The RADPACK package, written in IDL, contains both data and software. The data are the constraints on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) angular power spectrum from all published data as of 9/99. A unique aspect of this compilation is that the non-Gaussianity of the uncertainties has been characterized. The most important program in the package, written in the IDL language, is called chisq.pro and calculates $chi^2$, for an input power spectrum, according to the offset log-normal form of Bond, Jaffe and Knox (astro-ph/9808264). chisq.pro also outputs files that are useful for examining the residuals (the difference between the predictions of the model and the data). There is an sm macro for plotting up the residuals, and a histogram of the residuals. The histogram is actually for the 'whitenend' residuals ---a linear combination of the residuals which leaves them uncorrelated and with unit variance. The expectation is that the whitened residuals will be distributed as a Gaussian with unit variance.

Particle-Mesh (PM) codes are still very useful tools for testing predictions of cosmological models in cases when extra high resolution is not very important. We release for public use a cosmological PM N-body code. The code is very fast and simple. We provide a complete package of routines needed to set initial conditions, to run the code, and to analyze the results. The package allows you to simulate models with numerous combinations of parameters: open/flat/closed background, with or without the cosmological constant, different values of the Hubble constant, with or without hot neutrinos, tilted or non-tilted initial spectra, different amount of baryons.

The calculation of distances is of fundamental importance in extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. However, no practical implementation for the general case has previously been available. We derive a second-order differential equation for the angular size distance valid not only in all homogeneous Friedmann-Lemaitre cosmological models, parametrised by $lambda_{0}$ and $Omega_{0}$, but also in inhomogeneous 'on-average' Friedmann-Lemaitre models, where the inhomogeneity is given by the (in the general case redshift-dependent) parameter $eta$. Since most other distances can be obtained trivially from the angular size distance, and since the differential equation can be efficiently solved numerically, this offers for the first time a practical method for calculating distances in a large class of cosmological models. We also briefly discuss our numerical implementation, which is publicly available.

ISIS is a complete package to process CCD images using the image Optimal subtraction method (Alard & Lupton 1998, Alard 1999). The ISIS package can find the best kernel solution even in case of kernel variations as a function of position in the image. The relevant computing time is minimal in this case and is only slightly different from finding constant kernel solutions. ISIS includes as well a number of facilities to compute the light curves of variables objects from the subtracted images. The basic routines required to build the reference frame and make the image registration are also provided in the package.

CMBFAST is the most extensively used code for computing cosmic microwave background anisotropy, polarization and matter power spectra. This package contains cosmological linear perturbation theory code to compute the evolution of various cosmological matter and radiation components, both today and at high redshift. The code has been tested over a wide range of cosmological parameters.

This code is no longer supported; please investigate using CAMB (ascl:1102.026) instead.

Bayesian Blocks is a time-domain algorithm for detecting localized structures (bursts), revealing pulse shapes, and generally characterizing intensity variations. The input is raw counting data, in any of three forms: time-tagged photon events, binned counts, or time-to-spill data. The output is the most probable segmentation of the observation into time intervals during which the photon arrival rate is perceptibly constant, i.e. has no statistically significant variations. The idea is not that the source is deemed to have this discontinuous, piecewise constant form, rather that such an approximate and generic model is often useful. The analysis is based on Bayesian statistics.

This code is obsolete and yields approximate results; see Bayesian Blocks (ascl:1209.001) instead for an algorithm guaranteeing exact global optimization.

SLOPES computes six least-squares linear regression lines for bivariate datasets of the form (x_i,y_i) with unknown population distributions. Measurement errors, censoring (nondetections) or other complications are not treated. The lines are: the ordinary least-squares regression of y on x, OLS(Y|X); the inverse regression of x on y, OLS(X_Y); the angular bisector of the OLS lines; the orthogonal regression line; the reduced major axis, and the mean-OLS line. The latter four regressions treat the variables symmetrically, while the first two regressions are asymmetrical. Uncertainties for the regression coefficients of each method are estimated via asymptotic formulae, bootstrap resampling, and bivariate normal simulation. These methods, derivation of the regression coefficient uncertainties, and discussions of their use are provided in three papers listed below. The user is encouraged to read and reference these studies.

The program EXTINCT.FOR is a FORTRAN subroutine summarizing a three-dimensional visual Galactic extinction model, based on a number of published studies. INPUTS: Galactic latitude (degrees), Galactic longitude (degrees), and source distance (kpc). OUTPUTS (magnitudes): Extinction, extinction error, a statistical correction term, and an array containing extinction and extinction error from each subroutine. The model is useful for correcting visual magnitudes of Galactic sources (particularly in statistical models), and has been used to find Galactic extinction of extragalactic sources. The model's limited angular resolution (subroutine-dependent, but with a minimum resolution of roughly 2 degrees) is necessitated by its ability to describe three-dimensional structure.

This program addresses the question of what resources are needed to produce a continuous data record of the entire sky down to a given limiting visual magnitude. Toward this end, the program simulates a small camera/telescope or group of small camera/telescopes collecting light from a large portion of the sky. From a given stellar density derived from a Bahcall - Soneira Galaxy model, the program first converts star densities at visual magnitudes between 5 and 20 to number of sky pixels needed to monitor each star simultaneously. From pixels, the program converts input CCD parameters to needed telescope attributes, needed data storage space, and the length of time needed to accumulate data of photometric quality for stars of each limiting visual magnitude over the whole sky. The program steps though photometric integrations one second at a time and includes the contribution from a bright background, read noise, dark current, and atmospheric absorption.

What is the best way to pixelize a sphere? This question occurs in many practical applications, for instance when making maps (of the earth or the celestial sphere) and when doing numerical integrals over the sphere. This package consists of source code and documentation for a method which involves inscribing the sphere in a regular icosahedron and then equalizing the pixel areas.

BSGMODEL is used to construct the disk and spheroid components of the Galaxy from which the distribution of visible stars and mass in the Galaxy is calculated. The computer files accessible here are available for export use. The modifications are described in comment lines in the software. The Galaxy model software has been installed and used by different people for a large variety of purposes (see, e. g., the the review "Star Counts and Galactic Structure'', Ann. Rev. Astron. Ap. 24, 577, 1986 ).

Given a model for the Galaxy, this program computes the microlensing rate in any direction. Program features include the ability to include the brightness of the lens and to compute the probability of lens detection at any level of lensing amplification. The program limits itself to lensing by single stars of single sources. The program is currently setup to accept input from the Galactic models of Bahcall and Soniera (1982, 1986).

There are three files needed for LENSKY, the Fortran file lensky.for and two input files: galmod.dsk (15 Megs) and galmod.sph (22 Megs). The zip file available below contains all three files. The program generates output to the file lensky.out. The program is pretty self-explanatory past that.