Dear GNIRS user, The public GNIRS IRAF package is currently broken for any data taken since the last engineering work in June-August 2005. This includes all GNIRS data obtained in semester 2005B. The reason is that the engineering work replaced lenses on the two short cameras (short blue and short red), and so the Gemini part number for these cameras were changed. The part number is included in the camera header keyword, that is used by some of the iraf tasks to identify the instrument configuration of the data. Prior to June 2005, all short blue camera data (the most common kind) had the keyword: CAMERA = 'ShortBlue_G5513' After July 2005, all short blue camera data have the keyword: CAMERA = 'ShortBlue_G5521' (Short red camera data have changed similarly.) There are two database files in the gnirs iraf package that contain this information: config.fits and nsappwave.fits New versions of these files are available on the Gemini ftp site under staff/brodgers/GNIRS: http://ftp.gemini.edu/staff/brodgers/GNIRS/config.fits http://ftp.gemini.edu/staff/brodgers/GNIRS/nsappwave.fits These files are used by the tasks: nsprepare nsreduce nsappwave nswavelength To fix the problem, the user can either 1) replace the files in gnirs$data of their iraf installation with the attached files; or 2) place the attached files in any directory and change the default parameters referencing these files in the above tasks to point to the new versions (the parameters will be apparent doing an 'lpar' of the task). Note that these files also include the old camera settings and so will work with older GNIRS data as well. The next Gemini IRAF package release will fix this problem of course, however, we wanted to get these files out to users with 2005B data now. (Users of the Gemini development version already have the new files.) Please contact your Contact Scientist if you have any questions, or as always, submit a HelpDesk query. cheers, Bernadette Rodgers Greg Doppmann