IRAF in Japan

NAOJ ADAC has the role of a distribution center for IRAF in Japan. This allows for a quick distribution of a new version of IRAF or addon package locally and saves work for the NOAO IRAF group as well. IRAF, addon packages, documents, and other related files are transferred by FTP from NOAO. Several directories are mirrored, but binary files (IRAF and some addon packages) for platforms other than Sun's are not transferred because of limited disk space. IRAF and other related files are distributed by FTP to about a half of the sites in Japan and by tapes to the others. Almost all of the sites are connected to the Internet, but the bandwidth is not always satisfactory for FTP transfers. We must send tapes to the sites with the poor Internet connections. Of course, we strongly recommend that all the site managers send the IRAF registration form to NOAO!

IRAF was introduced into Japan and installed on several workstations in 1990. At that time we had a serious problem: we did not have a good data reduction package available on our computers. IRAF was the best solution. But all Japanese astronomers are not fluent in English. Both site managers and users needed information about IRAF written in Japanese for efficient use of the software. Thus we organized the IRAF managers group and began to exchange information in 1990. The IRAF managers group was then changed into the Japan Association for Information Processing in Astronomy (JAIPA), and the range of its activities was widened. JAIPA has close relations with NAOJ ADAC; the office of JAIPA is located there. JAIPA has various responsibilities. For example, the PAONET project aims to establish the network connecting institutes with publicly-opened astronomical observatories and schools through public telephone lines to transfer astronomical images, and the ARCHIVE project group is developing an archival system for the data of OAO and the Kiso Observatory. JAIPA has grown to a group of astronomers (now the number of members is about 60) with broad interests, but the offer of information about IRAF is still its most important role.

JAIPA published the "IRAF Cookbook" 1st. and 2nd. editions, which were written in Japanese. The 2nd. edition has 500 pages, and the contents of it are the following: an install/management manual, an IRAF beginner's guide, manuals for the data reduction of several instruments in Japan, manuals for various tasks/packages in IRAF, manuals for our original software, guides to software development under the various IRAF environments, guides to presentation, trouble shooting in IRAF, and other manuals (Lick Mongo, FITS, etc.). We believe this cookbook is useful to almost all the observational astronomers in Japan. The 3rd. edition of the Japanese "IRAF Cookbook" will appear next spring (1995).

Shin-ichi Ichikawa
Astronomical Data Analysis Center
National Astronomical Observatory of JAPAN