news.txt

basic median filter simulation

10-Apr-2009: MWRFITS - Small eficiency update when writing ASCII tables

03-Apr-2009: MRDFITS() - Small efficiency updates in MRD_SCALE

01-Apr-2009: PLOTERROR, OPLOTERROR - Fixed problem when axes are both 
                logarithmic and reversed

19-Mar-2009: TAG_EXIST() - Added a dummy /RECURSE keyword for compatibility 
                  with the Solarsoft version

16-Mar-2009: FXPOSIT() - Now opens files with the /SWAP_IF_LITTLE_ENDIAN keyword
                        for byteswapping on the fly.
	     MRDFITS() - Use new FXPOSIT() for much faster byteswapping. **The
	         new MRDFITS() must be used with the new fxposit.pro **		

13-Mar-2009: GCIRC - Now uses haversine formula for less roundoff error at the
                   milliarcsecond level
	     SRCOR - Now much faster when using spherical coordinates.   Added
	            /SILENT keyword	   

09-Mar-2009: IMDBASE - Addded /SILENT keyword

24-Feb-2009: WEBGET() - Now has TIMEOUT keyword (defaulting to 30s) 

21-Feb-2009: GETROT - Account for rotation introduced by nondefault value
                      of LONGPOLE
             SKY - Avoid possible out of bounds if /NAN set

20-Feb-2009: EXTAST - Fix typo for AZP projection, nonzero longpole 
                   If duplicate WCS keywords, then use the *last* values   

             DBOPEN - Fix typos in keywords passed to BYTEORDER

10-Feb-2009: FXBADDCOL, FXBWRITM - Now work with unsigned integers
             FXADDPAR - Increase formatting precision for double precision 

             RXTE Software in  contrib/rxte directory updated to Version 1.2

06-Feb-2009: TEN(), TENV() - Now accept string inputs

02-Feb-2009: READCOL - Now has STRINGSKIP keyword to skip lines beginning with a
                   specified string

22-Jan-2009: ROBUST_POLY_FIT() - Added /DOUBLE keyword, removed obsolete call
                  to POLYFITW
	     HELIO - Work for more than 32767 positions	  

21-Jan-2009: PLOTHIST - Now has a /ROTATE keyword to switch X and Y axis
                 (put the plot on its side).

18-Jan-2009: WEBGET(), QUERYVIZIER() - Added /SILENT keyword

13-Jan-2009: ASTROLIB - Removed !DEBUG definition (no longer used)

12-Jan-2009: SCREEN_SELECT, SELECT_O, SCR_*.PRO moved to /obsolete directory
             (i.e. widgets are now assumed to be always available).


09-Jan-2009: MWRFITS - Now has output STATUS keyword to indicate success/failure
             JPLEPHINTERP - Now allows base time TBASE to be scalar or vector

22-Dec-2008: KSTWO - Fix bug when maximum difference occurs at the end of the 
                      array

19-Dec-2008: DBCIRCLE() - Added /GALACTIC input keyword and COUNT output keyword

12-Dec-2008: GAL_UVW - Now 10 times faster for large arrays

26-Nov-2008: JPLEPHINTERP - More input checking, SSB and EMB aliases for 
                    solar system and earth-moon barycenter

25-Nov-2008: QUERYSIMBAD - Remove CADC keyword, add CFA keyword, update address
                  of Sesame server

11-Nov-2008  FIND - Now has /MONITOR keyword to control whether to display each
                    individual star
             READCOL - Now has NLINES output keyword 		    

29-Sep-2008: EULER - Now has /RADIAN keyword

06-Sep-2008  FITS_WRITE - Delete BSCALE/BZERO before writing file
             PLOTHIST - Check whether all values are NaN

28-Aug-2008: IMCONTOUR - Work when RA crosses 0 hours
             TICLABELS - Use 0h labeling instead of 24h

