We are pleased to announce the new release of the beta version of IRAF 2.14 in September/October 2007. This is an official release of IRAF from NOAO, to be followed by a final 2.14 release within a few months.

Due to resource limitations and higher-priority demands, NOAO dedicated little effort to the maintenance of IRAF in 2005 and 2006. However, the community effort led by Mike Fitzpatrick and Frank Valdes (above and beyond NOAO's commitment) made significant improvements to the core IRAF code base. These improvements included numerous bug fixes and, most significantly, ports to the Mac/Intel and Cygwin platforms (IRAF 2.13 beta). The official NOAO release of IRAF 2.14 is built upon those improvements and incorporates several bug fixes and changes not previously released.

NOAO anticipates a significant investment in IRAF development over the next year, leading to at least one additional release of the core and the release of several external packages. Announcement of all official releases will be made through the official IRAF Web site (iraf.noao.edu), the NOAO/NSO Newsletter, and via postings to iraf.net. NOAO will also work with the Space Telescope Science Institute to ensure that PyRAF and the associated Python environment continues to provide the important services it is bringing to the astronomical community.

Specific help questions about the newly released packages should be sent to the email addresses specified in the documentation associated with the packages. This will allow NOAO to provide direct support of these new packages, which are relevant to new NOAO instruments and other development efforts such as the National Virtual Observatory. Nevertheless, NOAO staff will monitor iraf.net to provide appropriate support for the new releases.

The iraf.net Web site has grown into an active and important community forum for discussion of IRAF questions and general IRAF support. NOAO hopes that it will continue to grow, with even more community participation in answering posted queries. NOAO staff participation in this principal IRAF community forum will also provide a method for gathering community input into the next generation of data reduction and analysis environments, thereby helping us plan NOAO's role in developing and supporting one or more of those future environments.