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European Southern Observatory

Newsletter of the MIDAS Users’ Community

MIDAS CourierVolume 2 Number 1 June 1992

Editorial

As has been announced in the previous issue ofthe Courier and in the recent MIDAS Users Meeting,starting this year MIDAS will be officially releasedonly once per year; the next release is to be expected inNovember (release 92NOV). For the Courier this hassome consequences. Since it was published shortlyafter the semi-annual MIDAS release, part of itscontents was dedicated to new features in that release.With the annual release to appear in November,it is obvious that this kind of information will bemore suitable for the December issue of the Courier.Clearly, the Courier will continue to inform youabout current developments in and plans for MIDAS.However, in particular in the June issue, we will tryto obtain more user contributions. At the last MIDASUsers Meeting several people have already indicatedtheir willingness to contribute.

During the MIDAS Users Meeting we again havetried to get your judgement about MIDAS (installation,application software, documentation, user-support) viaa questionnaire. A similar action was taken two yearsago. A quick look at the response and comparisonwith the previous questionnaire shows that we areon the right track: after verifying the basic MIDAScommands, and rewriting several parts of the UserManual and installation documentation, we found thatthe users’ appreciation has clearly improved over thewhole range of our activities. We also noticed thata substantial number of questionnaires have not beenreturned. We hope that you can find time to completeand return them. It would help us to find out whereusers see room for improvements.

In and outside ESO four major — long term —MIDAS projects have started recently. These projectsshould result in off-line MIDAS data analysis softwarefor four VLT instruments that were approved ESO’s

Governing bodies in the last year as part of theVLT Instrumentation Plan. These four instrumentsare: ISAAC, Infrared Spectrometer And ArrayCameras; UVES, UV-Visual Echelle Spectograph;FORS, FOcal Reducer/Low Dispersion Spectrograph;CONICA, COude Near-Infrared CAmera. The firsttwo instruments will be built by ESO, and MIDASdata reduction software will be written in-house. Thetwo other instruments will be built by two consortia.The MIDAS software for these instruments will becreated by these consortia. In these cases, members ofthe MIDAS Group operate as consultants to assure thatthe software is written according to MIDAS standardsand is compatible with other parts of the system. Themost recent issue of The Messenger (No. 67 — March1992) contains detailed information about FORS andCONICA.�� In this ESO-MIDAS Courier: � �� Editorial �� 1992 MIDAS Users Meeting � �� General, System and Applications News � �� AGL Upgrade to Version 3.6 � �� Graphical Interfaces: First Experiences � �� MIDAS Used for Data Acquisition of IRAC 2 � � !ROSAT Data Analysis with EXSAS " #$ %Expeditions into the MIDAS Jungle: Images andDescriptors & '( )MIDAS Questions and Answers * +, -The MIDAS Patch File Summary . /0 1Problems found in the 91NOV release 2 345

2 ESO-MIDAS Courier, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 19926 71992 MIDAS Users Meeting

Dietrich Baade,European Southern Observatory8 9

For technical reasons, the annual MIDAS UsersMeeting could in 1992 be held only in May. Thischange from the rainy Aprils of previous years wasmost audibly appreciated by many participants. Butalso otherwise the meeting was held in a ratherconstructive atmosphere.

The meeting followed the same pattern as in previousyears. In the hour before the coffee break, PrebenGrosbøl gave an overview of the most relevantchanges that had taken place in the past year, includingnew or modified procedures for the distribution,upgrading and maintenance of MIDAS. Selectedtechnical aspects were then expanded upon in moredetail by other Image Processing Group (IPG)members who had been involved in developing them.Most of this has been or is being reported separatelyin the MIDAS Courier. Therefore, this summary willrather concentrate on the two hours’ general discussion(chaired by the undersigned).

Useful nuclei for the discussion were questionnairesdistributed in advance. From the roughly 60-70participants, only about 10 filled-in forms werereceived, and no clear common concern could beextracted from them. The surmise that this wouldindicate that the MIDAS community did not feelplagued by very general problems was confirmedduring the discussion. It happened only very rarelythat when a question had been asked or a commentmade some other participant raised his hand andseconded the previous speaker.

One of the concerns expressed was about suddenand not obviously technically inescapable changesin the syntax and names of commands or how andwhere results are stored. The negative impact whichsuch discontinuities have on user-written commandprocedures was seen as an unnecessary nuisance. Aconscientious effort should be made to minimize suchmodifications. Where they really are unavoidable,it was suggested, there should at least be a toolwhich can scan procedures files for the occurrenceof commands which may cause troubles of this kindso that the user can check what modifications may berequired. The IPG agreed that such a tool can andwill be made available.

Some debate developed around the question howit might be possible to start a MIDAS commandprocedure in background and let it continue runningeven after logout from the main session. Severalpeople suggested recipes but no one could say forsure whether his method would also work on otherhardware platforms. Klaus Banse of the IPG willinvestigate the portability issue.

A comment that saw relatively many attendantsnodding approvingly was that often the error messagesissued by MIDAS commands are not very meaningfulor misleading. Although cases can probably befound where single low-level commands show sucha deficiency, this problem most often arises fromthe nesting of basic commands in more complexprocedures where more specific error messages wouldbe more appropriate. This problem is well known.But the IPG does not see much of a chance forimprovements without heavy investment of manpowerwhich might be more productively used by expandingthe functionality to MIDAS. However, even morerigorous checking by such commands of inputparameters for being of correct type and within rangeshould provide an improved shielding.

In connection with the new procedures for thedissemination of patches, some discussion spawned offabout the accessibility of the ESO computers throughthe networks. ESO is fully aware of this problem. Yet,there is little that ESO can do itself to improve thissituation because ESO depends entirely on the servicesavailable through the Deutsche Bundespost Telekomand Deutsches Forschungsnetz. Nevertheless, ESOwill continue to make its dissatisfaction with thepresent situation known.

A capability which would facilitate many datareduction tasks would be the consistent handling ofundefined pixels. With the concept of the NULLvalue keyword, this capacity can be integrated intoany applications command. However, the IPG doesnot presently have the capacity to implement thisfeature throughout the existing MIDAS. Within theforthcoming CCD package this point will be givenfull consideration.

Often, users find it desirable to do computationsonly on the SELECTed rows of a table ratherthan on all of them. In the 91NOV release, thiscould still be achieved only by going through thetedious step of first copying the selected rows to anew table, working on that copy, and then copyingthem back to the original table. The argumentagainst deviating from the convention that certaincommands such COMPUTE/TABLE reset the selection

Newsletter of the ESO-MIDAS Users‘ Community

ESO-MIDAS Courier, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1992 3

flag to ALL before execution is, of course, thatoperations restricted to the selected rows could veryquickly lead to a status of the table which canno longer be traced back to its origin. As acompromise, from the next release on the commandCOMPUTE/TABLE :column = SEL will create acolumn with only 0’s or 1’s according to whether ornot a row is selected. This column can then be usedto restrict the effect of subsequent operations to theselected rows only and nevertheless not generate anundocumentable chaos. In this way, also a questionby two participants in the users meeting could beanswered.

