Michael C. Cushing, Ph.D.

The majority of data I obtain as part of my research is spectroscopic in nature. In the early 2000s, I co-wrote an IDL-based data reduction package with Bill Vacca and John Rayner called Spextool (Spectral EXtraction TOOL) to reduce data obtained with the SpeX spectrograph on the 3.0 m NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF). A detailed description of the procedures incorporated into Spextool can be found in Cushing, Vacca, & Rayner (2004, PASP, 116, 362) and a description of the telluric correction procedures are described in Vacca, Cushing, & Rayner (2003, PASP, 115, 389). A few of the procedures have changed in detail since these papers were published but the general descriptions of the steps and overall philosophy remain valid. The current stable release (v4.1) can be downloaded on the SpeX website.

Over the years, I have continued to improve and modify the code and it can now reduce data obtained with other instruments such as TripleSpec on the Palomar 200 inch, TripleSpec on the 3.5 m APO, some modes of the GNIRS on Gemini North, CorMASS (VAT, Magellan, etc.), and FLITECAM, FORCAST, and EXES on SOFIA. If you are interested in reducing data obtained with these instruments, please contact me.