The EXSAS Software System may be installed at any site where ESO-MIDAS has been implemented (ESO-MIDAS will only be provided by ESO, not by the RSDC). The package, including the EXSAS Installation Guide, will be provided on request by the RSDC for different Operating Systems (UNIX, VMS). Although the installation of EXSAS is believed to be straightforward, the user may get additional advice from the EXSAS group, if necessary.
The RSDC will maintain and update this package on a regular basis. For fast information transfer and access to updated software, a disk area at node MPE, the ROSAT Service Area, has been set up from where users may read or copy the EXSAS software and patches (special password required), lists of known bugs and other EXSAS related information.
Note:Appendix H describes how to access the ROSAT Service Area. The files exsas/README, exsas/exsas.status and exsas/contents.doc contain a description of the organization, the contents and the status. We will inform you about changes of the system in the ROSAT NEWS.
Errors detected within EXSAS-MIDAS, but also comments for suggestions should be sent by mail or via e-mail to the RSDC (see appendix H). We will try to respond within a few days. The correction of errors in MIDAS can only be done by ESO but you might choose to report them also to us. We will then forward them to ESO and try to receive an intermediate software patch, if the problem is serious.
For users which do not have access to an EXSAS/MIDAS installation, the RSDC has provided the possibility that users may visit the RSDC to evaluate their ROSAT data. Please inform the institute as early as possible if you seriously consider such a visit.
If you have detailed problems, that are difficult to explain via mail or e-mail, you may directly call the relevant person within the EXSAS team. The responsibilities are distributed as follows:
Addresses and details on the ROSAT Services in Germany, UK and USA are given in appendix H.
The RSDC distributes every month by e-mail the ROSAT NEWS reporting on ROSAT status, new developments, and EXSAS related info. If you would like to receive it regularly, please send us a request. Alternatively you can copy the ROSAT NEWS from the Service Area (cf. H.1, subdirectory general).