Most of the remaining suggestions or questions dealtwith relatively well confined, individual problemsor bugs. Often they concerned various applicationspackages, and it was noted that they, too, could benefitfrom a systematic verification as has been carried outfor the MIDAS core commands. ESO will keep thisin mind. However, these more specialized packagesusually require a real expert for their proper testing,and the expertise among ESO’s scientific staff does notcover all areas equally well, certainly not at all times.In this connection, a reminder may be in order that twoyears ago ESO’s Scientific and Technical Committeeand Council endorsed a document outlining theMIDAS policy which a.o. encourages the formationof regional centers of MIDAS expertise for just thispurpose, namely to develop and maintain dedicatedpackages which require a very special scientificinterest.

Finally, a participant inquired whether there willbe more HST instrument-specific data reductionand calibration software in MIDAS. While MIDASprovides a perfectly suitable platform for such tools,their development or implementation clearly is outsidethe scope and responsibility of the IPG. Therefore,the question was passed on to the deputy head ofthe Space Telescope-European Coordinating Facility,Rudolf Albrecht, who was among the participants.Although no clear answer was given, it appeared thatno major efforts are being made by the ST-ECF tooffer HST calibration and reduction software to theEuropean MIDAS users community.

A personal observation is that in spite of this lengthyreport, my feeling at the meeting was that thediscussion would perhaps have significantly benefitedfrom more and more spontaneous contributions. Themore lively and intense the interaction betweenMIDAS users and IPG is, the stronger MIDAS shouldgrow.The MIDAS users meeting was concluded in theafternoon with various demos of new or muchimproved packages and especially the new graphicaluser interface which on a trial base has beenimplemented for the echelle and general spectroscopypackages. The demos found surprisingly much interesteven among old-time MIDAS users. Many people alsoused this opportunity for numerous individual contactsamong MIDAS users or between MIDAS users andIPG staff.A parallel demonstration of the brand-new remotecontrol system for the NTT with EMMI and SUSI byAnders Wallander was also very well attended. Apartfrom being based entirely on the UNIX operatingsystem and X-Window techniques, it also deploysMIDAS as the on-line data reduction system whichcan be run both on the remote and the localworkstation. By using a new MIDAS feature whichpermits one to run a MIDAS session on someworkstation but use an image or graphics displaywindow on some other terminal or workstation, even atime-efficient alternative to transferring the completefile is available.:;Artist impression of the MIDAS Users meeting.Drawing courtesy of Daniel Ponz .< = >

Newsletter of the ESO-MIDAS Users’ Community

4 ESO-MIDAS Courier, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1992? @General, System, and Application News

The MIDAS Group, European Southern ObservatoryA BGeneral News

The MIDAS Sites DatabaseA MIDAS sites Database is now in use at ESOIPG. The Database has been developed withinSTARCAT by Miguel Albrecht from the ESO ArchiveGroup. Detailed site information such as hardwareconfiguration, MIDAS release in use, etc. is enteredinto the Database. A hardware specification formwas mailed out in April of this year, to obtain themost accurate data. Approximately 50% of all usersites actually completed and returned this form. Asthe use of this Database will play a vital role inspeeding up the distribution process and making itmore efficient, it is rather important for us to havethe correct information. We, therefore, kindly askall user sites who have not returned the hardwarespecification form to do so. In future, we would alsoappreciate receiving information concerning changesat the MIDAS user sites.As an additional service to the user community,external users who have a network connection toESO will be able to access (through STARCAT) theMIDAS Sites Database to obtain information aboutother user sites with possible similar configuration and,therefore similar experiences/problems. More detailedinformation concerning the external user interface willbe provided in a circular letter within the next fewweeks.

MIDAS Environment documentCurrently, the MIDAS Group is working on theupdate of the MIDAS Environment document, whichcontains all information for the development ofMIDAS application code, either in the MIDAS ControlLanguage, or in Fortran or C. Besides improvementsof various chapters, we will include more codingexamples. Also, to facilitate easier use, the newversion will contain an index. We hope to sendcopies of the new version to all MIDAS sites aroundAugust-September. Additional copies can be obtainedfrom the MIDAS Group at ESO; contact Resy deRuijsscher.

MIDAS installed on Silicon GraphicsAt the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physicsat Garching near Munich, MIDAS is now runningon a Silicon Graphics, Model IRIX 4D35, runningunder IRIX 4.01. Minor modifications were neededin some makefiles because of default rules of themake utility on this machine. Also, because of aconflict between the MIDAS oserror variable andthe system one, the MIDAS one was renamed. Theseinstallation adjustments and their verification took acouple of hours, after which MIDAS was successfullyinstalled.

System News

AGL upgrade to Version 3.6During the past year we received a number ofrequests from MIDAS users for an enhancementof the graphics software. Speed improvements andadditional functionality were among the main wishes.The MIDAS graphics relies heavily on the lower-level Astronet Graphic Library software, written byLuca Fini of the Osservatorio di Arcetri, Florence.Therefore, we invited Luca Fini for the periodDecember 1991 to February 1992 to visit ESO, and toupgrade AGL in close collaboration with the MIDASGroup. In the three month period, Luca was able toimplement most of the requests, as well as a numberof other features in the new version. An overview ofthese improvements is given in a separate contributionelsewhere in this Courier.

Obviously, the upgrade of the AGL will only becomebeneficial to the MIDAS users if correspondingadjustments are made in the MIDAS graphicscommands. Therefore, we also upgraded the MIDASGraphic system to take full advantage of the enhancedperformance of the AGL software. A summary of newfeatures in MIDAS graphics system will be given inthe next issue of the Courier.

The new version of AGL (Version 3.6), together withthe improved MIDAS commands, is currently testedin the MIDAS development version at ESO. The



complete graphic package will become available inthe 92NOV release.

Application News

MIDAS photometry packageA general-purpose package to plan and reducephotometric observations is being developed byAndrew T. Young, who is spending a year inGarching for this purpose. There will be two mainparts: a planning program, to choose and scheduleobservations of standard and extinction stars so thatthe necessary observations can be obtained in aminimum of observing time; and a reduction program,to remove the effects of the Earth’s atmosphere, andto convert the results to a standard system.A major problem in this effort is to adapt thereductions to the wide variety of data formats producedby various data-logging systems. To help solve thisproblem, it would be helpful if photometric observersat many observatories would send a sample of theirraw data, with a brief explanation of the quantitiesrecorded, to Andrew Young. The aim here is to makesure the tools provided with the package will be ableto digest as many kinds of data as possible. Observerswho would like to contribute to this effort should e-mail a sample data file and a brief description [email protected] information will be given in later issues of theCourier, when the project is farther along.

