********************************************************************************
             |                                            |
             |              ccc  XX   XX    OOO           |
Chandra      |             CC     XX XX    OO OO          | CXC
Electronic   |            CC       XXX    OO   OO         | Number 67
Bulletin     |             CC     XX XX    OO OO          | November
             |              CCC  XX   XX    OOO           | 2007
             |                                            |
********************************************************************************

Welcome to the Chandra X-ray Center's Electronic News Bulletin Number 67.

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.  CIAO 4.0 Beta 3 

2.  Radio Galaxies in the Chandra Era

3.  Reprocessing IIIC: Calibration update of all HRC-I observations
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.  CIAO 4.0 Beta 3 
=============================================================



The Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) is pleased to announce that version
4.0 Beta 3 of CIAO ("Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations") is
now available for download from: http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciaobeta/download

This is the last step toward the full release of CIAO 4.0 planned for
December 14 2007.
CIAO 4.0 Beta 3 includes CIAO 4.0 Beta 1 and Beta 2.
The "About CIAO 4.0 Beta" page has more information:
http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciaobeta/beta.html

CIAO 3.4 is still available for download and supported as the stable
CIAO release. This is the version to use for Sherpa with full functionality.

The release features an experimental (beta) version of the new Sherpa,
the CIAO modeling and fitting package plus several bug fixes and
enhancements to the CIAO Data Model and the ChIPS plotting package.
CIAO packaging was reworked to avoid conflicts with packages installed
at a users site.

Details and initial documentation on the new Sherpa beta
are available from the Sherpa beta website at
http://cxc.harvard.edu/sherpabeta/index.html
This is the initial phase of the Sherpa redesign and not all of the
functionality of the CIAO 3.4 version is implemented yet.
We anticipate additional releases in 2008 to provide this functionality.
The "About the Sherpa Beta 3 Release" page at
http://cxc.harvard.edu/sherpabeta/about.html
outlines new features and provides a summary of missing items.

                     ---------------------------------
CIAO 4.0 Beta 3 is distributed for the following platforms:

     * Solaris 8
     * Fedora Core 4
     * Mac OS X PowerPC 10.4
     * Mac OS X Intel 10.4

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

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

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

CIAO 4.0 Beta 3 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)



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

Item 2. Radio Galaxies in the Chandra Era
=====================================

The Chandra X-ray Center will be hosting a Science Workshop
on Radio Galaxies in the Chandra Era from 8-11 July, 2008
in Cambridge, MA.  The exact venue is not yet decided, but
please save the dates!

Watch the nascent workshop webpage http://cxc.harvard.edu/radiogals08
for details and a link soon for Registration/Abstract Submission.

	 WORKSHOP ABSTRACT
Chandra has profoundly influenced our understanding of a wide range of 
astrophysical phenomena, but one area in which Chandra's influence has
arguably been the greatest is in the study of radio galaxies and radio
loud quasars. The superb angular resolution of Chandra permits the
multicomponent emission from radio galaxies to be spatially separated
and has given us insights into the accretion and outflow processes. In
many cases, however, the wealth of new data has provoked more
questions than answers.This conference will highlight both theoretical
and observational studies of all aspects of radio galaxies
includingnuclei, jets, lobes, hot spots, and interactions with the
ambient medium. The goals are to bring together a diverse group of
researchers to present the latest results and discuss the outstanding
problems in radio galaxy physics, and best decide how to use the
unique capabilities of Chandra going forward to resolve the outstanding issues. 


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

Item 3. Reprocessing IIIC: Calibration update of all HRC-I observations
======================================================

During the third Chandra Reprocessing run (January 2006 - September
2007) all observations since February 2000, including those made by
HRC-I, were processed with a new, common set of calibrations. However,
since the start of that run there have been significant improvements
in two calibration areas for HRC-I: the gain map (GMAP) and DEGAP
(GAPLOOKUP). CXC-DS has now started a supplemental reprocessing of all
HRC-I observations since Feb 2000 in order to update all of them to
the latest gain and degap calibrations. This is designated as
Reprocessing Run 3C.  We expect the dataset to be available in 
about 4 weeks.

This concerns HRC-I observations only and is of interest to you if one
or more of the following apply:
    * you have performed hardness ratio or quantile color-color analysis
    * your analysis was particularly sensitive to the Enclosed Count
      Fraction (ECF) 
    * your sources were close to on-axis in observations with a large
      SIM-z offset 


For more detailed information, see:
	     http://cxc.harvard.edu/cda/repro3.html

Chandra Data Systems



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





This Electronic Bulletin is used for the dissemination of important
announcements and information about the Chandra X-Ray Observatory to members
of the community. If you wish to unsubscribe from the list, simply reply to
this email to let us know.