SpecPro: An Interactive IDL Program for Viewing and Analyzing Astronomical Spectra

We present an interactive IDL program for viewing and analyzing astronomical spectra in the context of modern imaging surveys. SpecPro’s interactive design lets the user simultaneously view spectroscopic, photometric, and imaging data, allowing for rapid object classification and redshift determination. The spectroscopic redshift can be determined with automated cross-correlation against a variety of spectral templates or by manually overlaying common emission and absorption features on the 1-D and 2-D spectra. Stamp images and the spectral energy distribution (SED) of a source can be displayed with the interface, with the positions of prominent photometric features indicated on the SED plot. Results can easily be saved to file from within the interface. In this article we briefly discuss key interface features and provide an overview of the data formats required by the program.