Status of the CDS Services, SIMBAD, VizieR and Aladin
Résumé
Major evolutions have been implemented in the three main CDS databases in 2006. SIMBAD 4, a new version of SIMBAD developed with Java and PostgreSQL, has been released. Il is much more flexible than the previous version and offers in particular full search capabilities on all parameters. Wild card can also be used in object names, which should ease searching for a given object in the frequent case of 'fuzzy' nomenclature. New information is progressively added, in particular a set of multiwavelength magnitudes (in progress), and other information from the Dictionnary of Nomenclature such as the list of object types attached to each object name (available), or hierarchy and associations (in progress). A new version of VizieR, also in the open source PostgreSQL DBMS, has been completed, in order to simplify mirroring. The master database at CDS currently remains in the present Sybase implementation. A new simplified interface will be demonstrated, providing a more user-friendly navigation while retaining the multiple browsing capabilities. A new release of the Aladin Sky Atlas offers new capabilities, like the management of multipart FITS files and of data cubes, construction and execution of macros for processing a list of targets, and improved navigation within an image plane. This new version also allows easy and efficient manipulation of very large (>108 pixels) images, support for solar images display, and direct access to SExtractor to perform source extraction on displayed images.