This document

This text largely dates from a complete re-write of the user documentation of Portable Figaro to accompany version 5.2 of Figaro. The style of this document is now more that of a cook book. It tries to offer novice users an easy entry into using Figaro whilst providing sufficiently detailed information for experienced users.

The main body of the document contains only a few cross-references between sections and references to other documents. References to external documents are provided as pointers to further information and need not be consulted to follow the examples in this manual. There is a keyword index, which should give you a quick way to find the information needed. The index contains references into this, and to other documents.

The Section Beginners is the starting point for new Figaro users; it outlines the basics, getting started, and gives some simple examples.

The Section Advanced users contains information which can be applied in many Figaro reductions. There are details of parameter usage, the underlying data system, and access to foreign file formats. There is also an introduction to error-propagating tasks in Figaro.

The Section Doing more complex things gives cookbook style details of a range of problems which can be addressed using Figaro: treatment of flat fields; B-star calibration; handling filters; flux calibration; fast Fourier transforms; removal of S-distortion; wavelength calibration; correction for extinction; and Gaussian fitting.

In the Appendix there is a classified list of Figaro commands.

In the Appendix there is a description of the features available with Specdre.

In the Appendix there is a manual for the Twodspec commands.