Dear Friends, a new version (1.1) of program CCDAR is now available. CCDAR is a package for the astrometric reduction of CCD frames: it is designed especially for the astrometry of minor bodies (asteroids and comets), but can be used for the astrometric reduction of any CCD image. The present version (1.1) represents a preliminary test release: its capabilities are limited and will be extended in future upgrades. CCDAR works basically in two steps, which are fairly independent: 1) generation of the list of all the objects contained in the image(s) (inventory file); 2) astrometric reduction of the image by comparison of the inventory file with an external star catalogue. The first step can be accomplished with software already existing (and not included in the present distribution); we give here suggestions and interface routines for generating inventory files either with SExtractor or with IRAF/DAOPHOT. The second step is accomplished through a series of FORTRAN programs. In addition, the user can perform a comparison of different images of the same region of the sky and use these comparisons for estimating a model for errors in pixel coordinates and measured magnitudes. Supported star catalogues: CCDAR can access directly the Guide Star Catalogue 1.1 and USNO-SA1.0 CDROMs. Moreover, it can read sections of any star catalogue, provided they are transformed to a suitable format: this feature can be exploited for using star catalogues which are distributed through the network. A complete User's manual is supplied with the package. SUPPORTED OPERATING SYSTEMS =========================== CCDAR was developped under Linux and tested under Linux and SunOS: it should work under any UNIX-like operating system with only minor changes (on most UNIX brands, the only modifications needed should be in the Makefile). The present version (1.1) includes also a distribution for Window95; a version for OS/2 will be available soon. DISTRIBUTION POLICY =================== The package is publicly available without any charge together with its complete source code, but IT IS NOT public-domain: it is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation (version 2). The package is available through anonymous FTP from node joplin.brera.mi.astro.it, directory /pub/ccdar (UNIX version) or /pub/ccdar/win (Windows95 version); additional information is available at http://www.brera.mi.astro.it/~carpino/ccdar/ Mario Carpino Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera via Brera, 28 - I-20121 Milano - Italy tel: +39-2-72320-306 FAX: +39-2-72001600 E-mail: carpino@brera.mi.astro.it WWW: http://www.brera.mi.astro.it/~carpino/
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