X-ray data analysis
For those in the local Astro group who may have an interest or a need to analyse some X-ray data from Chandra or RXTE, I have installed some analysis software (Linux machines only) and related calibration files in /data/software. For Chandra data analysis I have installed CIAO version 3.3.0.1, as well as the ISIS spectral fitting package version 1.3.1 and the CALDB files. For RXTE analysis I have installed HEASOFT version 6.0.3 and the appropriate CALDB files.
If you missed the introduction to X-ray astronomy I gave on April 5th, here is a PDF file of the slides and notes
To initialise CIAO:
source /data/software/ciao/bin/ciao.csh
For ISIS, add /data/software/isis/bin to your path and invoke with "isis". See the CXC for analysis threads and other documentation.
To initialise HEASOFT (which also has general tools to manipulate FITS files) for analysis of RXTE data:
setenv HEADAS /data/software/headas/i686-pc-linux-gnu-libc2.2.4
source $HEADAS/headas-init.csh
setenv CALDB /data/software/caldb
source $CALDB/software/tools/caldbinit.csh
HEASOFT also includes the popular spectral fitting package Xspec. See the HEASARC site for more info or RXTE data analysis recipes
I also plan to install the SAS software for analysis of XMM-Newton data. Let me know if you are interested in getting started with these packages or need any help.