python4astronomy

Course repository for the Python for Astronomy Fall 2024 Workshop

taught for BRIEF Boyce Astro Foundation by Chandru Narayan (updated dec 3 2024)

m99

Welcome to Python for Astronomy Workshop! 

Welcome back after the Thanksgiving Break!


The Cosmic Perspective

Workshop commences 8:00 PM Pacific Time Thursday, Nov 14th, 2024. See below for details

Our workshop will cover a smattering of interesting or historically significant Astronomy 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 Astronomy related topics as you clearly are astro enthusiasts! The primary audience for this course are High 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 & Google colab)
  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 5 sessions every Thursday starting Nov 14th, 2024. 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.

Python for Astronomy Course Website (this site)

What is Jupyter?

If you are not familiar with Project Jupyter, Jupyter Notebook JupyterLab or 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 <your last name>. followed by the word p4a you provided in your registration. For instance, my username would be chandru.narayan.p4a . The first time you will log in, create a 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 brief.pythonintro@gmail.com, I will reset it. Please see created usernames below.

User Names created for the Fall 2024 Class

Email First Last Username
Advaith Arvind adz.astro@gmail.com advaith.arvind.p4a
Gabriel Avanesian gavanesian10@gmail.com gabriel.avanesian.p4a
aravindaksha balaji aravindakshabalaji@gmail.com aravindaksha.balaji.p4a
Karissa belzer Karissa.belzer@gmail.com karissa.belzer.p4a
Nicholas Bettwy nicholas.bettwy@gmail.com nicholas.bettwy.p4a
Grady Boyce grady@boyce-astro.org grady.boyce.p4a
Scott Dixon scottdixon@hotmail.com scott.dixon.p4a
Fatemeh Fallahnejad Fatemehfallah767@gmail.com joey.han.p4a
Russ Genet russmgenet@aol.com russ.genet.p4a
Joey Han mbird5363@gmail.com russ.genet.p4a
Richard Jaworski richjaw001@gmail.com richard.jaworski.p4a
Richard Jaworski richjaw001@gmail.com richard.jaworski.p4a
Vanyaa Khandelwal vanyaa.khandelwal@gmail.com vanyaa.khandelwal.p4a
Edward Kim ejaewonkim@gmail.com edward.kim.p4a
Sigi Li aoswego@outlook.com siqi.li.p4a
Abhiram Manuguri abhiram.manuguri@gmail.com abhiram.manuguri.p4a
Paul McCudden pmccudden@coloradomtn.edu paul.mccudden.p4a
Pranav mksb pranavmksb@gmail.com pranav.mksb.p4a
Aneesh Nayak aneesh.nayak211@gmail.com aneesh.nayak.p4a
Lizaveta Nikitsenka lizaveta.nikitsenka@gmail.com lizaveta.nikitsenka.p4a
Rajaabirami Rajakumar rajaabirami01@gmail.com rajaabirami.rajakumar.p4a
Darshan Ravi darshanraviv@gmail.com darshan.ravi.p4a
Dhruvan Ravi dhruvanravisprouts@gmail.com dhruvan.ravi.p4a
Ayush Roy aayushroy2009@gmail.com ayush.roy.p4a
Ross Saliinger rgsalinger@gmail.com ross.saliinger.p4a
Priyanka Sindhu priyanka612bs@gmail.com priyanka.sindhu.p4a
Henna Sohail hennahmedsohail@gmail.com henna.sohail.p4a
mailx234 student mailx234@gmail.com mailx234.student.p4a
Saraswathi Venkataramani chakku41@gmail.com saraswathi.venkataramani.p4a
Dhanraj Warjurkar warjurkar@hotmail.com dhanraj.warjurkar.p4a
Wayne Westlake 24launch@gmail.com wayne.westlake.p4a

Workshop organization & JupyterHub - 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.

Projects & Materials Access

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

Project Topic Description
0 First Login to JupyterHub - What is JupyterLab - Jupyter Notebooks - Learn Basics - PLEASE COMPLETE AHEAD OF SEMINAR START DATE
1 Start your first project - Intro to Jupyter Markdown LaTeX Python Plotting
2 Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Newton and Elliptical Orbits - the most natural way to move
3 Star Magnitudes and Logarithms - change is everything
4 Gaia Query and plotting half-a-million stars in Sun’s immediate 200-parsec neighborhood
5 Hertzsprung Russell Diagrams of Star Clusters - the keystone of Astronomy
6 Hertzsprung Russell Diagrams of Star Clusters - SHOW & TELL STUDENT WORK!
Item Date Google Meet Link Google Recording Link
1 Thu, Nov 14, 2024 8:00 - 9:00 PM Pacific Time Google Meet link Google Meeting Recording Ready
2 Thu, Nov 21, 2024 NO CLASS (TRAVELING BACK FROM INDIA) !! Google Meet link –NO CLASS–
3 Thu, Nov 28, 2024 NO CLASS (THANKSGIVING WEEKEND) !! Google Meet link –NO CLASS–
4 Thu, Dec 5, 2024 8:00 - 9:00 PM Pacific Time Google Meet link Sorry - no recording available - forgot to initiate!
5 Thu, Dec 12, 2024 8:00 - 9:00 PM Pacific Time Google Meet link Google Meeting Recording Ready
5 Thu, Dec 19, 2024 8:00 - 9:00 PM Pacific Time Google Meet link Google Meeting Recording TBA
6 Thu, Dec 30, 2024 8:00 - 9:00 PM Pacific Time Google Meet link Google Meeting Recording TBA
7 Thu, Jan 06, 2025 8:00 - 9:00 PM Pacific Time Google Meet link Google Meeting Recording TBA
8 Thu, Jan 13, 2025 8:00 - 9:00 PM Pacific Time Google Meet link Google Meeting Recording TBA