New CCD packageCurrently, a new CCD package for the calibration ofCCD images is under development. The package willreplace the old one that has become rather dated,and was only available until the last VAX/VMSversion of MIDAS (88OCT). Since then, CCDshave improved substantially, allowing a large varietyof observing modes, and consequently, producingincreasing amounts of widely diverse data. The newpackage will basically take care of the pre-analysiscalibration steps like subtraction of bias and darkframes, flat field, and illumination correction. Moresophisticated tools will be implemented at a later stage.The package will be able to run the calibrationprocedures automatically (a pipeline process) with aminimum of user interaction, as well as in a stepby step mode where the user has full control andflexibility over the data processing. To provide theautomatic mode, extensive use will be made of theimage descriptors written at the telescope during

data acquisition. In addition, a keyword structurewill contain all settings that control the reductionprocesses.The package, in a basic version, is planned tobe become available in the 92NOV version, orshortly after via ftp. Suggestions for the package arewelcome. You can send them to [email protected].

FILTER/COSMIC: Suggestionfor improvementBelow, Hans Schwengeler (Astronomical Institute,University of Basel) describes a proposed change tothe FILTER/COSMIC routine in MIDAS to handle astrongly varying background.During the reduction of CCD images of the galaxyNGC 5236, we found that no chosen value of thesky was really adequate as input to the routineFILTER/COSMIC. The frame (1100x1050 pixels)has intensities ranging from 4000 in the lower rightcorner up to about 8000 in the upper left corner,in the direction where the center of the galaxylies. We now did first a median filtering, i.e.FILTER/MEDIAN N5236 MEDIAN 2,2,0.0.Then we tried FILTER/COSMIC N5236 MEDIANOUT 4500.0,10.0,4.0,10.0. This resulted ingood cleaning for only the lower right corner. Using8000.0 for the sky had the effect that some stars werealready affected by the filtering. So the need arose toadapt the filtering to a varying background.After some experimenting, I found out that a smallnumber of changes do the trick. I introduced a “local”sky estimator into the program. Now the user doesnot have to specify a sky value himself, but theprogram will determine it. Since I wanted to keep theoriginal version for "normal" CCD frames, I made anew command, called XFILTER/COSMIC (X standsfor eXtended). I defined the command in the fileMID_MONIT:NEWCOM.IN as @ xcosmic. The fileMID_PROC:XCOSMIC.PRG is a copy ofRCOSMIC.PRG, but without the sky parameter. Ofcourse, I also provided help files, XFILTE.HLCand XFILTECOSM.HLQ, both in the MID_HELPdirectory.

The program itself is a copy of RCOSMIC.FOR (in thedirectory /midas/91nov/prim/general/src(UNIX)) and named XCOSMIC.FOR. The compiledand linked program goes into directory MID_EXE.

The code, help files, and procedure files canbe obtained from me. Please, send mailto: [email protected] (internet) orCHGATE::YOGI::SCHWENGELER (decnet).


6 ESO-MIDAS Courier, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1992

New IUE contextA new context has become available to read IUE datain GO format from tape and convert them into MIDASBulk Data Frame format (BDF) on disk. MIDASBDF files are created for the data types RAW, PHOT,

(E)LBL and FES; tables are created for the MELOand MEHI extracted spectra. The package was madeavailable by Daniel Ponz at the IUE Station in Vilspa,Spain. More information about the context will followin the next Courier.C D EF G

AGL Upgrade to Version 3.6

Luca Fini, Osservatorio di Arcetri, FlorenceH IThe graphic functions provided by MIDAS areimplemented by two levels of code:

1. an upper-level layer that is "MIDAS aware"and knows of data structures, environment,commands, and the like;

2. a bottom layer that provides the basic graphicprimitives (lines, text, symbols) and that interactswith the graphic devices.

AGL (Astronet Graphic Library) is the set oftools which underlies the graphic functions providedby MIDAS: it provides a consistent and device-independent access to the various graphic devicessupported, and the basic functionalities needed toproduce graphic output.

The 92NOV version of MIDAS will include athoroughly revised version of AGL. The revision wasplanned both in order to solve some problems with theprevious version and to provide more functionalitiesrequired by MIDAS users.

In this respect one must consider that functionalityimprovements seen by a MIDAS user require twosteps: a) the graphic library must provide tools toimplement the new features; b) the MIDAS-specificgraphic code must be modified in order to use thosenew features, and to provide both more graphiccommands and new capabilities of existing ones.The following lines give an overview of point a);a description of point b) will be given in the nextissue of the Courier.

As a first improvement, the source code of AGLhas been thoroughly restructured to allow separatecompilation of modules. In fact, the previous AGLcode structure caused the overflow of compiler internaltables on some machines. Moreover, the AGL codehas been profiled in order to spot some efficiencybottle necks. A re-coding of those parts has led to a

36% improvement of drawing speed (measured on aSun Sparcstation).In the new version, a number of new capabilities havebeen included:

1. Colour management: consistent support of namedcolours and background colour control. A driverfor colour PostScript printers has also been added;

2. The axis drawing routines have been redesignedto allow more flexibility. Arbitrarily oriented axescan now be drawn, and labels may be written indegrees (hours), time and arc minutes, time andarc seconds format;

3. Support for non-linear coordinate transformations:polar and many other sky-mapping transformationshave been included;

4. Polygon drawing and filling routines.

Some users have also requested a well-definedprogramming interface, like the ST/SC or TB/TCinterfaces, to be used in MIDAS application programs.Using these interfaces one then could provide graphicoutput without using MIDAS commands. This wishhas not, as yet, been provided, because of a numberof considerations which I will try to clarify below:

1. AGL is such an interface and could in principlebe used for that purpose, but, unfortunately, itis much too "low level" to be useful: it cannotmanage the MIDAS environment and is not awareof MIDAS data structures;

2. The set of routines in the upper part of thegraphic code in MIDAS is regularly updated, andis thus not suitable to be frozen into an interfacedefinition;

3. The upper layer of the MIDAS graphic code iscurrently written in FORTRAN. Hence, it couldonly provide an interface for Fortran applications,which is a major limitation for a general interface.A Fortran and C interface would require the



rewriting of that layer in C, which, obviously,is a major task.

Thus, although the issue of a graphic interface forMIDAS programming is not closed, it must becarefully evaluated, and a workable solution is not,at the moment, available.As a final remark, the version of AGL used withinMIDAS is a special customized version, which is notsuitable for stand-alone applications. Programmerswho want to use AGL outside the MIDAS environment

must get the standard version of AGL from the author(email: [email protected]) or from:

Astronet Documentation Facility (ADOC)Osservatorio Astronomico di TriesteC.P. Succ. TS 5Via G.B. Tiepolo 1134131 Trieste, ItaliaSPAN: ASTRTS::ADOCInternet: [email protected] K LM N

Graphical User Interfaces:First Experiences

Pascal Ballester, European Southern ObservatoryO PGraphical user interfaces (GUIs) have been releasedfor the first time in MIDAS 91NOV. In this version,two interfaces are available: XSpectra providesreduction procedures for long slit and 1D spectraand Filters provides characteristic curves of ESO’sfilters. A new interface XEchelle is available in thein-house MIDAS 92N03 version and is an interface tothe Echelle package. All these interfaces are based onthe Athena widget set provided with the MIT versionof X11. These GUIs were experimented at ESO onLa Silla and Garching by internal users and visitors.

Along with these first realizations came up twoconcerns: The definition of a standard presentation(the so-called “Look and Feel”), and the optimizationof the production process. Many ESO projects involvethe realization of GUIs and the definition of an ESO“Look and Feel” is currently discussed.

Also, different GUI builders have been compared.GUI builders are tools which enable the interactivedevelopment of an interface, either through a formeditor or a specification language. They present manyadvantages:

1. generation of bug-free, immediately executablecode;

2. clear separation between the graphical interfaceand the application code;

3. code is generated in a standard way, allowing lesspersonal programming style and less differencesbetween applications.

GUI builders can be separated between managementsystems (UIMS) interpreting a specification file, anddesign systems (UIDS) producing a source code whichcan be implemented in the applications. UIMS permita quick prototyping of interfaces but their capabilitiesare limited to what allows the specification language.Because they produce source code, UIDS are moreadapted for the development of MIDAS applications.In addition, UIDS give a complete freedom for thespecification of interfaces and are only limited by thepossibilities of the widget set.

The standard X11 environment is distributed withthe set of Athena widgets. Applications developedwith this set of widgets are fully portable. Additionalpublic domain widget sets are available. Howeverthose widget sets are limited and do not constitute acoherent package. For this reason it has been chosento use the MOTIF widget set for the developmentof MIDAS GUIs. The existing interfaces will berewritten with MOTIF widgets to conform to the ESOstandard “Look and Feel”.

Using UIM/X, the GUI builder retained to developMIDAS application, a new interface XHelp has beenrealized which will be implemented in the in–house92N07 version of MIDAS and the next release. TheXHelp interface is based on the Motif widget set andprovides access to MIDAS help files. At creation time,the list of all available MIDAS commands is displayedin the text area. This list results from the MIDAScommand HELP. The help file of any command isobtained in a maximum of two clicks. A first click on



a command name (e.g. CREATE) corresponds to theMIDAS command HELP CREATE and results in thelist of all commands CREATE/... Then a click on acomplete command name provides the correspondinghelp file. In the same way can be obtained the helpfiles corresponding to commands referred in another

help, as found in the section “See also” of the helpfiles. The interface runs in parallel with the MIDASmonitor, which means that help files can be read whileMIDAS is executing a command and that the interfacesurvives a MIDAS exit (BYE).

Two XHelp display windows. Top: the display window containing all available MIDAS commands for which helpis available. Bottom: the help text of a specific MIDAS command after two clicks in the XHelp window, or afterentering the command in the type-in area (area left to the “Main” button).Q R S


ESO-MIDAS Courier, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1992 9T U1V 5W 0X EY SZ O[ –\ M] I^ D_ A` Sa Ub sc ed re Af gg rh ei ej mk el nm tn so

On June 1st we have reached the next milestone in the ESO-MIDAS project: the 150th ESO-MIDAS UserAgreement has been signed. The Agreement was signed by ESO and Instituto Isaac Newton at Santiago deChile. Indeed, it is a nice coincidence that the 150th ESO-MIDAS site is located in the capital of the hostcountry of ESO’s observatory on La Silla. We congratulate the Institute Isaac Newton and, once more, thankthe MIDAS users for their confidence in MIDAS.p qr s tu v

MIDAS Used for Data Acquisition of IRAC 2

Gert Finger and Peter Biereichel,European Southern Observatoryw x

The new infrared camera IRAC 2 equipped with alarge format NICMOS3 256*256 y{z}|�~��}�� arraydetector was installed last May at the 2.2 meterESO/MPIA telescope on La Silla. Since no softwaresupport was available to adapt the software of IRAC1running on the HP1000, a new concept based onUNIX workstations was implemented which allowsto use MIDAS for data acquisition and quick lookdata reduction at the telescope.

Instrument WorkstationThe general system overview can be seen in Figure1. The central instrument control of IRAC 2 isperformed by rocky mountain basic (rmb) whichis an application running on top of the UNIXoperating system of an HP 370 workstation. Rmbfully supports the X11 window system. The userinterface is mouse driven displaying status informationof detector, instrument and telescope by separatepop up windows. Additional support is given tothe observer by graphics windows displaying themeasured transmission curves of the selected filters,the wavelengths of neighbouring orders of the FabryPerot, the instrument efficiency as a function ofwavelength after execution of the MIDAS commandMAGNITUDE on a calibration star, transmission of theatmosphere, etc.The instrument functions are controlled by CAMACwhich is accessed from rmb via the GPIB bus. Aserial RS232 interface in CAMAC establishes the linkto the HP1000 telescope computer via TCINT whichis needed for getting the telescope coordinates, doing

automatic focus exposures, mosaicing of large fieldsor microsteping the telescope for deep imaging.

Communication to the DetectorPreprocessor via FTPThe rmb statement EXECUTE allows access to theunderlying UNIX operating system taking advantageof the full power of UNIX enhancements. Rmboperation is suspended and the UNIX commandspecified by rmb is executed.The detector data acquisition system is VME based.The controller is a motorola 68030 processor (EltecE6) on which the detector preprocessor software (pps)is running under the OS9 operating system. Thecommunication to the pps software is established viathe ethernet 1 link. Command files for the detectorsetup which have been created by rmb are transmittedvia socket communication calling a C program fromrmb. This program sends commands to the pps andstores the replies into a file which is sent back tothe calling program via ftp. Detector images are alsotransmitted from pps to the instrument workstation viaftp. The data format is double precision.It should be noted that pps is galvanically decoupledby an ethernet fiber optics link in order to avoid groundloops which is mandatory for achievement of excellentdetector noise performance. The pps system containsalso a graphics board for a real time display whichis connected to a monitor in the control room byan rgb fiber optics video link. The fiber optics isnecessary to keep the detector electrically isolated asjust mentioned before.



Figure 1. Control setup for IRAC 2 installation at the 2.2–m telescope used in May 92.

Communication to the MIDASHost via NFS

If rmb receives an image from pps, it adds the fitsheader corresponding to the instrument setup used forthe current exposure. The resulting fits file is createdon the disk belonging to the midas workstation HP730. This disk is remotely mounted on the instrumentworkstation by nfs and can be directly accessed byrmb.

