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To run SkyView on your machine you can just download one file, the SkyView JAR (or Java 1.5 compatible), to get started. The SkyView JAR is executable so that you can use it immediately, e.g., try
 java -jar skyview.jar survey=dss position=3c273 
after you download the file. This should generate a file output.fits with the an image of 3C273 from the Digitized Sky Survey.

You will need a recent version of Java at least V1.6 or (sometimes called Java 6) depending upon whether whether you are talking about the development environment or language. The 1.5 link can be used if you have only Java 1.5/5 but may not have the latest features. You can find releases for most platforms at Oracle's Java Web site

This application supports the functionality of the SkyView Web pages for generating files. It includes almost all the surveys available through the standard SkyView web interface (the one current exception is the Mellinger low-resolution optical survey). You can generate FITS and graphic images. The program lets you treat your own files as surveys and you can add other surveys linking tp external data you might be interested in. It is especially easy to add a survey when the data is available through the Virtual Observatory Simple Image Access protocol.

Features include:

  • > 100 surveys (DSS, SDSS, WISE, FIRST, UKIDSS, Fermi, ROSAT, ....)
  • Grid overlays, contours, smoothing
  • Catalogs from HEASARC, VizieR, NED and other VO sources
  • ImageJ data visualization capabilities
  • Outputs in FITS and several graphic image formats including JPEG, GIF, BMP and TIFF.
  • High order resamplers including Lanczos and Spline resampling
  • An efficient exact-area flux-conserving reampler.
  • Several de-edging algorithms to match image backgrounds when mosaics are made from images with disparate backgrounds.
  • Several ways of choosing the source image to sample.
  • Multi-order samplers (using a low order sampler near image defects)
  • Ability for users to easily add in their own surveys.
  • Easy linking to datasets described by the Virtual Obsevatory Simple Image Access protocol
  • Extensible design that allows users to plug in their own samplers, projections, coordinate systems, mosaickers, ... to deal with any special requirements they might have.
  • Independent processing so that users do not share the limited resources of the SkyView Web server. The program can run on many clients simultaneously.
  • Java source files included in the JAR for users who wish to modify or extend functionality.
  • The ability to add overlapping observations to generate deeper images
  • Support for finding exactly which input is sampled at a given point
  • Support for astronomical projection used by major surveys, include the WWT's TOAST projection HEALPix and many standard projections.

A detailed User's Guide is available in Word and HTML. The JavaDocs for the Java classes are also available.

Please contact SkyView if you have questions or comments about this package.


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