  The cluster A2597 was observed in X-rays with the ROSAT PSPC and HRI
detectors. The X-ray isophotes are oriented similarly to the optical isophotes
of the central cD galaxy and to the isopleths of the galaxy distribution in the
cluster, but are otherwise quite regular, suggesting that this cluster is
reasonably relaxed and in hydrostatic equilibrium. The merged HRI and PSPC
surface brightness profile is not adequately fit by a beta model because of the
central X-ray surface brightness peak, indicating the presence of a cooling
flow. If the central 108 arcsec in radius are excluded, an acceptable fit is
found which gives beta = 0.64 but only an upper limit to the core radius, rcore
< 78 arcsec. Within a radius of 2 Mpc, we found masses of Mgas = 1.2e14 Msun
and Mtot = 6.5e14 Msun, and a gas mass fraction of about 19%. Both the overall
cluster spectrum and the spatially resolved spectra within 300 kpc require the
presence of both hot gas and a cooling flow in the spectrum. The spectrally
determined total cooling rate of Mdot = 344 Msun/yr is in good agreement with
those derived from analyses of the X-ray surface brightness profile from the
Einstein IPC and the ROSAT HRI images. The ROSAT spatially resolved X-ray
spectra indicate that the cooling component is distributed over the inner ~300
kpc in radius of the cluster. We do not detect any significant excess X-ray
absorption toward the center of A2597, and we set a very conservative upper
limit on the excess column in front of the cooling flow region of NH < 1.72e20
cm**-2.