19-Aug-2008: ADSTRING() - Fix roundoff error when -1 < dec < 0 , add PRECISION
                          keyword

15-Aug-2008: READCOL - COUNT output keyword added giving number of valid lines
             EXTAST - Now use the *last* values if duplicate astrometry 
	               keywords are present in the FITS header

08-Aug-2008: MRDFITS() - Added OUTALIAS keyword, use vector form of VALID_NUM()

07-Aug-2008: VALID_NUM() - Major rewrite to use STREGEX, accept vector input
             SXPAR() - Use vectorized form of VALID_NUM

05-Aug-2008: QUERYVIZIER() - Use STRCOMRPESS2 for more robust searches using 
	            Constraint string
	            		   
04-Aug-2008: STRCOMPRESS2() - Remove blanks around specified chars in a string

01-Aug-2008: DBCREATE - Fix bug introduced May 2008 when not in ZDBASE dir
             DBGET()  - Fix possible bug when sublist supplied

30-Jul-2008: MODFITS - Now has EXTNAME input keyword
             JDCNV - Now checks for valid day, month ranges
	     CT2LST - Change sign of time zone parameter to match standard
	             Positive East of Greenwich (ahead of GMT).
             QUERYVIZIER() - Allow for possible lower-case returned formats	       

19-Jul-2008: OBSERVATORY - Fix error message for unknown observatory
             MODFITS - Fix bug when adding CHECKSUM changed header size
	     FITS_ADD_CHECKSUM - Don't update DATASUM if not already present
	          and no data array supplied.

             RXTE Software in  contrib/rxte directory updated to Version 1.1

27-Jun-2008: EULER - Use less virtual memory for large arrays

24-Jun-2008: MRDFITS() - More informative error message when EOF encountered.

18-Jun-2008: GAL_UVW - Fix overflow for >32767 elements and update Sun velocity

12-Jun-2008: FITS_ADD_CHECKSUM - Fix error when CHECKSUM is an empty string

07-Jun-2008: QUERYVIZIER - Now recognize 'D' format specification

13-May-2008: FITS_ADD_CHECKSUM - Fix problem with images with multiples of 
                 2880 bytes.

10-May-2008: READFITS() - Now always reset BSCALE/BZERO after applying even for 
                   unsigned integers

03-Apr-2008: HEXTRACT - Added ALT keyword to specify alternate astrometry
             UPDATE_DISTORT - Update SIP nonlinear transformation astrometry
	                 coefficient for a linear transformation

27-Mar-2008: SIZE_STRUCT() - Moved to /obsolete directory becuase it is 
                superceded by LENGTH and DATA_LENGTH keywords to N_TAGS

21-Mar-2008: FIND - Now computes centroids using marginal Gaussian fits
             GCNTRD - Modified centroid algorithm to match IRAF/DAOFIND &
	       allow shifts of more than 1 pixel from initial guess.
	       

19-Mar=2008: FXBREADM, FXBWRITM - Read/write 64 bit integer columns

18-Mar-2008: FITS_INFO, FXBOPEN, FXBPARSE, FXFINDEND, FXBFINDLUN - Update
             integers to LONG64 to deal with very large files.

             HREBIN, HCONGRID - Don't update BSCALE/BZERO for unsigned integer

13-Mar-2008: APER - Allow output of negative fluxes (if /FLUX is set)

10-Mar-2008: READFITS() - Avoid 32bit overflow when using NSLICE keyword

03-Mar-2008: QUERYVIZIER - Update Strasbourg Web address to work correctly

01-Mar-2008: DBCREATE - No longer requires user to be on a ZDBASE directory
             FIND - /SILENT now suppresses *all* output

18-Feb-2008: WRITEFITS - EXTEND keyword is no longer required in the primary
               header of a FITS file with extensions as in proposed new
	       FITS guideline

14-Feb-2008: RESISTANT_MEAN - Use double precision internally
             IMCONTOUR - Make use of the OVERLAY keyword always optional

29-Jan-2008: SKY - Avoid possible out of bounds if /NaN set.

