[fitsbits] SAOImage DS9 release 5.0

[William Joye]

SAOImage DS9: Astronomical Image Display
Public Release 5.0
15 Oct 2007

Summary
---------

We are pleased to announce the availability of the new public release  
of SAOImage DS9 5.0.  More information about this package (including  
download links) is available at our web site:
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/RD/ds9/

DS9 Description
---------

SAOImage DS9 is an astronomical imaging and data visualization  
application. DS9 supports FITS images and binary tables, multiple  
frame buffers, region manipulation, and many scale algorithms and  
colormaps.  It provides for easy communication with external analysis  
tasks and is highly configurable and extensible.

DS9 is a stand-alone application. It requires no installation or  
support files. Versions of DS9 currently exist for Solaris, Linux,  
Windows, and MacOSX . All versions and platforms support a consistent  
set of GUI and functional capabilities.

DS9 supports advanced features such as multiple frame buffers, mosaic  
images, tiling, blinking, geometric markers, colormap manipulation,  
scaling, arbitrary zoom, rotation, pan, and a variety of coordinate  
systems.

The GUI for DS9 is user configurable. GUI elements such as the  
coordinate display, panner, magnifier, horizontal and vertical  
graphs, button bar, and colorbar can be configured via menus or the  
command line.

New features in this release
---------
* MacOSX Aqua Support: DS9 has been ported to MacOSX Aqua and is an  
universal application which no longer requires X11.

* Compressed FITS Support: DS9 supports compressed FITS images using  
RICE compression.

* Mask Support: DS9 supports overlay masks. A mask is defined as a  
valid FITS image, in which a non zero value indicates that the  
selected mask color is to be displayed instead of the data value color.

* SkyView Support: DS9 provides support for HEASARC's image cutout  
service, SkyView. This site provides image cutout service for a  
number of image surveys, including SDSS.

* Multi-Language Support:  By default, the language used for menus  
and dialog boxes is based on the value of the operating system locale  
variable. The user may override the default value by selecting the  
desired language in the preferences or by the -language command line  
option.

* Preferences: A new preferences dialog has been implemented.  
Preferences are automatically saved when a user changes an option.  
Selecting the saving preferences menu item is no longer needed.

Acknowledgments
---------

DS9 was developed at SAO with significant help from collaborators and  
beta test users around the world. We especially would like to  
acknowledge help from the following collaborators:

Steve Allen (UCO/Lick)
De Clarke (UCO/Lick)
Maureen Conroy (SAO)
Janet Evans (SAO)
Ian Evans (SAO)
Carlos Gabriel (ESA)
Uwe Lammers (ESA)
Terry Matilsky (Rutgers University)
Steve Murray (SAO)
Frank Primini (SAO)
John Roll (SAO)
Peter Teuben (University of Maryland)

with code contributions from:

D.S. Berry (Starlink)
L. Brown (HEASARC)
Mark Calabretta (ATNF)
Mike Fitzpatrick (NOAO)
Dong Mink (SAO)
Doug Tody (NOAO)
P.T. Wallace (Starlink)
R.F. Warren-Smith (Starlink)
Peter Wilson (HEASARC)

and other contributors:

Mark Adler
Jean-loup Gailly
D. Richard Hip
G. Howlett
Jan Nijtmans
John Ousterhout

and translations from:

Hans-Jakob Grimm (SAO)
Allan Hornstrup (DNSC)
Alberto Martins (Universidade de São Paulo)
Manuel Perez Torres (SAO)
Masahiro Tsujimoto (Penn. State)
Elaine Fortin (SAO)
Anne Lemiere(SAO)

This work was performed with support from the Chandra X-ray Science  
Center and the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Center. For  
more information, please visit our web site at:
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/RD/ds9/

William Joye
wjoye at cfa.harvard.edu