The second patch to IRAF V2.10.4 is now in testing at several sites, and should be in distribution by the time this Newsletter goes out. As discussed in the previous issue of this Newsletter the new patch is required to support Solaris 2.5 and the SunSoft version 4 compilers, which were released around December 1995 (but not received by NOAO until February!). Miscellaneous bug fixes have been included in the patch, as well as minor system enhancements to support external software (e.g., AXAF). Work continues on IRAF Version 2.11 which will be released later this year. IRAF V2.11 will be available for all supported platforms. We currently plan to release the V2.10.4 patch for SunOS, Solaris, Dec Alpha OSF/1, Linux, and SGI IRIX. The latter is being fast-tracked to update our SGI support now that we have access to a recent model SGI capable of running current versions of IRIX (see below).
The PC-IRAF project has been very successful, with 400 or so Linux/IRAF distributions having been downloaded from our servers since the release last fall. A patch to Linux/IRAF adding partial support for recent ELF-based Linux versions was released in January (future versions of Linux/IRAF will be fully ELF compatible). We plan to resume work on the Solaris x86 and BSD versions of PC-IRAF following necessary upgrades to our PC development systems.
In recent issues of this Newsletter we have mentioned plans to mirror the IRAF network archive and Web pages at the Rutherford Appleton Labs in the UK, as part of a collaborative effort with the Starlink group at RAL. We are pleased to announce that this mirror site is now operational. The FTP archive is available via anonymous FTP to starlink-ftp.rl.ac.uk, directory pub/mirrors/iraf. The URL for access to the IRAF Web pages is http://star-www.rl.ac.uk/iraf. The mirror is updated nightly from the Tucson archives. We expect this site will be popular with UK IRAF users who have found the network connections to the US to be very slow. We are still learning how to operate a mirror efficiently; once things are running routinely we hope to set up additional mirrors at other locations, especially overseas. If you are interested in operating an IRAF mirror at your location please contact Doug Tody (tody@noao.edu) for further information about the necessary requirements to handle this large (2 GB) archive.
The IRAF Users' Committee, which met in Tucson in February (see below), made a strong plea that we upgrade our support for those platforms neglected by recent IRAF software introductions and patches. In particular we plan to make the X11IRAF utilities (xgterm and ximtool), which have been in use for one to two years now, available on all supported platforms. A new release of X11IRAF is due out soon and this version will be made available for all IRAF platforms. We have begun negotiations with the vendors to update our platforms in preparation for the V2.11 release. This includes updating hardware where necessary and obtaining and installing the current versions of AIX, HPUX, IRIX, Digital UNIX, and OpenVMS (and a few others). This process is already underway. Support for some older platforms will be dropped as well. We haven't decided for certain which ones yet, but support for Apple A/UX has already been dropped, as our A/UX Macintosh has died. Sun 386i support was dropped sometime back. Unless we hear pleas from users we will probably drop support for the VAXstation running Ultrix (not to be confused with DECstation Ultrix, which is still supported, although it is slated for eventual retirement as well).
In other port-related news, we are pleased to announce that Wisconsin has generously agreed to let us use their new SGI, installed in the WIYN Observatory on Kitt Peak late last year, for IRAF support. Our existing in-house SGI loaner is an old system and unable to support the newer releases of IRIX, so support for IRIX/IRAF has been problematic for the past year or so. The WIYN SGI is currently running IRIX 5.3. We plan to port IRAF V2.10.4 to this system as soon as possible, for distribution late this spring along with the X11IRAF support package. Support for IRIX 6.2 will follow when IRAF V2.11 is released.
A major development project for IRAF throughout this coming year will be software support for the NOAO mosaic. Preliminary efforts have concentrated on a revised, comprehensive keyword scheme and data dictionary for future NOAO (and probably eventually Gemini) data, and definition of an archival FITS data format for Mosaic data. In coming months work will concentrate on Mosaic data reductions and the Mosaic data handling system, including data capture, data archiving, a real time display for Mosaic and other data, and the general problem of interactive Mosaic data display. Displaying or otherwise processing this data is challenging as Mosaic data consists of multiple subimages, and the overall Mosaic image is very large, about 128 megabytes in the case of the NOAO Mosaic. A powerful Ultrasparc-2 system with half a gigabyte of main memory and multiple display screens will be used to host the data handling system for the Mosaic. Although our priority for this project will be to support the NOAO mosaic, the software will be generally useful and this project will result in major enhancements to the main IRAF distribution and to X11IRAF.
