January 1995                                 Volume 3, No. 1


IUE DATA ANALYSIS CENTER  NEWSLETTER



               
This is an electronic  newsletter  edited  by the IUE Data
Analysis Center (IUEDAC)intended to inform the numerous remote
and local users of the IUEDAC software of recent 
software updates and project changes.



      HAPPY BIRTHDAY IUE! 

As of th 26th of January 1995, it will be 17 years since
IUE was launched.



      SEARCH THE IUE MERGED OBSERVING LOG VIA THE WWW 


The IUE Merged Observing Log  may now be searched 
via the World Wide Web (WWW). This service is 
provided as a joint effort of the IUE Data Analysis 
Center (IUEDAC) and Astrophysics Data Facility (ADF).  
The information obtained from the Hyper-Text Markup 
Language (HTML) forms is used with many of the same IDL
database procedures that SEARCH and W_SEARCH use;  
therefore, searches on only non-indexed and non-sorted 
fields - such as object name - will be as "painful"
as always. The URL is: 
http://banzao.gsfc.nasa.gov/IUE/search/IUE_search_menu.html 
or it is available via a link on the IUEDAC homepage.  
If you have any problems or suggestions, please contact 
the IUEDAC staff. 

pjl


 
  FORTRAN BASED NEWSIPS MXLO FILE READERS 

In response to some user inquiries, we have available for 
users a beta test version of a fortran program which will 
read NEWSIPS MXLO files. This program makes use of the 
FITSIO sub-routines written by Bill Pence of the High Energy
Astrophysics Science Archival Research Center (HEASARC). 
Please contact Dr. Michael Carini for the software and 
further details. 

mtc


 
 ANONYMOUS FTP ACCOUNT NOW AVAILABLE ON IUE 

The IUE project now supports an anonymous ftp account 
on node IUE. The account is accessible using either 
ftp or DECnet commands such as COPY, DIR, etc. The 
account currently contains the VMS version of the IUEDAC 
IDL software stored as VMS BACKUP files, and the IUE 
public relation images stored in postscript format. A 
readme file stored in the top directory describes the 
current account structure. A readme.txt file also exists
in the iuedac subdirectory which describes the BACKUP 
files containing the IUEDAC programs and how to restore 
them.  Note that users accessing the VMS BACKUP files 
using FTP should have the MultiNet implementation of the
FTP software on their local computer. If not, then DECnet 
commands should be used to access these files. Note that 
MultiNet is not required for accessing other files in this 
account.

If you ftp to IUE (128.183.57.58), specify "anonymous" 
for the username and give your e-mail address for the 
password. To obtain the IUEDAC IDL software, cd to iuedac. 
Be sure to specify "TYPE BACKUP" before GETting any of the 
.BCK files. To access the postscript files, cd to iuedac.images 
and transfer the files in binary mode. A readme.txt file
in the images subdirectory will describe the contents of the 
postscript files.

To access the account via DECnet you do not need to login 
to IUE. Just use the standard DECnet commands and the 
following syntax for the accessing the account:
         IUE::IUE$DKB0:[ANONYMOUS.IUEDAC]filename
The DIR, COPY, and TYPE commands will all work when the 
file name(s) are specified in this manner. For example, to 
read the top level readme file, type:
         TYPE IUE::IUE$DKB0:[ANONYMOUS]readme.;1
To read the readme.txt file in the iuedac subdirectory, type:
         TYPE IUE::IUE$DKB0:[ANONYMOUS.IUEDAC]readme.txt
To copy all the BACKUP files back to your home institution, type:
         COPY IUE::IUE$DKB0:[ANONYMOUS.IUEDAC]*.BCK *

Users accessing the IUEDAC IDL software are requested to 
fill out a registration form. A copy is contained in the 
file register.txt in the iuedac subdirectory along with 
directions for e-mailing it back to the IUEDAC staff.

rwt

 
 NEWSIPS SOFTWARE AVIALABLE FOR DISTRIBUTION 

The software system used to process IUE data for the 
Final Archive, known as NEWSIPS, is available for 
distribution.  The distributed system contains the 
calibration files necessary to process SWP and LWP low 
dispersion data obtained before 1990.  Calibration files 
for LWR data, 1990-1995 data, and high dispersion data
are not yet available.  Documentation describing the 
installation and use of the system is available in an 
anonymous FTP account on "iue.gsfc.nasa.gov".  A request 
form also resides in the FTP account to be used to 
electronically request the software.  For legal reasons, 
the source code for NEWSIPS cannot be placed in the FTP 
account, but is available upon request.  NEWSIPS has been 
ported to several different platforms, including ULTRIX and 
OpenVMS.  The code is written in standard FORTRAN 77 and 
coupled with MIDAS, an analysis and I/O package available free 
of charge.  MIDAS is used to handle the I/O of the NEWSIPS
system.  System requirements are described in the documentation.
Questions about the NEWSIPS system and requests for access to 
the software can be directed to Joy Nichols, (301) 794-1410, 
"nichols@iuegtc.gsfc.nasa.gov".

