STScI has today announced AstroConda, a distribution of Python and IRAF packages that is intended to replace Ureka, based on Continuum Analytics' Anaconda.

We hope to complete integration and testing of Gemini's data reduction software and IRAF under AstroConda by around mid year; in the meantime, we recommend that Gemini users continue using Ureka 1.5.1 or (for MacOS 10.11) 1.5.2 (while Gemini IRAF has been tested primarily with 1.5.1, the differences are minimal).

Anaconda was introduced around the same time as our first version of Ureka and has quickly become the leading distribution of general scientific Python (and related) software. This future change will reduce the scope of our maintenance workload, allowing us to focus on supporting our astronomy-specific packages to a high standard, while preserving similar ease of installation and bringing better alignment with the wider scientific and astronomical Python communities.