The Astronomical Image Processing System (AIPS) is a software package to support the reduction and analysis of data taken with radio telescopes.

Developed predominantly for use with the then under-construction VLA, the generality inherent in its design allowed it to become the standard data-reduction package for most radio interferometers, including VLBI.

Initial usage was focused on the VLA, but it has gone on to be used to reduce data from practically all radio interferometers, including MERLIN[4] and the GMRT[5] and, to a lesser extent, the WSRT[6] and ATCA.

[8] CASA has gone on to be the main data-reduction package for the upgraded VLA (EVLA) and ALMA, but AIPS remains able, to a large degree, to process data from these state-of-the-art instruments.

Together these allow a user to visualize, edit and calibrate a data set and subsequently make images or fit models.

A number of analysis tasks are included (e.g. Gaussian fitting to images or spectra) as well as the possibility to make publication-quality plots.

[10] The programmer's guide is called Going AIPS, the cover of which features a gorilla clutching a Tektronix 4012 graphics terminal whilst standing upon two IBM 3420 Magnetic Tape Units.