On the HP730 two parallel MIDAS sessions areactive. The monitor of the first MIDAS session is setin the background mode using the midas commandMODE(4)=2. In this mode the midas monitor looksin its working directory (MID_WORK) for mailboxfiles to use as input. The mailbox file or send box iscreated by rmb. It instructs midas to call a procedurewhich does the following: It converts the fits filecreated by rmb to a bdf file. It flips the image toget the correct orientation on the sky. Optionally astored sky frame can be subtracted from the image.A bad pixel mask can be applied to replace badpixels by neighbouring good pixels before the image isdisplayed using appropriate cut levels. The bdf image

is copied to files numbered sequentially and an entryto an image catalogue is made. Then rmb waits forthe creation of the receive box. After obtaining thereturn status the receive box is deleted and a new sendbox can be created for the next MIDAS command.This background MIDAS session allows to controlincoming images without interference of the observer.

A second MIDAS session running in the foregroundgives the observer the possibility to interactivelyreduce the images for a quick look during acquisitionof new exposures using the full power of the MIDASimaging package.

Conclusions

The described setup is provisional. It was used forlab testing in Garching and is currently in use atthe telescope, until the final La Silla software isavailable. The rmb software running on th HP370 willbe transferred to the HP730 workstation implementingthe user interface developed by La Silla staff. Soonly one workstation will be needed to control theinstrument and to run MIDAS. Special rmb image



processing routines for IRAC 2 are presently translatedinto MIDAS application programs.Installation of a new processor board (Eltec E7 68040 /25 MHz) in the pps data acquisition system will allowto use nfs. Thus image files will be directly writtenon the disk of the HP730 instrument workstation. TheCAMAC motor controllers will be replaced by a VMEbased system which can be accessed via ethernet.The use of two separate LAN’s increased thereliability. Ethernet 1 is a completely separatedinstrument LAN for undisturbed data flow betweenthe detector preprocessor, the instrument workstationand the image processing workstation. Ethernet 2communicates to the rest of the world. Before

separation of the instrument LAN from the outsideworld a faulty bridge caused data communicationproblems.

Two workstations reduce the load of the less powerfulinstrument workstation, which in principle couldalso run MIDAS. The use of two monitors is veryconvenient and should be maintained in the final setupby means of an additional X-terminal.

During the first installation of IRAC 2 in May 92 thepresented concept proved to be reliable. Each night100 first quality infrared images have been acquired.MIDAS was a very powerful and flexible observingtool which could be easily adapted to our needs.� � ��

ROSAT Data Analysis with EXSAS

Hans-Ulrich Zimmermann, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching bei Munchen� �The X-ray astronomy satellite ROSAT, since its launchin June 1990, is performing an extremely successfulobservatory mission. About 60,000 X-ray sources(and with the XUV telescope in the order of 1000XUV sources) have been detected in the initial All-SkySurvey, and a similar number of sources is expected toshow up in the many images taken since the pointedobservations started 1.5 years ago. That wealth ofinformation — before ROSAT in the order of 5000X-ray sources were known — offers exciting scientificresearch possibilities that can be explored effectivelyonly in connection with appropriate analysis tools.

With EXSAS — the EXtended Scientific AnalysisSystem developed with an effort of 20 man yearsby the ROSAT Scientific Data Center at the Max-Planck Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE,Garching) — a comfortable system for the reductionof data from the ROSAT X-ray and XUV instrumentshas been made available. EXSAS comprises alarge collection of application modules as typicallyrequired in analyzing data of this wavelength regime,and runs as a specific context in the ESO-MIDASenvironment. Building EXSAS on top of MIDASusing already existing applications (mainly for graphicand image presentation) facilitated to a large extentthe development of the package and makes it easyto install and use the software at the many sitesalready familiar with MIDAS. EXSAS, completelywritten in FORTRAN 77, takes full advantage of all

the standards used in MIDAS and therefore reflectsthe same portability. To maintain independence fromthe specifics of different operating systems also on thedata input side all ROSAT data are distributed in thewidely accepted FITS format.

EXSAS analysis modules are grouped into 4application packages dealing with Data Preparation,Spatial Analysis, Spectral Analysis and TimingAnalysis. A special EXSAS header, read and updatedby each application, maintains general information onthe origin, the history and the parameter space of thedata stored in tables and images.

The basic data set for all analysis is the so-calledPhoton Event Table (PET). This is a space- andtime-ordered list of all the X-ray photons collectedduring a specific observation, each entry containingthe detector and (projected) sky coordinates plus theamplitude (energy) and the time of the event. The DataPreparation package is used to select data from this fileaccording to spatial, spectral and timing criteria, andbin them into images, spectra or lightcurves. At thesame time, or as a separate task, instrument correctionslike telescope vignetting, filter transmission, detectionefficiencies and point-spread-function dependenciescan be applied. Additional modules allow the user tomanipulate spectra in different ways and prepare them(by background subtraction and error calculation) forspectral fitting procedures.



The Spatial Analysis section contains a sophisticatedpackage for detection of point-like and moderatelyextended sources in X-ray images. Besides othermethods, a maximum-likelihood algorithm that takesinto account full information of all individualphotons, is used to evaluate best estimates for theposition, extent, and intensity, and correspondingerrors of individual sources. Other functions deal withanalyzing point-spread functions, extended structuresor offer coordinate manipulation and presentationutilities.

For the Spectral Analysis branch, an instrument-independent scheme has been implemented thatfits observed X-ray spectra with a multitude ofstandard and user-defined source models, includingdifferent error-calculation methods. The package iscomplemented with utilities to determine fluxes andluminosities, assuming different cosmological models,and to present spectral fitting results.

In the Timing Analysis package the observer canselect power-spectrum calculations, auto-correlationor cross-correlation methods, period folding with

barycentric correction of arrival times, or performdifferent statistical tests on source variability.A number of predefined procedures for standardanalysis tasks facilitate the reduction of data byastronomers not intimately acquainted with all thedetails of X-ray data evaluation. A comprehensiveEXSAS User’s Guide, as well as the internal helpfacilities in MIDAS style, and some tutorials, comprisethe internal documentation of the system.The EXSAS software package can be requesteddirectly from the ROSAT Scientific Data Center atMPE (by email to MPE::EXSAS or [email protected]). The only prerequisite isaccess to a MIDAS installation. At MPE, EXSASis presently used by about 70 scientists. In addition,the software has been distributed to 38 institutes allover the world. Some astronomers also come directlyto the Data Center to use the system there. For thispurpose a number of image processing workstationsand some visitor service are available.The Data Center will also in the future provide fullsupport and service for the package, updating andextending the functionality at regular intervals.� � ��

Expeditions into the MIDAS Jungle:Images and Descriptors

Klaus Banse, European Southern Observatory� �In this second tour we explore the internal structureof MIDAS images and their descriptors. We alsotake a closer look at the possible operations involvingdescriptors.

