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June 25, 2000     First release of the PIXY System 2     MISAO Project Announce Mail (June 25, 2000) Hello. I am Seiichi Yoshida working on the MISAO project. Now the development of the PIXY system in the next generation, "PIXY System 2" started. The first version of it was released on June 24. The PIXY system is an automated astronomical image examination system developed by Seiichi Yoshida. It has been used in the course of new object survey of the MISAO Project and helped to discover 943 new variable stars. However, the old version of the PIXY system is hard to use. One of the reasons is that parameters such as the filename of the image to examine, the approximate R.A. and Decl., etc., must be typed in the command line. Therefore, I decided to renew the system totally laying emphasis on the user-friendly interface, and to develop the new version of the system based on GUI (Graphical User Interface). The June 24 version of the PIXY System 2 is available at the MISAO Project Home Page: http://www.aerith.net/misao/ This version has the following features. It contains a launcher program of the PIXY System 2 for Windows users. Now you can run the system by double-clicking the program "pixy2.exe". After running the system, an opening window appears for a while, then a window with some menus and buttons appears. So you can select any functions among them graphically. All parameters such as filename are also input graphically. It contains a sample image taken by KenIchi Kadota and a sample star catalog. When you select the tutorial mode from the menu, you can operate the examination of the sample image step by step following the help messages. The development of the PIXY System 2 has just started. In the June 24 version, only the following functions are implemented. Star detection from one image. Matching using the GSC 1.1. Measurement of R.A. and Decl., and magnitude. View charts. Mouse click and view information. Magnitude report output for VSNET/VSOLJ. After this, the following works are in schedule. Pairing between detected stars and catalog data, the precise astrometry, and remarkable stars selection. File output of the examination result, and review. Identification with variable stars. Identification with known comets and asteroids. Comparison two images for variable and moving objects detection. Magnitude database construction and new variable star search. Identification database construction and past data search of new objects. Examination of many images at once. Database operation support with huge amount of images. Japanese messages. But the priorities of those works are not determined. If you have some comments and demands on the development of the PIXY System, please make a contact to Seiichi Yoshida (comet@aerith.net). The PIXY System 2 is implemented using Java language. It runs both on a Windows PC and a UNIX workstation. The PIXY System 2 uses a GUI package Swing. Because it uses new functions supported in Java2, it requires JDK 1.2.2 or higher version. Please download JDK 1.2.2 at the following web site: http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/ In the development of the PIXY System 2, class structures and documentation of source files are also reinvestigated totally. The source files of the PIXY System 2 are contained in the package to be downloaded. And the documents of all source files are available at the PIXY System 2 Home Page: http://www.aerith.net/misao/pixy/doc/index.html P.S. The past MISAO project announce mails are available at: http://www.aerith.net/misao/ -- Seiichi Yoshida comet@aerith.net http://www.aerith.net/