Just curious...is it an SDSS quasar? U of Pittsburgh is a participating institution in the SDSS.
I worked at Fermilab on the SDSS in the 2001-2002 school year (teacher fellowship) so I know full well the frustrations of that type of research. I can't count the numbers of times I gummed up the works by putting stuff on the wrong disk and filling it up while I was there...they were very patient with me
I spent last summer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank. I think that AIPS++ has to be competetive with IRAF in terms of jokes played on Windows users! Boy, what a pain that one is!
Rob