Abstract

This document is an introduction to the IRAF software package and its use on Starlink systems. IRAF is a powerful and comprehensive environment for reducing and analysing astronomical data. It was developed at the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson and is in widespread use around the world. IRAF has its own data file format, command language, on-line help system and programming language. It is a modular system. The basic core, which is always present, provides general facilities for image processing and data reduction. For more specialised tasks additional packages are loaded to augment the core system. Software for processing most sorts of astronomical data is available for the IRAF environment.

Who Should Read this Document?

This document is aimed at people who are considering whether or not to use IRAF or who are using it for the first time.