The email address iraf@noao.edu is now officially dead, the auto-responder was enabled today informing people of the change and suggesting they come here. If you sent email look for the reply here, if you have a new question please post it here first. For a while, messages will be allowed to be forwarded where we'll reassign them into one of the forums for a reply, but eventually even that will end.

Several years ago it was necessary to compile a list of known IRAF software. After several days Googling we compiled a large list but unfortunately didn't think to save the URLs at the time. Not all packages are active or distributed by the authors, but may be what you're looking for. If interested, Google on the package/author name.

Here's the list, if you know of other packages please mention them in a comment, if you know of a URL to a package please consider adding a link.

From the Not Quite IRAF desk: A new version of the "Source Extractor for Dummies" user manual is now available. This version now includes 18 illustrations. See author's website for details.

One of the long-forgotten ADASS newsgroups was adass.iraf.sources, the point of which was to allow users to post small bits of code others may find useful. While we work to decide how we'll organize something similar we'll simply post the code in a new topic.

Weidong Li at UCBerkeley asked recently how one can use the coefficients produced by CURFIT to evaluate the fit at arbitrary points. After a quick pointer, and in what we hope will be an iraf.net tradition, he coded a solution and agreed to share it here. Thanks Weidong!

Question: I can't find a description of the 'zscale' scaling algorithm anywhere.Do you have a reference for how it determines the proper scaling of the pixels?

Welcome to the new home of the IRAF user community and help desk. This site is being run as a volunteer effort of the IRAF development team with the primary goal of keeping alive the IRAF user community, and with a secondary goal of providing a needed forum for the wider astronomy software community. IRAF developers will participate in the forums that have taken over for the previous email-based helpdesk, iraf@noao.edu, but we are relying on users to participate in these forums as well. Users are also encouraged to help extend this site beyond just a helpdesk replacement, please see the Support page for how you can help.

To Post a Question:Go to the forums, select an appropriate group, and start a New Topic using the button at the top/bottom of the panel. Registered users may request an email notification once the question has been answered, otherwise replies will come exclusively through the forum.

Question: I have a question concerning the colbias command in the noao.bias package of IRAF. I am working with a telescope which uses columns 1-48 and 2096-2158 as overscan regions. The bias is found by the colbias command. I was wondering if it is poissible to set up the parameters in such a way that both sections (so 1-48 and 2096-2158) are used for this purpose. Could you help me with this question?

Question: I have a (long) list of x and y positions of stars in an image. I would like to measure the ellipticities and position angles of the images non-interactively. How should I do this?

NUMBER: 551
MODULE: doecslit
SYSTEM: -V2.12.2
DATE: Mon Nov 14 14:56:06 MST 2005
FROM: valdes

BUG: The sparams.refit parameter is not actually used during the arc reidentification step. Instead doecslit will always attempt to refit the dispersion function. There is no workaround other than fixing the appropriate script task doecslit$sdoarcs.cl to change the refit value from yes to sparams.refit.

STATUS: Fixed for the next release.

The Second VOEvent Workshop is to be held in Tucson, Dec 5-6. Registration is now underway. For more information see the workshop webpage.