agenda will be posted closer to the meeting time, however we plan to cover highlights of the last year, organize work for the coming year, and demonstrate some new work that will be available shortly. Please contact us if you would like to make a short presentation yourself or if there is something is particular interest you'd like to see on the agenda.

The talk "Integrating IRAF with the Virtual Observatory" is now available online.

Draft Agenda: IRAF Bof, 10/17, 17:30-19:00, Finger Rock II

1) Introduction
2) Pipeline Uses of IRAF
3) NVO Package Demonstration
4) Site Development/Community Participation
5) Discussion

Formal presentations will comprise only the 1st half of the meeting.

CDS has announced the availability of Aladin V3.7. Details are available from the download page and summarized below.

The familiar Simbad name resolver/bibliographic service from CDS has been undergoing some major revisions lately to modernize the infrastructure (rewritten from scratch in Java) and add new data and features (e.g. application and web-service interfaces). Formal launch is expected in early September, but you can try it out now and see the new release page for details of what's changed.

V1.9 of the GEMINI package needed for reducing Gemini instrument data is now available from the package website. This version features a NIFS reduction package, support for Michelle polarimetry, and new Mid-IR spectroscopy tasks. For full details, and a list of package dependencies, see the revisions notes.

NUMBER: 555
MODULE: longslit.fitcoords
SYSTEM: V2.13-Beta[12]
DATE: Wed Jun 14 10:41:50 MST 2006
FROM: valdes

BUG: If the fitting axis is 2 (the identify/reidentify features are defined by cuts along the second axis) the y coordinate for the 2D fitting will be wrong. You will notice this if data are plotted with one axis being the y coordinate. The other way you would notice this is that the transformation won't correctly remove the distortions and make a correct wavelength solution.

The only workaround is to transpose the data early before doing the feature identification and tracing. Note that you must then also reset the physical WCS after the transpose with the command "wcsreset wcs=physical".

STATUS: Fixed for the next IRAFNET V2.13 release.

Registration is now open for the 16th annual conference on Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems (ADASS), to be held at the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa in Tucson, Arizona, USA during 15-18 October 2006....The featured themes for this year's program are: