Beta-95NOV release of MIDAS available for beta-test sites.

[Carlos Guirao +49 89 32006-434 <cguirao@eso.org>]

As from today, August 28 1995, the Beta-95NOV (also known as
On-Line MIDAS) is available on our "midas" ftp account for testing purposes 
and, of course, is fully UN-SUPPORTED. Those of you who want to become MIDAS 
beta-test sites are welcome to retrieve it, give a try, and report to us
whatever suggestion or problem you encounter with this beta release
of MIDAS.

There are no plans to provide patches to this beta release. 

Location:
--------- 
   - Ftp host: ftphost.hq.eso.org (134.171.40.2)
   - Ftp account: "midas". Password: "??????"
   - Directory: beta-95NOV
   - Files: README.unix
            95N03pl1.tar.Z

Beta-95NOV has been installed and verified on the following systems:

   - SUN SunOS/4.1.3     - HP HP-UX A.09.01      - PC Linux/1.1.59
   - SUN SunOS/5.3       - DEC OSF1/V2.0         - SG IRIX/5.2
   - IBM AIX/V2.3

New in this release:
--------------------

   - MIDAS ON A PIPELINE 
     Commands can be given to the MIDAS monitor through the UNIX 
     pipeline "|" and the input redirection "<". E.g.:
       
        echo "CREATE/DIS ; LOAD sombrero" | inmidas

     The EOF is interpreted as "BYE" command forcing MIDAS to exit.

   - On-Line Echelle Package:

     The Echelle package has been refurbished to allow calibration in
     world coordinates. The 94NOV version of the package is still 
     available under the package name echellec (C stands for Classic 
     Echelle). The new version is provided with a number of 
     pre-calibrated solutions for EMMI echelle mode (grating 10). The
     solutions are located in the directory MID_EMMI 
      (/midas/calib/data/inst/emmi) and can be applied to EMMI echelle
     spectra set at standard orientation or used in Guess mode to 
     start the calibration.
     Documentation for the EMMI calibration is provided with the command 
     INITIALIZE/EMMI. Contact P. Ballester (pballest@eso.org) for more 
     information.

   - Extended Spec Package:

     Several new commands have been included in the Spec package related to 
     spectral analysis:

     CONTINUUM/SPEC is a new command for the determination of spectra 
     continuum using smoothing spline interpolation. This command comes in 
     complement of NORMALIZE/SPEC, based on standard polynomials.

     DEBLEND/LINE allows to fit up to 6 multiple-gaussian components in 
     spectral lines (contributed by Goettingen University)

     REFRACTION/LONG provides the correction for differential atmospheric 
     dispersion (contributed by P.W.A. Goerdt, Goettingen University).

     COMPUTE/PARALLACTIC allows to compute the parallactic angle 
     (contributed by A. Smette, Groeningen Observatory).
 
   - XHelp GUI:

     The Problem Report form of the XHelp GUI has been simplified to make 
     it always easier to send us e-mail. After one year of working with 
     the GNATS problem report database, new PR categories have been created,
     in particular for GUIs and for each context.


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Carlos Guirao                            Internet: cguirao@eso.org |
| European Southern Observatory            Phone:   +49-89-32006-434 |
| Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse, 2            Fax:     +49-89-3202-362  |
| D-85748 Garching bei Muenchen  /-----------------------------------+
+-------------------------------/