17-Jan-2008: CONS_RA() - Ensure that returned declination is between -90 and 90
             IMCONTOUR - Added OVERLAY keyword to ensure accuracy ot 1 pixel
	            when overlaying an image.   Use FORMAT_AXIS_VALUES()
		    
	     New /contrib/rxte directory contains "IDL Extractor" programs 
	     to extract light curves, spectra and power spectra from RXTE data 
	     (and also Swift and Chandra data).

14-Jan-2008: FXWRITE - Now has /APPEND keyword to append to existing FITS files
             FXHMAKE - Now has /XTENSION keyword to specify header is for an
	               image extension.
	     FXBWRITM - Now allows output table to have TSCAL/TZERO keyword 
	               values, unless new /NOSCALE keyword is set	
             FXBREADM - Now recognizes unsigned integer scalings, and scalings
	               can be either float or double precision.		              

08-Jan-2008: ADD_DISTORT -- Add a SIP distortion astrometry structure into a 
                       FITS header
             HREBIN, HCONGRID  - will now update SIP distortion coefficients
	              when expanding or compressing an image
              MMM - make sure that program never aborts but returns gracefully		      		       

24-Dec-2007  TRANSFORM_COEFF - Compute new polynomial coefficients under a 
                  linear transformation

19-Dec-2007: FITS_INFO - Now has out keyword EXTNAME to return extension names
             QUERYGSC() - Updated Webserver name (sigh)

13-Dec-2007: MODFITS - Ensure that supplied header contains 80 byte lines

11-Dec-2007: QUERYVIZIER(), CREATE_STRUCT() - Use vector form of IDL_VALIDNAME
                   if IDL V6.4 or later

4-Dec-2007:  FXMOVE() - Fix data size calculation for very large files
             FXPOSIT() - Added LUNIT keyword for user-supplied unit number

2-Dec-2007;  QUERYGSC() - major rewrite to use new STScI server & GSC 2.3.2

             QUERYUSNO (to query USNO-A2 catalog) has been removed since the 
	     newer USNO-B1 catalog can be queried with QUERYIVIZIER, e.g.  
             IDL> info = queryvizier('usno-b1','m13',5)

25-Nov-2007: Minimum IDL version is now IDL V5.6
             Updated procedures include RDFLOAT, BLKSHIFT, MEDARR, DBDELETE, 
	     FTAB_DELROW, GETPRO, WEBGET, READCOL, READFMT, READFITS, MRDFITS

             PRODUCT() - removed since intrinsic PRODUCT() is in V5.6

             PLOTHIST - Added AXISCOLOR keyword, fix color problem when 
                 overplotting

20-Nov-2007: ABSCAL() - Moved to /obsolete directory

14-Nov-2007: FXFINDEND, FXMOVE, FXBOPEN, FXREAD,  FXWRITE, FXHMODIFY - Now 
             account for possibility 64bit integers needed for # of bytes.

13-Nov-2007:  CORREL_IMAGES - Always REBIN() using floating pt. arithmetic

27-Oct-2007:  WCSXY2SPH, WCSSPH2XY - Now supports the HEALPIX projection

12-Oct-2007: WRITEFITS - By default, update CHECKSUM keywords if already present

26-Sep-2007: FIND - Fix error message when no local maxima found

13-Sep-2007: HOR2EQ - Avoid integer overflow for more than 32767 points

31-Aug-2007: MODFITS - Fix problem when data size must be extended
             MULTIPLOT - Added /SQUARE keyword, overall (x)(y)title keyword.
             Can now control gaps between plots and overall tick format.

22-Aug-2007: MRDFITS() - Fix problem when both /FSCALE and /UNSIGNED set

8-Aug-2007:  READFITS() - Fix bug introduced Mar 2006 in applying Bzero