The data structure for images consists of three mainparts: a Frame Control Block (FCB) of 512 bytes,the image data (pixels) and the descriptors containingthe descriptive information about the image. Amongother internal variables, the FCB contains the MIDASversion with which the image was created, the numberof pixels and their format, as well as pointers to thedescriptor and pixel sections of the image.

The detailed layout of the FCB is not documentedto allow for upgrades of the internal structure ofimages. Therefore, we strongly recommend accessingMIDAS images and descriptors only via the ST or SCinterfaces in an application program.

If you really need to get at a MIDAS

image (or parts of it) directly, you shouldlook into the file fcbdef.h which is in thedirectory $MIDASHOME/$MIDVERS/incl (UNIX)or MID_DISK:[’MIDASHOME’.’MIDVERS’.INCL](VMS). Together with a dump of the image file, thisshould help you in locating the address of the datayou are interested in. Examples of this kind of imageaccess are in the IDL procedures, written by the ST-ECF at ESO, to convert MIDAS images to IDL ina restricted but quick way. But beware, there is noguarantee that this method will work from one MIDASrelease to the next; if the internal format is updated,your program has to be changed as well!

The FCB is followed by space for an initial set ofdescriptors, then comes the space reserved for thepixels of the image. Additional descriptor data isappended to the end of the image. By the way,MIDAS tables also use this data structure.



The number of pixels of an image and their internalformat is fixed after the creation of an image, so if youwant to change the size or data format of an imageyou have to copy the image to another one and renameit back to the original name.

The descriptors of an image contain all the additionalinformation related to the image data, and correspondto the KEYWORDS of the FITS files (an in-deptharticle about the MIDAS FITS-reader/writer and itshandling of descriptors is planned for a future issue ofthe MIDAS Courier). Each descriptor has an entry ina ‘descriptor directory’ containing the descriptor name,type, size and a pointer to the actual descriptor data.This directory itself is a normal MIDAS descriptornamed DIRECTORY.MIDAS with restricted access,though.

Descriptors may be expanded after their creation, butthe maximum size of a descriptor is currently 32767elements. You may also add descriptors at will toan image, but since the descriptor directory has thesame limits in size as the other descriptors, and 30bytes are used for each entry in the directory atthe moment, only 1092 descriptors can be createdcurrently. Each image needs a minimum set ofdescriptors, the standard descriptors, which containthe information needed to interpret the data correctly,like number of axes, number of pixels in each axis,etc. See the MIDAS Environment document for moreinformation about that.

Other descriptors are used by MIDAS applications,e.g. the descriptors STATISTIC and HISTOGRAM,to save results from calculations on an image andtherefore have predefined usage. And for the ESOArchive we are currently implementing hierarchicaldescriptors.

Creating, updating and expanding descriptorsis done by the command WRITE/DESCR. To

get rid of descriptors, use DELETE/DESCR.READ/DESCR and SHOW/DESCR display thecontents of the descriptors and the descriptordirectory. PRINT/DESCR not only prints thedescriptor contents, but may also be used to convertdescriptor data and store it in an ASCII file (usingASSIGN/PRINT FILE myascii_file before).And since MIDAS tables also have descriptors,all these commands apply to tables as well; justadd the file type ‘.tbl’ to the table name.E.g., SHOW/DESCR mytable.tbl will display alldescriptors of the table mytable.tbl.The COPY/... commands copy descriptors tokeywords and images, and vice versa. Furthermore,descriptor data may be manipulated directly viathe substitution mechanism provided by the MIDASCommand Language, e.g.:COMP/KEY inputd(1) = {myfile,step(1)}puts the x-step of image myfile.bdf into keywordinputd(1).

PLOT/DESCR and OVERPLOT/DESCR draw thecontents of a descriptor. All descriptors are savedin FITS keywords when writing an image on tape viathe OUTTAPE/FITS command.Soon1, you can edit the contents of a descriptor viathe application procedure dscedit.prg.Normally, all (sensible) descriptors of an input imageare copied to the result image at the end of anoperation on images. This can be changed via thecommand SET/MIDAS_SYSTEM DSCCOPY=...1.Finally, we want to draw your attention tothe descriptor HISTORY, where all the MIDAScommands applied to a given image/table are recordedautomatically. If that is not exhaustive enough for you,how about adding another descriptor to individuallylog what you did?�1 from the 92NOV release on� � ��

D� e� a d¡ l¢ i£ n¤ e¥ f¦ o§ r¨ t© hª e« n¬ e x® t¯ E° S± O² -³ M´ Iµ D¶ A· S¸ C¹ oº u» r¼ i½ e¾ r¿The next issue of the ESO-MIDAS Courier, Volume 2, Number 2, will be prepared and printed in December1992. The issue will contain information about the MIDAS 92NOV release: upgrades of existing software, aswell as new packages. In order to improve the communication between the MIDAS Group and the MIDASusers, the latter are encouraged to make contributions to the Courier. Please, send your contributions, preferablyin computer-readable format, to the MIDAS account or to the editor (see the back cover for the mail addresses)before December 1, 1992.À ÁÂ Ã Ä


14 ESO-MIDAS Courier, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1992Å ÆMIDAS Questions and Answers

The MIDAS Group, European Southern ObservatoryÇ ÈThis column presents answers to questions which theMIDAS Group encounters frequently. If you haveyour own bag of questions which are asked very oftenat your site, or any other suggestion or commentary,please send them to us.This time we will discuss some questions concerninggraphics. Because of the upgrade of the underlyingAGL software (see elsewhere in the Courier), theMIDAS graphics system will be upgraded in thecoming 92NOV release. In that release you will findadditional functionality and more tools to composeyour graphics layout. The upgrade will be mainly onthe command level; the way the graphics system work(concept) remains unchanged.The problems discussed here are partly related tothe system as a whole, and partly related to thefunctionality of the individual commands. As far asthe concept is concerned, the answers will also applyto the coming MIDAS releases. Answers to individualcommands will also preview some of the new featuresin the new release (just to give you some taste). In thenext issue of the Courier a larger article will discussthe upgrade of the graphic system.Problem: I want to plot a line (row or column) of animage. The plot I get contains a coordinate box butno data are plotted.Answer: As in the answer in the last Courierconcerning the command LOAD/IMAGE, the problemis probably the wrong setting of the cut values. Thegraphic system looks at these cut values to determinethe range of coordinate axes. Obviously, with wrongcut values the coordinate box has a wrong rangeand the data values may, partially or completely, falloutside the box. The solution is to set the cut values(in the descriptor LHCUTS), correctly yourself, usingthe command CUTS/IMAGE. In the previous issue ofthe Courier you will find more information about thedescriptor LHCUTS and the meaning of its values.A second reason might be that you have preset thegraphic axes with the command SET/PLOT2. Thiswill have a similar effect: the data values may falloutside the defined graphic coordinates and will notbe plotted. A similar situation will occur if you plotÉ2 from the 92NOV release onwards all qualifiers /PLOT will bereplaced by the qualifier /GRAPHIC

table data which range falls outside the preset graphicarea coordinate range.

Problem: How can I make more than one graph onone sheet of paper (or in one graphics window)?

Answer: Currently, in the 91NOV release, thepossibilities are rather limited. The only way of doingit is to use the command OVERPLOT/AXES whereyou can specify the ranges and sizes of the axesand the location where the graph is to be drawn.Subsequently, one can use e.g. the OVERPLOT/ROW,OVERPLOT/COL, OVERPLOT/TAB commands tooverplot data.

In the coming 92NOV release, tools will be availableto enable easy overplotting. All PLOT commandscan then also be used in overplot mode, i.e. withouterasing the screen first. In addition, offset parameterscan be used to position the graphs.

Problem: Can I use a nice quality font to makepublication quality output?

Answer: Yes, you can, though the possibilities arelimited again. There is only one quality (roman) fontavailable. This is enabled if you set PMODE=3 in thecommand SET/PLOT.

In the new release this restriction will be lifted andmore (six) fonts will be available. The font settingwill then also be decoupled from the layout setting(PMODE).

Problem: When I have two graphs in the graphicswindow I obtain wrong numbers when running theGET/GCURSOR command on the first graph.

Answer: All essential information of the last graphdrawn , e.g. axes, boundaries, and data, is stored inthe MIDAS keyword structure. Hence, when makinga new graph with an OVERPLOT command, theinformation about the first graph is overwritten andcannot be retrieved when running the graphics cursor.Similar, when drawing a new graph in another graphicwindow, the keywords will only contain informationabout that last graph.

Also, in overplotting data on an existing graph theinformation, is updated. The values returned by thegraphics cursor will refer to the data plotted last.



Problem: When I copy a square graph to the printerthe frame isn’t square anymore; its dimensions havechanged completely.Answer: All graphics output produced is stored ina plotfile, the metafile. The information in thatfile is based on so-called normalized coordinates:the physical area of the assigned graphics device ismapped onto a coordinate system that runs from 0,0for the lower left position to 1,1 for the top rightposition. Hence, if one sends a metafile, producedtogether with a graph in the graphics window, toan A4 format laser printer, using the commandSEND/PLOT3, the normalized coordinates in themetafile will now be mapped onto the (new) physicalÊ3 in the new 92NOV release the command SEND/PLOT will bereplaced by the command COPY/GRAPHICS

dimensions of the receiving laser printer. Since thelaser printer has a larger output area, the graph willbe stretched in both x and y directions.To solve the problem one should first dothe assignment of the output graphics device(ASSIGN/GRAPHICS with possibility the NOSPOOLoption). Then, one can execute the PLOT/... andOVERPLOT/... commands. Finally, dump thegraph on the graphic device with the SEND/PLOTcommand.Clearly, if you create a graphic window that has thesame dimension ratio as a DIN A4 piece of paper,sending a square graph to the printer will producea square graph. Only the size of the graph will bescaled, but that scaling will be the same for the x andy directions.Ë Ì Í


ESO-MIDAS Courier, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1992 17Î ÏThe MIDAS Patch File Summary

(from the anonymous ftp account)Ð ÑThe following text contains the header summary of the patch file 91NOV.0001 that can be obtained by anonymousftp (from 134.171.8.4). Please refer to the ESO-MIDAS Courier Vol. 2 Number 1 for a detailed description.

Archive-name: P91NOV.01Submitted-by: [email protected] (Carlos Guirao)

This is official patch 01 for MIDAS 91NOV.Please apply it by:

% cd $MIDASHOME (eg. /midas)% patch -N -p < P91NOV.01

NOTE: "patch" is public domain software that can be very easily installedin any UNIX machine. There is a compressed tar file called "pub/patch.tar.Z"available on our anonymous "ftp" account in "ftphost.hq.eso.org"(134.171.8.4). Follow README for installation details.

NOTE: This patch file should be applied on the original release MIDAS 91NOV.If you have already modified files by hand,the command "patch" couldfail, leaving the file partially or completely unpatched. A correctexecution should print only "Hunk" messages like:Hunk #<a number> succeeded at <a_number>.

NOTE: After applying all the patches, you will have to run the "update MIDAS"procedure, for the modifications to take effect:% cd $MIDASHOME/91NOV% ./config............Select: 7 (update MIDAS)...........Do you want to continue [yn]? (y): y...........Select: q (quit config)

Fixes:- Creates the file "patchlevel.h" with this header.- In Fortran_to_C interface: Temporary strings need to contain

original Fortran strings.- Bug fixed for COPY/II with delete flag set.- For VMS: Plotting is now a bit faster.- AGL: The cursor does not misbehave on Tektronix compatible

devices (only on BSD platforms)- Number of points that can be plotted is increased from 10000 to

100000- Mathematical library -lm is needed on IBM6000.- Undefined errors when compiling module "ost.c" now solved.- Tapeserver returns a proper message when DEVCAPFILE not defined.



- AGL makefile excludes the installation of Versatec commands.- Double definitions in "cc.c" are better treated.- Some modifications in "osu.c" to deal with SunOs 4.1.1.- Corrections to the FITS reader.- Corrections to the command COMPUTE/PRECESSION- Corrections to the command CREATE/TABLE with a format file.- Corrections to the command COMPUTE/BARY & COMPUTE/AIRMASS- Corrections to the command COMPUTE/UT & COMPUTE/ST- Elimination of two extra planes in the graphic output when plotting.- Disabling catching float exceptions (For DecStations)- AGL3CONFIG definition has been corrected for Bourne-Shell users.Ò Ó Ô


ESO-MIDAS Courier, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1992 19Õ ÖProblems found in the 91NOV Release× Ø

The following text contains a listing of problems found in the 91NOV release. Some of these problems are detectedon both VMS and UNIX systems, some only on one of these two. If you find one of the problems described below,check with your local MIDAS site manager to get the solutions implemented.The previous issue of the Courier (Volume 1, Number 2) contains the problems found until December 1991. Thepresent listing contains the problems found between December 1991 and June 1992.

VMS and UNIX Systems

1. The source code for the perspective plotting will produce two extra planes in the graphics output. Theproblem is caused by comments in a number of lines in the subroutine NXTVU in the file plper.for inthe directory /midas/91nov/prim/plot/libsrc (UNIX) or[midas.91nov.prim.plot.libsrc] (VMS). These comments, those in lines starting with ‘CC’,should be taken out. The line numbers are 545 and 547, 570 and 572, 586 and 588, 634 and 636, 651and 653, 687 and 689, 704 and 706.

2. A bug was found in the command SKY/ROMAFOT in the context ROMAFOT. In the source filerfotsky.for in the directory /midas/91NOV/contrib/romafot/src (UNIX) or[midas.91NOV.contrib.romafot.src] (VMS) the variable AMA is declared as INTEGER. However,AMA like AMI should have type REAL.

3. In the command GROUP/ROMAFOT in the context ROMAFOT the minimum allowed value for thebackground intensity was 1.0. This value caused severe problems for lower background levels. The restrictionwas therefore removed. The source file is/midas/91NOV/contrib/romafot/src/rfotgroup.for(UNIX), or [midas.91NOV.contrib.romafot.src]rfotgroup.for (VMS). The lines 327 to 329should be commented out.

4. In DAOPHOT an integer overflow may occur due to normalizing if the variable ISEED in the routineSEED3 is in the range 1–1073741823. The overflow then causes a crash in the routine DAORANwhen computing the value of IDUM. The problem can be fixed by changing the value 1073741823to 524288 in the file /midas/91NOV/contrib/daophot/libsrc/addstar.for (UNIX), or[midas.91NOV.contrib.daophot.libsrc]addstar.for (VMS).

5. On systems having not enough memory or swap space the array dimensioning in both ALLSTAR andDAOPHOT may be too large. One can change the dimensions with the parameter MAXPIC in/midas/91NOV/contrib/daophot/src/daophot.for (UNIX) or[midas.91NOV.contrib.daophot.src]daophot.for (VMS),and the parameter MAXFRM in allstar.for in the same directory.

UNIX Systems

1. In the file /midas/91NOV/libsrc/os/unix/ost.c the following lines should be deleted.line 100: static jmp_buf env;line 102: VOID ostalarm();line 676:#if ((OS_ULTRIX||OS_BSD) && TIMEOUT) /* ALARM function to stop */line 686:#endif

The next line included:line 136:VOID ostalarm();line 137:static jmp_buf env;

Do modify this file according to the above lines, and if you have not yet installed MIDAS, just follow theinstallation notes. If you have already installed MIDAS, you will need to update the installation:



% cd /midas/91NOV/install/unix% config...........Select: 7 (update MIDAS)Do you want to continue [yn]? (y): y...........Select: q (quit config)

2. Tapeserver installation (only on UNIX systems). In the file /midas/91NOV/system/tapeserv/inmtaped.cline 472: l = getdev(name);should be changed to:line 472if ( (l = getdev(name)) < 0) {line 473: P_ERROR;line 474: (void)ret_client(-1,oserror,osmsg());line 475: return(-1);line 476: }Then run the script: /midas/91NOV/system/unix/makemidasto generate the /midas/91NOV/system/exec/inmtaped.exeand follow the documentation for acomplete installation.

3. This patch applies only to DecStation/Ultrix running the Fortran compiler f77 release 3.0.2. In thefile /midas/91NOV/libsrc/st/scst.cline 189: osscatch(SIGFPE,interf);should be put in comments:line 189: /* osscatch(SIGFPE,interf); */In the file /midas/91NOV/local/make_options (after "5 - preinstall MIDAS") or/midas/91NOV/install/unix/systems/decstation/make_options(before "5 - preinstallMIDAS"):add the line:F_OPT=-fpe1

Do modify this file according to the above lines, and if you have not yet installed MIDAS, just follow theinstallation notes. If you have already installed MIDAS you will need to update the installation:

% cd /midas/91NOV/install/unix% config...........Select: 7 (update MIDAS)Do you want to continue [yn]? (y): y...........Select: q (quit config)

VMS Systems

1. In the context DAOPHOT on some VAX/VMS systems ALLSTAR produces an “access violation”. It appearthat the subroutine WRARRAY in the DAOPHOT library is called with two constants instead of two variables.To correct the code, include before line the call to WRARRA (line 1488) the lines LX=1 and LY=1, andchange the call to WRARRAY accordingly.Ù Ú Û


ESO-MIDAS Courier, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1992 21Ü ÝESO-MIDASTM Request FormÞ ß

This is a request for the latest release of the ESO-MIDAS1 system. To obtain a new release, please completethis form and return it to us (see reverse). Material will be shipped only to users with a valid ESO-MIDASUser Agreement. If you still have a tape or a tape mailing box from the last release, you MUST return thesebefore we send the new release.

1. ESO-MIDAS User Agreement No.2 à á â2. Technical Support Coordinator ã ä å3. E-Mail æ ç è4. Tape format

VAX/VMS backup format, density: O 1600 bpi O 6250 bpiTar format, density: O 1600 bpi O 6250 bpi

O QIC-24 O exabyte 8mmO DDS/DAT 4mmO ftp

5. Documentation requested(one set per site) O MIDAS User Guide 91NOV

O MIDAS Environment Ver. 1.1O IDI-routinesO AGL Reference Manual

6. Computer facilitiesComputer model:é ê ë ì í î ï , RAM (Mb): ð , Disk (Mb): ñ ò óOperating system: ô õ ö ÷ ø ù ú û ü ý þ ÿ � , Version � � �Display systems: � � �Graphic terminals: � � Plotters: � �Modem connection: Baud rate � � � � � � , Telephone � � �Network address: EARN � � � � � � � SPAN � � Internet ! " # $ % & ' Others ( ) *Date:+ , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = Signature: > ? @A

1 ESO-MIDASTM is copyright protected software developed by the European Southern Observatory for the purpose of Image Processing of AstronomicalData.2 for new user agreements t.b.a.


22 ESO-MIDAS Courier, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1992B CThe ESO-MIDAS Courier is published twice per year (June and December) by the MIDAS Group at theEuropean Southern Observatory.Contributions as well as suggestions and comments are invited and can be sent to the editor. In particular,authors of MIDAS application software that would be of general interest for the MIDAS community, are invitedto make this software available.If you are not on the mailing list and want to receive future issues of the Courier, contact the editor. More updatedinformation about MIDAS can be obtained from the MIDAS Bulletin Board, accessible via anonymous ftp.D E

The ESO–MIDASTM Courier:Editor: Rein H. WarmelsTypeset by The PublisherTM

Published by the European Southern ObservatoryKarl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2,D 8046 Garching bei Munchen,Federal Republic of Germany.

ISSN 1018–3051

The following MIDAS support services are availablefor sending suggestions, comments or to obtain helpwhen problems arise:

Telephone: +49-89-32006456

Telex: 5282822 eso d,attn. MIDAS Courier

Telefax: +49-89-3202362,attn. MIDAS Courier

SPAN: ESO::MIDAS

EARN: MIDAS@DGAESO51

Eunet: [email protected]

Internet: [email protected]

anonymous ftp: ftphost.hq.eso.org(134.171.8.4)F G H


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