Since we are currently short-staffed Mike Fitzpatrick has had to spend most of his time recently with IRAF technical support, although he has made major contributions to systems projects including Ximtool development, IRAF Web page enhancements, and helping set up the UK IRAF mirror.
Frank Valdes has completed tools for automatic arc line identifications and dispersion function solutions in one dimensional spectra. He is currently extending the algorithms to multi-order echelle spectra. Other recently completed projects include improvements to the astronomical image header editor and a new astronomical calculator tool. The calculator tool may be used for many purposes, one of which is a new task that identifies, from a large set of images, a subset of images within a specified distance of a point in the sky. Frank has enhanced the IMEXAMINE and PSFMEASURE tasks for fitting stellar profiles to include Moffat profiles. Since many ground-based stellar profiles are a better match to a Moffat profile than a Gaussian profile the new fitting model gives better full-width at half-maximum values. Frank released an external package version of SPLOT with line profile fitting of Gaussian, Lorentzian, and Voigt profiles. All the above software will be included in the upcoming IRAF V2.11 release. In the interim all this software, except the automatic line identifications for exhelle data, is included in the NMISC external package available from the IRAF archives (iraf.noao.edu or any mirror). Note that some of the tasks are only available for the latest export version of IRAF, V2.10.4.
Lindsey Davis has continued work on the new image matching package, a first version of which was released last fall. A new task IMCTRAN has been added to the package. IMCTRAN enables users to transform image celestial coordinate systems from one system to another, e.g., from equatorial FK4 B1950 to equatorial FK5 J2000 or from equatorial FK5 J2000 to galactic. Five new fitting geometries including shift (fit x and y shifts), xyscale (fit x and y shifts and x and y scale factors), rotate (fit x and y shifts and a rotation angle), rscale (fit x and y shifts, a scale factor that is the same in x and y and a rotation angle), and rxyscale (fit x and y shifts, x and y scale factors, and a rotation angle) have been added to the GEOMAP, WCSMAP, and SKYMAP tasks. The new and modified tasks are currently available in the IMMATCH layered package from the IRAF network archives (iraf.noao.edu or any mirror). Lindsey is currently developing a task for computing a WCS and storing it in an image header given an image and a list of x and y's and RAs and DECs. Lindsey has also begun work on defining the requirements for the new IRAF Astrometry package, which will be a collaborative effort of Lindsey and others in the IRAF group, working with astronomers and astrometric catalog providers from the general community. Anyone who is interested in contributing to this effort is encouraged to contact us.
Rob Seaman has been busy this quarter with the planned expansion of the NOAO "Save the Bits" archive to include a dedicated CD-ROM based archive and data distribution system for the WIYN telescope. We are also in the process of installing Save the Bits at CTIO, working with the CTIO staff. CTIO data will be saved to dual Exabytes as is currently done at KPNO. Updates to the ICE CCDACQ CCD data acquisition package, and to the prototype FINDER package for generating plate solutions from the image display using the HST Guide Star Catalog are in various stages of completion.
The IRAF User's Committee met in Tucson on 6 February to review the status of the IRAF project and to advise NOAO in setting priorities for the IRAF project during the coming year. This year's report of the IUC to the NOAO Director can be found in this section of the Newsletter, or by browsing the IRAF Web pages. We wish to thank the IUC for their support and for their guidance in helping identify priorities for IRAF development.
Lastly, we are pleased to announce that we have filled the open IRAF position. Please see the accompanying article for details.
For further information about the IRAF project please see the IRAF Web pages at http://iraf.noao.edu/ or send e-mail to iraf@noao.edu. The adass.iraf newsgroups on USENET provide timely information on IRAF developments and are available for the discussion of IRAF related issues.
Doug Tody, Jeannette Barnes