The BEFS fits files may be read into IRAF by using STSDAS tasks as described in the following.
The structure of the files may be reconnoitered by first invoking IRAF and then STSDAS and running "catfits" on them. Using as an example the file "BEFS1020.SPD1":
st > catfits BEFS1020.SPD1
gives:
EXT# FITSNAME FILENAME EXTVE DIMENS BITPI OBJECT 0 BEFS1020.SPD1 BEFS1020.SPD1 16 ALF CMI 1 BINTABLE SPECTRUM 12Fx1R 2 BINTABLE 2NDORDER 4Fx1R
This tells us the names of the extension files which are "SPECTRUM" and "2ND_ORDER" and the number of columns in each of the table files. (Running "catfits" on the files SPA1, SPB1, or SPC1 for the other wavelength segments would of course give only the primary and first extension files.)
To read and manipulate the BEFS FITS files further, load the ttools package. This will read by default the first table extension, so the extension identifier following the file name is not needed in most cases; in cases where the 2ND_ORDER extension is needed this identifier is denoted by "[2]".
Also check to see what version of STSDAS/TABLES your machine is running. If it is earlier than version 2.1, many tasks will not work unless you rename the file extension "fits".
Many IRAF/STSDAS tasks and all ttools may now be run on the BEFS file. To run most of them you must know in advance what the column names are. To see them, type:
tt > tlcol BEFS1020.SPD1
and the 12 column names are printed out (you may use them in lower or upper case).
To plot the spectrum, type:
tt > sgraph "BEFS1020.SPD1[1][r:row=1] wavelength flux_phot"
Note in the TABLES notation the first bracket in the above is optional
because the first extension is the default option.