A new version of DataScope (version 3.2) has been released. Using the full Directory for data collections and catalogs, the DataScope tool queries hundreds of astronomical services about a given location or region and organizes the data so that you can browse it, select data for download, or pass it into compatible tools for further analysis.

This new version contains significant enhancements to how data tables are displayed. Using the VOView web application (under development by the international VO community), tables can now be interactively manipulated. VOView is a utility for viewing large data tables within a Web browser. It is optimized for handling tables ranging in size from 1000 to 100,000 rows. A widget is provided whereby a user can select which columns to display and what order to display them in. Row paging of the tables is also provided.

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Collect all data at a given position. DataScope

What's new in Aladin v6: click to enlarge

The Centre de Données Astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS) ispleased to announce Aladin release 6:

http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/

Aladin is an interactive software sky atlas allowing the user to visualize digitized astronomical images, superimpose entries from astronomical catalogues or databases, and interactively access related data and information from the Simbad database, the VizieR service and other archives for all known sources in the field. The new release integrates the following new developments:

• Undergraduate mode: Aladin simplified interface for undergraduate purposes
• SAMP compatibility: Support for the new PLASTIC standard called SAMP allowing interoperability between several VO applications
• Calibrated JPEG: AVM and FITS keywords support in JPEG images for reading and writting astrometrical calibrated colored images
• Dynamical histogram: Interactive histogram for browsing current measurements
• Photometry tools: tools for simple photometry measurements (by circles or polygons)
• Simbad fast access: fast Simbad access allowing very large queries
• VizieR whole catalog: new checkbox in the VizieR forms for downloading whole catalogs
• Full screen: Full screen support and preview window support
• RGB, Blink and pixel computations: supported for non-calibrated images
• Undo position list:for going back to the previous locations
• FITS Rice: Support for FITS RICE compression
• “get” script: get script improvements allowing not positional parameters and SIA/SSA filtering
• FoV rotation: FOV rotation center control
• Translation: Italian (G.Iafrate), German (F.Freistetter), Persian (A.Sedaghatkish)

Dear all.

The PANDORA (“Programs for AstroNomical Data Organization Reduction and Analysis”) group at the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica in Milano, Italy, is pleased to announce the release of SAMPy 1.11.1 available at the PANDORA group site. SAMPy is a Python implementation of the Simple Application Messaging Protocol.

This new release includes the following changes:

• Public ID format still simplified
• New Hub metadata added
• XML-RPC faultCode value set to be int (Douglas Burke patch)
• samp.app.ping and client.env.get MTypes supported by default
• SAMPHubProxy.declareSubscriptions “mtypes” parameter renamed as
• “subscriptions”
• bindReceiveNotification and bindReceiveCall methods of SAMPClient and
• SAMPIntegratedClient classes have been changed adding an optional
• metadata” parameter
• declareSubscriptions method of SAMPClient and SAMPIntegratedClient
• changed adding an optional “subscriptions” parameter
• Interrupted system calls error caught
• Other small bugs fixed
• README updated

If you have any comment, bug notification, help request, etc. please contact the team by using the PANDORA site contact page.

The ESA-VO Team is pleased to announce the release of VOSpec 5.5 available at:

• Applet version
• Webstart version

VOSpec is a tool able to handle Spectra in the VO context as well as providing analysis capabilities and easy integration of spectra coming from different data providers, wavelengths, and different metadata (e.g. units). This new release includes the following mayor features and improvements from V5.1:

• SAMP Integration - http://esavo.esac.esa.int/VOSpecManual/interoperability.html
• Best Fit Algorithm -   http://esavo.esac.esa.int/VOSpecManual/fitting.html
• Support to 1-D fits spectrum image - http://esavo.esac.esa.int/VOSpecManual/gui.html#open
• Update of the local file parsers, with use of the NVO SED library kindly provided and supported by the NVO Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophisics -http://vo.cfa.harvard.edu/soft/)

Furthermore, improvements from version 4 include:

• Registry interface update to rec 1.01 - New Euro-VO and NVO registries usage
• SSA interface updated to REC 1.04
• NVO SED library inclusion for SDM 1.0+ compatible spectra
• Dual spectra selector
  Reconfigurable tree
  Sortable table
• Local Registry
• Distance metadata calculation

For further information (manual, versioning info, other access interfaces) please check the VOSpec webpage.

The AstroGrid project is pleased to announce the latest release of the AstroGrid VODesktop, version 1.2.3.1. This is a suite of desktop applications to enable astronomers to explore and bookmark resources from around the world, find data, store and share files in VOSpace, query databases, plot and manipulate tables, cross-match catalogs, and build and run scripts to automate sequences of tasks. Tools from other IVOA projects inter-operate with AstroGrid software, so you can also view and analyze images and spectra located in the VO.

The latest version includes new features and improvements, including improved descriptive information (metadata) for searching and filtering resources, and a new Multi-Query capability for searching resources against a user-supplied list of positions, as well as for just one position at a time. There are also a number of bug fixes and internal technical improvements. AstroGrid Python remains at V1.04. The latest version of Topcat is V3.4-1, March 2009. Important changes are listed at http://www.astrogrid.org/wiki/ReleaseNotes .