jn

 
 IUE IMAGE PROCESSING NEWS

Progress on the IUE Final Archive
 

The Image Processing Center is making great progress in 
processing archival IUE images with the NEWSIPS software.  
Thus far we have processed over 14,430 SWP and 1060 LWP 
low-dispersion images. 

We have essentially completed the first set of SWP data 
("Set 1" = low dispersion images taken by NASA before 1990; 
image numbers < 37929). They may be obtained from the 
NSSDC NDADS system. There are some engineering and 
sky background images yet to process, plus a few "problem"
images (e.g. bad raw data). 

We have also started processing LWP data ("Set 1" = low 
dispersion images taken by NASA before 1990; image 
numbers < 17058).  We are now using both our
DECstations, extra disk space, and an AXP Alpha computer 
for processing.  This has roughly quadrupled our processing 
rate! 

If you need some particular LWP images (Set 1 only) right 
away, you may request to have them processed ASAP.  See the 
previous IUEDAC e-newsletter or NASA IUE Newsletter No. 54 
for details.

Is the one image you absolutely need a VILSPA or recent image, 
which isn't available?  We can process a few such images on 
special request. Any such processing is "unofficial" and the 
data will not be archived.  For details, contact Cathy Imhoff 
at imhoff@iuegtc.gsfc.nasa.gov or (301) 794-1470. 

cli

 
  IUE Atlases Available 

We have two very useful IUE spectral atlases available
on request.

"IUE Ultraviolet Spectral Atlas" by C.-C. Wu et al.
    1991, NASA IUE Newsletter, No. 43.
    Plots IUE spectra, tabulates fluxes for MK standard 
    stars.


"IUE Ultraviolet Spectral Atlas of Selected Astronomical 
    Objects" by C.-C. Wu et al.  1992, NASA Ref. Publ. 
    No. 1285 Plots IUE spectra, tabulates fluxes for
    planets, variable stars, galaxies, etc. 

If you would like a copy or two, please contact Cathy Imhoff at
imhoff@iuegtc.gsfc.nasa.gov or (301) 794-1470.

cli 

 
 IUEDAC SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE UPDATES 

30-DEC  New experimental routines:
          READMX - runs slightly faster than implemented 
                   version
          READSI - runs slightly faster & nu flag output 
                   array is optional
          BBDRAW - allows printouts of plots & replaces 
                   iueplot with nsplot 
          NSPLOT - minor changes to simplify calling from 
                   other programs
          IUEPROG - searches database table of IUE program IDs
          GFILTER - applies a Gaussian filter to vectors 
                    or arrays


Notice: In order to improve software portability, all IUEDAC 
        programs currently using system logicals or environment 
        variables will be modified to use IDL system variables 
        instead. The database routines have already been modified. 
        All changes should be transparent to users, but small 
        changes in the IUEDAC software installation procedure 
        will be required at remote sites.

rwt

 
 IUE MERGED OBSERVING LOG UPDATE 

The IUE Merged Log (IUELOG) database has been updated 
and is now current for observations through the 31st of 
December 1994.  There was an error in the roll angle field 
that has now been corrected.  The IUEFES database is current 
for observations through the 23rd of May 1994.  The 
sun_mergelog.tar.Z and ultrix_mergelog.tar.Z files are in 
the pub/software subdirectory of iuesn1.gsfc.nasa.gov's 
anonymous ftp account.  The updated documentation file, 
iuelog.txt is available in the pub/beta subdirectory.  
Please see the README files in each directory for further 
information.

pjl


 
 ANONYMOUS FTP UPDATES 

The sun_rdaf.tar.Z and ultrix_mipsel.tar.Z files in 
the anonymous ftp account on iuesn1.gsfc.nasa.gov 
were updated on the 23rd of January 1995.

pjl


Editor:   Dr. Michael Carini 
Contributors:   Mr. Randy Thompson  
                Dr. Tom Meylan
                Ms. Pat Lawton
                Ms. Lyla Taylor
                Dr. Cathy Imhoff
                Dr. Joy Nichols

Web Curator:

Responsible NASA organization/official: