Python in Astronomy

Python in AstronomyDr Haley Gomez

@astrofairy

django weekend Cardiff - 7-9th Feb 2014

thanks to Edward Gomez (@zemogle) and Thomas Robitaille (@astrofrog)

astronomy then

© Copyright California Institute of Technology

astronomy nowvery hot

gas

cold gas

FITS format

• first successful cross-platform way to share astronomical data

• contains metadata which can be read

• long term data storage

how do we store this?

the problemBig Data and Rich Data

survey astronomy

How do we prepare the astronomy community?

why python?• open source, cross platform• easy to learn• communicates with Fortran and C++• many different packages• cooperative sharing• blurred lines

reproducability

Thomas Robitaille, Perry Greenfield, Erik Tollerud

.units/.constants

.coordinates

.time

.table/ .ascii

.fits

.wcs

.modelling

.ndata

.convolution

.stats

.cosmologymontage, APLpy,

astroML

astropy ‘core’ package:

Only has Numpy as non-optional dependency

Well tested, documented code

Community consensus for inclusion

Cross platform and easy to install

Python 3 compatible

e.g. astropy.units

e.g. combine images of an object

e.g. bringing things together

machine learningsignal?

http://www.astropy.orghttp://aplpy.github.io/

This research made use of Astropy, a community-developed core Python package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration, 2013)