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             |              CCC  XX   XX    OOO           |
Chandra      |             CC     XX XX    OO OO          | CXC
Electronic   |            CC       XXX    OO   OO         | Number 35
Bulletin     |             CC     XX XX    OO OO          | February
             |              CCC  XX   XX    OOO           | 2005
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Welcome to the Chandra X-ray Center's Electronic News Bulletin Number 35.

CXC Web site: cxc.harvard.edu

If you would like to unsubscribe from this alias, simply reply to this message
to let us know.  

Please use this website to update your address or email: 
          http://cxc.harvard.edu/cdo/udb/userdat.html

Contents:

1. Constrained Observations in Cycle 7
   
2. CIAO 3.2.1 patch and CALDB 3.0.1 

3. What's New in Chandra EPO

4. New Chandra Data Archive Interface: Chandra Fast Image    

5. Applying Wavelength Corrections to HRC-S/LETG Data   


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Item 1.  Constrained Observations in Cycle 7    
============================================

Dear Chandra User/Proposer,

As described in the "What's New" section of the Cycle 7 
Call for Proposals, the ability of Chandra to schedule constrained
observations is becoming more limited. Please note the increased and 
additional pitch angle ranges over which observations are:

prohibited:

      Pitch range 170-180 degrees

or restricted in length:

      Pitch range 70-120, a maximum of 50ks/orbit
      Pitch range 60-70, 120-130, a maximum of 60ks/orbit.

As a result of the increased difficulty of scheduling constrained observations, 
we have reduced the amount of constrained time which the peer review 
may approve from 20% of targets to 15% of observations. Note that counting
observations as opposed to targets means that each look at a monitored
target and each piece of a long observation which has to be sub-divided due to 
the length of Chandra's orbit will be counted as an observation.
The combined result of these two changes is an effective decrease in 
the constrained observation allocation of a factor of 2. i.e. 

   ** IT WILL BE TWICE AS HARD TO GET CONSTRAINED TIME in Cycle 7 **

We urge you to carefully consider whether you need constraints to achieve 
your science goals and to check the pitch angle and visibility of your target(s) 
with the ObsVis tool to be sure that:

- any requested constraint does not make the observation impossible

- only constraints that are required for the science are requested

ALL constraints must be explicitly requested IN THE RPS FORM.
If you are not sure how to do this for your own particular proposal, please
contact our helpdesk: http://cxc.harvard.edu/helpdesk/

The peer review will carefully consider which constrained observations to
recommend for their limited amount of constrained time. Proposals/targets
with a passing grade will be rejected if the constrained time allocation
for that panel has already been used by higher ranked proposals. 

As a result, to be fair to all proposers:

1) CONSTRAINTS WHICH ARE NOT EXPLICITLY SPECIFIED IN THE RPS FORM
WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED 

2) ANY CHANGES TO AN APPROVED OBSERVATION WHICH RESULT IN THE 
ADDITION OF CONSTRAINTS ARE PROHIBITED

3) OBSERVATIONS WHICH PROVE TO BE UNFEASIBLE OR FOR WHICH THE SCIENCE
CANNOT BE ACHIEVED WITHOUT ADDING CONSTRAINTS WILL BE CANCELLED

Please contact the CXC Helpdesk with any questions,

With best wishes for the success of your proposal(s)!

	Belinda Wilkes

	Assistant Director
	Chandra X-ray Center



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Item 2.  CIAO 3.2.1 patch and CALDB 3.0.1 
=========================================


CIAO 3.2.1 patch and CALDB 3.0.1 released 10 February 2005

*** Please note that although they are being released at the same time, 
the CIAO 3.2.1 patch does NOT require the CALDB 3.0.1 upgrade.  The two 
releases function independently. ***

CIAO 3.2.1 Patch
================

The Chandra X-Ray Center introduced version 3.2.1 (a patch to version 
3.2) of the Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations (CIAO) software 
package on 10 February 2005.

The CIAO 3.2.1 patch contains updated versions of the acis_build_badpix 
and acis_run_hotpix tools. Read the patch release notes for full details:
http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao3.2/releasenotes/index.html#ciao321

Download the patch:
http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/download/

The downloads will also be available from the European mirror site at:
http://ledas-cxc.star.le.ac.uk/ciao/download/

                           -----------------------------------

CALDB 3.0.1
===========

The Chandra X-Ray Center introduced version 3.0.1 of the Chandra 
Calibration Database (CALDB) on 10 February 2005.

CALDB 3.0.1 is a patch to CalDB 3.0.0 which includes new HRC-S QE and QE
Uniformity files, as well as improved ACIS-S chip corner positions. See 
the CALDB 3.0.1 release notes for a detailed list of the changes:
http://cxc.harvard.edu/caldb/downloads/Release_notes/CALDB_v3.0.1.txt

Download CALDB 3.0.1:
http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/download/caldb.html

                               -----------------------------------

As always please send questions and requests for enhancements to the CXC
HELPDESK (http://cxc.harvard.edu/helpdesk/)

Antonella Fruscione (for the CIAO development team)


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Item 3.  What's New in Chandra EPO
==================================


A new link from http://cxc.harvard.edu, "New in Education/Outreach"
takes scientists to a page specifically designed to highlight the newest
education and outreach products from Chandra, and to provide a quick
link to resources on the Chandra public site for talks and classroom
use. Announcements of new products and web features will be posted here, 
as well as other information of relevance to education and public outreach 
efforts. The page contains direct links to on-line order forms for outreach
materials. The posting of new material on this page will also be 
announced in the periodic Chandra electronic bulletins.

Kathy Lestition

Education and Public Outreach


---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Item 4. New Chandra Data Archive Interface: Chandra Fast Image
==============================================================

http://cda.harvard.edu/pop

Chandra Fast Image is a simplified interface that allows the general
public as well as professional astronomers quick access to images and
event files.
It can operate in two modes: Quick Image (default) and Advanced.

In Quick image mode it will search the archive for JPEG images based
on a celestial position or an object name; it will return the one that
it thinks may be the most interesting one for the user if there are
more than one.

In Advanced mode there are a few more search options, the user may
indicate whether (s)he wants all or just the best candidates returned,
and the user will be given the choice of JPEG or FITS images, or event
files.  It also provides access to directories containing the Primary
and Secondary data products and to published articles for selected ObsIds.

This interface has been incorporated into DS9.

Arnold H. Rots     


---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Item 5.  Applying Wavelength Corrections to HRC-S/LETG Data 
===========================================================


The LETG group announces the availability of software to provide 
empirically-derived corrections to photon wavelengths in level 1.5 and 
level 2.0 event lists to ameliorate HRC-S event position errors.  
Further details, together with a link from which the software can be 
downloaded, can be found  at

http://cxc.harvard.edu/cal/Letg/corrlam/

and on the user-contributed software site at

http://cxc.harvard.edu/cont-soft/software/corrlam.1.0.html

Jeremy Drake



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