iraf.net

Hello,
I am at the dome of the KPNO 2-m telescope and have downloaded on my laptop a bunch of images just obtained with the
CCD camera (STA3) .
To much of my surprise, I can't read these images in IRAF. No matter what package I use, I get: `ERROR: segmentation violation'.
The images work well with IRAF installed on the telescope computers. On my own computer (a MacBook Pro, running OS Maverick
and the IRAF version 2.15.1a) the only task that works is `imheader' (the list of header keywords I get looks correct).
I have tested the integrity of the images by opening them directly in DS9, and they look fine.
I have also re-tested my IRAF version by manipulating other images (e.g., HST FITS files and other FITS I had already on disk,
plus a few new ones from other archives): no problems here either.
I am at a total loss, and any help will be appreciated. Thank you.

I think what you're seeing is a known issue with v2.15.1 in which there was an alignment issue for certain types of data (BITPIX=32 w/ bscale/bzero value if I remember) that caused the segvio. If you installed the 'macosx' binaries you can try working around this by using the 32-bit architecture instead, i.e. do a "setenv IRAFARCH macosx" before you login to the CL, or a "cl\$this->_split2($m[0]) reset arch = '.macosx'" (note the dot) if you're already in). However, versions of this bug persisted past the v2.15.1a patch, and different flavors of it affected both 32- and 64-bit systems. You probably don't see it on the KPNO machines because they're using an older version.

So, the best solution is to upgrade your iraf to the latest v2.16 release where this is fixed entirely. The installation is now just a single download and much simpler to do, but if you have question please post back.