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             |              CCC  XX   XX    OOO           |
Chandra      |             CC     XX XX    OO OO          | CXC
Electronic   |            CC       XXX    OO   OO         | Number 39
Bulletin     |             CC     XX XX    OO OO          | June
             |              CCC  XX   XX    OOO           | 2005
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Welcome to the Chandra X-ray Center's Electronic News Bulletin Number 39.

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.  Six Years of Science with Chandra Symposium: Abstract Deadline Extended

2.  CIAO 3.2.2 patch and CALDB 3.1.0 Released - 23 June 2005  

3.  Chandra Cycle 7 Cost Proposal Deadline  

4.  The HETGS In-Flight Calibration Web Page Updated 

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Item 1.  Six Years of Science with Chandra Symposium: 
====================================================
         Abstract Deadline Extended
         ===========================

The abstract deadline for the symposium has been extended to SEPTEMBER 1, 
2005.  This is the same date as the registration deadline.

The astronomical community is strongly encouraged to propose oral and/or 
poster contributions for the symposium.  Abstracts should be submitted on-line 
at

        http://hea-www.harvard.edu/6YrsChandra/present/

Full information on the symposium can be found on the web site at:

	http://cxc.harvard.edu/symposium_2005/

Antonella Fruscione
and the SOC and LOC committees



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Item 2. CIAO 3.2.2 patch and CALDB 3.1.0 Released - 23 June 2005
================================================================

The Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) is pleased to announce that version 3.2.2
of CIAO ("Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations") and version
3.1.0 of CALDB are now available for download from:
http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/download/

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

The CIAO 3.2.2 patch release contains corrections and enhancements
for the tools: acis_build_badpix, acis_process_events, acis_run_hotpix,
asphist, hrc_process_events and mkacisrmf.
It also contains several updates to Analysis Threads and Why Topics and
the first version of the Chandra ABC Guide to Pileup.

For complete information on this release, please see the full Release
Notes (http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/releasenotes/)
which also includes the section "How CIAO 3.2.2 and CALDB 3.1.0 Affect
Your Analysis" with advice on reprocessing.
                           ---------------------------------

In tandem with CIAO 3.2.2 is the release of the Chandra Calibration
Database CALDB 3.1.0 which contains essential elements for CIAO 3.2.2 to
work properly.
CALDB 3.1.0  includes  several calibration improvements for ACIS 
Front-Illuminated chips, the so-called "ACIS N0004" responses suite.
This suite includes upgraded CTI correction, GAINs,
T_GAIN corrections, and a new Phase 2 response (P2_RESP) file -
the input to the CIAO tool mkacisrmf - for *all* the ACIS chips.

Information about CALDB 3.1.0 can be found in the Chandra Calibration
Database website at http://cxc.harvard.edu/caldb/

                            ---------------------------------
CIAO 3.2.2 is distributed for the following platforms:
Solaris 2.8
Linux Redhat 6.2 (compatible with Redhat 7.x and SuSE 7.x)
Linux Redhat 8 (compatible with Redhat 9 and various flavors of Linux)
Mac OS X 10.2.8 (compatible with Panther and Tiger)

More details at http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/download/platforms.html

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

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

CIAO 3.2.2 is a collaborative effort between the SAO/CXC Science Data
Systems, the SAO/CXC Data Systems, and MIT/CXC personnel.

Antonella Fruscione (for the CIAO development team)



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Item 3. Chandra Cycle 7 Cost Proposal Deadline
==============================================


The deadline for Cycle 7 cost proposals has been moved from 6pm EST, 18 August 
to 6pm EST, 1st September 2005.

The recommended target list for this cycle is expected to be posted
on the CXC website on 8th July. Letters detailing the peer review 
recommendations will be emailed to all PIs by the end of July.

Belinda Wilkes
Assistant Director, CXO

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Item 4.  The HETGS In-Flight Calibration Web Page Updated
=========================================================


The HETGS in-flight calibration web page, 
http://space.mit.edu/ASC/calib/hetgcal.html, has been substantially 
updated.  In addition to new summaries of the HETGS calibration status, 
there are updates to the summaries of the dispersion relation accuracy 
and effective area, and a link to a comparison of HEG and MEG 
efficiencies.  Areas in progress include preliminary results on a fix 
to the  mirror Ir-M edge, links to pileup correction models and tools, 
and the calibrations affected by data selection and filtering (such as 
order sorting and destreaking).

Comments should be directed to Herman Marshall (hermanm@space.mit.edu).

Herman Marshall


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