TOPCAT release

[Mark Taylor]

Hi topcat-user,

this is to announce a new release of TOPCAT and friends:

   TOPCAT v4.6
   STILTS v3.1-3
   STIL   v3.3

The release is (just) in time for Gaia DR2 and includes some 
Gaia-friendly features amongst others:

 - The biggest change is an overhaul of Activation Actions in TOPCAT:
   the Activation Window has been completely rewritten and is now
   more configurable, extensible and informative, and has some new
   options, with more to come in future releases.

 - Somewhat related is implementation of various features to do
   with the DataLink standard: a new DataLink window in TOPCAT,
   a DataLink validator in STILTS, DataLink Service Descriptors
   accessible as table Parameters, and some new activation actions
   for invoking DataLink-defined links and services.
   These will assist with using linked data such as epoch photometry
   lists associated with Gaia source catalogue entries

 - A new class of Gaia DR2-friendly astrometry functions has been
   added to the expression language, including functions for
   estimating distance from parallax, and for propagating astrometric
   information (positions, errors, correlations) between epochs.

 - New weighting and aggregation options have been added to some 
   plot types: Contour, Histogram, KDE, SkyDensity and HEALPix. 

and more.

Downloads and detailed change logs are at the usual places:

   http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/
   http://www.starlink.ac.uk/stilts/
   http://www.starlink.ac.uk/stil/

Mark

--
Mark Taylor   Astronomical Programmer   Physics, Bristol University, UK
m.b.taylor at bris.ac.uk +44-117-9288776  http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/