barospection

Course repository for the Intro to Spectroscopy 2025 Workshop

taught for BRIEF Boyce Astro Foundation by Chandru Narayan

BAROSpection - Introduction to Spectroscopy course flyer

last updated Aug 20th

SLACK CHANNEL FOR ALL COMMUNICATIONS! - Please look here for Q&A

NEWS - READ THIS SECTION BELOW FOR UPDATES EACH TIME!

Our workshop will cover a smattering of interesting or historically significant Spectroscopy topics in no particular sequence.  However, the main goal of this course is to teach critical college and research skills that you will need as a student & professional. We will attempt to develop these skills primarily on Spectroscopy related topics as you clearly are astro enthusiasts! The primary audience for this course are High/Middle School, College students, or Early Career professionals. We also care about accessibility of these resources across student communities who may be underrepresented and of a diverse socio economic background. We hope to keep these resources free and open for use as much as possible to anyone who may be interested. Please contact me at drunarayan@gmail.com if you would like to learn more about this course.

Skills we will teach include:

  1. Jupyter Notebooks (the backbone of JupyterLab)
  2. JupyterHub & JupyterLab (dev environment for Jupyter Notebooks adopted widely by universities)
  3. Markdown Syntax (dynamic text, images, video and code embedded publishing)
  4. LaTeX (web and github enables equation editor for research)
  5. Python (language of choice for data science and STEM publications)
  6. Matplotlib (plotting large amounts of data)
  7. Pandas & Numpy (dataframes and math libraries for Python)
  8. SQL (structured query language for querying astro databases)

We expect to run for a total of 5 sessions every Friday starting Aug 15th, 2025. Look for a Google Meet schedule links to be available at this page ahead of the workshop start date.

Please check this link below for ALL UPDATES.  I will try not to send emails or notifications for any updates.  All materials will show up on this link below.  So please bookmark it check it frequently.

What is Jupyter?

If you are not familiar with Project Jupyter, and JupyterHub, I highly recommend learning about them by following the embedded links.

All of the content provided here are accessible to you using a combination of technologies provided by Jupyter and Github where 83+ million researchers around the world come together to publish the share their work.

You will be accessing your own ‘virtual laptop’ hosted on a Google virtual machine somewhere in the globe to do your work. You class materials will be available to you there and you will store the products of your learning there and not on your physical computer from which you are accessing this course. Your work will be to modify the Jupyter Notebooks to add text, images, video, to write your own code, query and retrieve astronomical databases, analyze and plot your results graphically.

Create your JupyterLab Login for use later!

You will be logging into JupyterHub for getting workshop materials and creating your own Jupyter Notebooks.  Your username is simply <your first name>. followed by the word p4b. For instance, my username would be chandru.p4b. See & use the created usernames below. The first time you log in, create and type in any password you make up yourself.  That will become your actual password for this JupyterHub - please try not to forget it.  If you do, email me at drunarayan@gmail.com, I will reset it. Please see created usernames below.

User Names & Star Assignments created for the Fall 2025 Class

Students, Star Assignments, Usernames, Status

if your status shows pending you did not start the course and you will need to contact me by email drunarayan@gmail.com to continue in the workshop.

First Last Assigned Star username status
Anisha Bajaj Altair anisha.p4b current
Louis Petersen Vega louis.p4b current
Dhruv Mehrotra Dubhe dhruv.p4b current
Kripita Srivatsava Alioth kripita.p4b current
Jacob John Mizar jacob.p4b current
Maya McGreevy R Lyra maya.p4b current
Pranav Muthukumaran Rasalgethi pranav.p4b pending
Abbas Mokhtarzadeh Alcor abbas.p4b current
Nicholas Bettwy Alpheratz nicholas.p4b current
Heinz Valbruch Albireo A heinz.p4b current
Adam Brown R Lyra adam.p4b current
Ahmad Naeem Zosma ahmad.p4b current
Richard Jaworski Alioth richard.p4b current
Ronald Lawrence Minelauva ronald.p4b current
Christopher Rowe Arcturus christopher.p4b current
Dave Dobrotka Rasalhague dave.p4b pending
Tom Smith P Cygnus tom.p4b current
Pat Boyce Polaris pat.p4b current
Grady Boyce Zeta1 Lyra grady.p4b pending
Puneeth Sethi Kochab puneeth.p4b current
Shalini Sankarkumar Alpheratz shalini.p4b current
Ayush Roy P Cygnus ayush.p4b pending
Miracle Marcel Altair miracle.p4b pending
Jae Calanog Dschubba jae.p4b current
Girish Bajaj Enif girish.p4b current
John Petersen Alphecca john.p4b current
Sumit Mehrotra Alkaid sumit.p4b current
Demis John Mizar demis.p4b current
Rajaabarami Rajakumar Zeta1 Lyra rajaabarami.p4b current
Rishwanth Babu Rasalhague rishwanth.p4b pending
Priyanka Sindhu Zosma priyanka.p4b current
Geoff Stone Alioth geoff.p4b current
Karissa Belzer Minelauva karissa.p4b current
Salem Sherman Alkaid salem.p4b dropped
Yaritza Villa Vega yaritza.p4b pending
Ricks Shobs Altair ricks.p4b current
Reed Estrada Zeta1 Lyra reed.p4b current
Mark Harris Rasalgethi mark.p4b pending
Cam Narayan Polaris cam.p4b pending
Tom Field Eltanin tomf.p4b current

Workshop organization & JupyterLab - your own virtual laptop in the sky!

The structure of this Workshop includes specific Projects below. These Projects provide access to multiple materials, including your own virtual laptop, Jupyter Notebooks, media files (images, video), presentations, PDF files, CSV files, database files and the like. Each Project wil have its own collection of content linked below. When you click on the very first project link below to get started!

When you do so, it will make your own initial copy to your JupyterHub account and allow you to edit and modify them. As you modify them, JupyterLab (the IDE inside JupyterHub) will keep track of the modifications and you should never lose your edits. It is highly recommended that you do not change the names of the notebooks or files as they are being tracked and version controlled. You can always return to this page to access any specific project below where you can access your latest edits. JupyterHub is widely used and state-of-the-art mechanism that universities use to manage Jupyter Notebooks and other course materials. It is expected that future courses taught by me for BRIEF Programs will provide access to the same user account you are using now.

Availability of JupyterLab Virtual Machine (Your Virtual Laptop)

Your virtual laptops will be online and available Wednesday Morning 8:00 AM Pacific to Sunday Evening 11:00 PM Pacific each week. You will be able to login during these times and complete your assignments ahead of, during and after the web meeting sessions each week. At other times, the virtual machine will be taken down to reduce the cost of using the Google Cloud. If you have a special need, you can contact me and I will try and make accommodations.

Projects & Materials Access

Please complete these steps including Project 0 ahead of the first session

  1. You do not need a Dropbox accout to access images!

  2. Click the link above. It will open in your default browser.

  3. First click down to the “Images” Folder. In the Browser. You will have choices to download
    1. Click down to your “star folder” under “Images” folder. Then Download your specific “Star” folder or some other “Star” folder. You will get a zip file which you can extract on your system.
    2. Download the entire “Images” Folder. You will get a zip file which you can extract on your system. Be warned - this is several GB and wmight take a very long time. Although we may not exceed this limit, Dropbox will prevent you from downloading more than 20GB

Class Star Target List for Spectra, Adjusted RA/Dec and Imaging Status

Target Name HD Number Adj RA Adj Dec Magnitude Calculated Exposure Status
Rasalhague_HD_159561_Typ_A5 HD 159561 263.7891 12.5383 2.07 3.74 Imaged 8-15-2025
Rasalgethi_HD_156014_Typ_M5 HD 156014 258.7178 14.3686 5.3 64.60 Imaged 8-15-2025
Altair_HD_187642_Typ_A7 HD 187642 297.7506 8.8466 0.76 1.18 Imaged 8-15-2025
Vega_HD_172167_Typ_A0 HD 172167 279.3041 38.7619 0.026 0.62 Imaged 8-15-2025
Dubhe_HD_95689_Typ_K0 HD 95689 166.0462 61.7292 1.79 2.92 Pending
Scheat_HD_217906_Typ_M2 HD 217906 346.0049 28.0610 2.42 5.09 Imaged 8-15-2025
Mizar_HD_116656_Typ_A2 HD 116656 201.0756 54.9036 2.04 3.64 Pending
Alcor_HD_116657_Typ_MK HD 116657 201.4007 54.9662 3.88 18.46 Imaged 8-15-2025
R_Lyr_HD_175865_Typ_M5 HD 175865 283.9089 43.9243 3.9 18.79 Imaged 8-15-2025
Alpheratz_HD_358_Typ_B8_A7 HD 358 2.1588 29.0687 2.06 3.70 Imaged 8-15-2025
Albireo_HD_183912_Typ_K2 HD 183912 292.7416 27.9379 3.21 10.22 Imaged 8-15-2025
Albireo_HD_183913_Typ_B8 HD 183913 292.7416 27.9379 5.11 54.63 Imaged 8-15-2025
Denebola_HD_102647_Typ_A3 HD 102647 177.3208 14.5503 2.14 3.98 Pending
Zosma_HD_97603_Typ_A4 HD 97603 168.5849 20.5020 2.56 5.76 Pending
Alioth_HD_112185_Typ_A1 HD 112185 193.6039 55.9380 1.77 2.87 Pending
Minelauva_HD_112300_Typ_M3 HD 112300 193.9551 3.3757 3.32 11.26 Pending
Arcturus_HD_124897_Typ_K1 HD 124897 213.9726 19.1606 -0.05 0.58 Pending
P_Cyg_HD_193237_Typ_B1 HD 193237 304.5154 38.0112 4.82 42.30 Imaged 8-15-2025
Polaris_HD_8890_Typ_F7 HD 8890 42.0407 89.2404 1.98 3.45 Pending
Zet1_Lyr_HD_173648_Typ_kA5 HD 173648 281.2615 37.5833 4.37 28.44 Imaged 8-15-2025
Zet2_Lyr_HD_173649_Typ_F0 HD 173649 281.2691 37.5728 5.74 95.25 Imaged 8-15-2025
Kochab_HD_131873_Typ_K4 HD 131873 222.8743 74.1337 2.08 3.77 Pending
Dschubba_HD_143275_Typ_B0 HD 143275 240.1420 -22.6435 1.59 2.45 Pending
Enif_HD_206778_Typ_K2 HD 206778 326.1014 9.8532 2.37 4.87 Imaged 8-15-2025
Alphecca_HD_139006_Typ_A0 HD 139006 233.7325 26.6929 2.24 4.34 Imaged 8-15-2025
Eltanin_HD_164058_Typ_K5 HD 164058 269.2384 51.4671 2.23 4.30 Imaged 8-15-2025
Thuban_HD_123299_Typ_A0 HD 123299 211.2224 64.3541 3.67 15.33 Pending
h_Uma_HD_81937_Typ_F0 HD 81937 143.0015 63.0401 3.65 15.07 Pending
Theta_Cep_HD_195725_Typ_A7 HD 195725 307.5145 62.9723 4.22 24.91 Imaged 8-15-2025
VZ_Cam_HD_55966_Typ_M4 HD 55966 113.1773 82.3895 4.92 46.20 Pending
Erakis_HD_206936_Typ_M2 HD 206936 325.9813 58.7582 4.08 22.02 Imaged 8-15-2025
42_Her_HD_150450_Typ_M2 HD 150450 249.7692 48.9066 4.86 43.82 Imaged 8-15-2025
V906_Her_HD_150409_Typ_Ma HD 150409 249.7178 48.8405 6.6 203.42 Imaged 8-15-2025
3C273_Quasar_3C273_Typ_Qu Quasar_3C273 187.3321 2.0306 12.9 52772.22 Pending
Neptune_Neptune_Typ_Pl Neptune 0.1331 -1.3658 7.8 586.41 Imaged 8-15-2025
Saturn_Saturn_Typ_Pl Saturn 1.6737 -1.9659 0.99 1.44 Pending
Uranus_Uranus_Typ_Pl Uranus 52.5611 18.6892 5.75 96.09 Pending

Python for Spectroscopy Course Content Notebooks & Assignments

Project Topics Notebook Due Date Partial Solution
0.0. First Access to Slack - Make your first contribution to Slack about your assigned Star! Slack 8/20/25 None
0.1. First Login to JupyterHub - Hand compute celestial coordinates for your assigned star Hand Compute CC 8/20/25 View Only
0.2. What is JupyterLab - Jupyter Notebooks - Learn Basics Intro to Jupyter 8/20/25 View Only
1. Introduction to coding Python inside JupyterLab Intro to Python Part 1 8/20/25 View Only
2. Compute Celestial Coordinates to obtain Live Spectra of Stars Celestial Coordinates 8/20/25 View Only
3. Install the RSpec Application on your Windows system for analysis of your star spectra. Please include word “BAROspection” in the form for download RSpec download & Install 8/21/25 None
4. More Advanced topics in Python Intro to Python Part 2 None. For reference and help only View Only
5. Numpy and Pandas libraries for numerical calculations and learning to use Dataframes Intro to Numpy TBD View Only
6. Visualizations and Animations Intro to Visualization TBD View Only

Light & Matter and Electromagnetism

  1. What is Light?
  2. Electromagnetic Waves
  3. Photons & Matter
  4. Jupyter Notebook - Light Basics View Only

Light & Matter Interactions

  1. What is a Blackbody
  2. Electromagnetic Spectrum
  3. Modeling a Black Body
  4. Waves & Particles
  5. Jupyter Notebook - Light & Matter Interactions View Only

Spectroscopy

  1. What is Spectroscopy
  2. Types of Spectra
    1. Continuous Spectrum
    2. Absorption Spectrum
    3. Emission Spectrum
  3. Source of Spectral Lines
  4. Calculating Balmer’s Constant
  5. Doppler Effect on Spectral Lines
  6. Jupyter Notebook - Absorption & Emission Spectra View Only

Star Properties

  1. Star Types
  2. What can you learn from Star Spectra
  3. HertzSprung Russell Diagram (HRD)
  4. Plot an HRD for Sun’s 100 Parsec neighbourhood
  5. Jupyter Notebook - HRD

Obtain Spectra from the BARO Telescope

  1. Spectral Grating configuration on BARO
  2. Selecting Targets in the Solar Neiborhood
  3. Create Target List for Hot & Cool Stars & Nebulae
  4. Schedule to obtain Spectra
  5. Calibrate using RSpec

Analyze & Publish Sprectral Images

  1. Use RSpec to Analyze Spectral Lines
  2. Measure Wavelenghts & Frequencies
  3. Measure Shift in Spectral Lines
  4. Compare against NIST Standard
  5. Publish yoiur results in a Jupyter Notebook
  6. Post examples to RSpec website
Item Date Topic Google Meet Link Google Recording Link
1a Fri, Aug 15, 2025 6:30 - 8:00 PM Pacific Time Intro to Spectroscopy & Jupyter Notebooks Google Meet link The recording from the following session contains the full 3.5 hours from Aug 15th
1b Fri, Aug 15, 2025 8:00 - 11:00 PM Pacific Time OPTIONAL - Obtain Spectra from BARO telescope Google Meet link Google Meeting Recording
2 Thu, Aug 21, 2025 6:30 - 8:00 PM Pacific Time OPTIONAL - Informal/Friendly Walkthrough of RSpec by Mr. Tom Field Zoom link Google Meeting Recording TBA
3 Fri, Aug 22, 2025 6:30 - 8:00 PM Pacific Time Light & Matter. Absorption & Emission Spectra & Types of Spectroscopy Google Meet link Google Meeting Recording TBA
4 Fri, Aug 29, 2025 6:30 - 8:00 PM Pacific Time Star Classifications and RSpec analysis of BARO spectra obtained Google Meet link Google Meeting Recording TBA
5 Fri, Sep 05, 2025 6:30 - 8:00 PM Pacific Time Properties of Stars and Galaxies using Spectra Google Meet link Google Meeting Recording TBA
6 Fri, Sep 12, 2025 6:30 - 8:00 PM Pacific Time Share our final results by sharing our published data in Jupyter Notebooks Google Meet link Google Meeting Recording TBA