Astro::DDS module
-----------------  

What is it?
-----------

The module is an object orientated interface to the both the first and second
Digital Sky Surveys at the ESO-ECF online archive. While the first sky survey
is 100% complete, the second survey covers 98% of the sky in Red, 45% of the 
sky in Blue and 27% of the sky in the Infra-red.

Why do it?
----------

While other, currently undistributed, interfaces to the sky survey are in
existance, there isn't one generally available. This module, while not as
feature complete as some other interfaces is a quick and dirty interface
was fairly easy to code up using bits and pieces of other eSTAR modules,
see Astro::SIMBAD and Astro::ADS for instance.

Requirements
------------

The module requires the libwww-perl-5.60 package written by Gisle Aas
<gisle@ActiveState.com> v5.53 or above. This package can be obtained
via CPAN at http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=libwww-perl

Also required is the Net::Domain module, v2.13 or above, by Graham
Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>. This module has been included in the base
distribution since Perl 5.7.2, but otherwise can be downloaded from
CPAN as part of the libnet package, see http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=libnet

Provides
--------

The package provides the following classes

    Astro::DSS

further information can be found in the POD included in DSS.pm

Where can I get it?
-------------------

The package is availabe from CPAN <http://www.cpan.org/> and from
the eSTAR Project at http://www.estar.org.uk/

Installation
------------

Installation is automated using the ExtUtils::MakeMaker library

     % perl Makefile.PL
     % make
     % make test
     % make install

Authors
-------

The module was written by Alasdair Allan <aa@astro.ex.ac.uk>, of the 
University of Exeter Astrophysics Group (http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/) 
as part of his work for the eSTAR project.

License
-------
This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
Place,Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA
