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General Information

Data Carpentry develops and teaches workshops on the fundamental data skills needed to conduct research. Its target audience is researchers who have little to no prior computational experience, and its lessons are domain specific, building on learners' existing knowledge to enable them to quickly apply skills learned to their own research. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.

For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Good Enough Practices for Scientific Computing".

Astronomical Data Science with Python covers a range of core concepts necessary to efficiently study the ever-growing datasets developed in modern astronomy. In particular, this workshop teaches learners to perform database operations (SQL queries, joins, filtering) and to create publication-quality data visualisations. Learners will use software packages common to the general and astronomy-specific data science communities (Pandas, Astropy, Astroquery combined with two astronomical datasets: the large, all-sky, multi-dimensional dataset from the Gaia satellite, which measures the positions, motions, and distances of approximately a billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy with unprecedented accuracy and precision; and the Pan-STARRS photometric survey, which precisely measures light output and distribution from many stars. Together, the software and datasets are used to reproduce part of the analysis from the article “Off the beaten path: Gaia reveals GD-1 stars outside of the main stream” by Drs. Adrian M. Price-Whelan and Ana Bonaca. This lesson shows how to identify and visualize the GD-1 stellar stream, which is a globular cluster that has been tidally stretched by the Milky Way.

Where: This training will take place online. The instructors will provide you with the information you will need to connect to this meeting.

When: March 07 - 09, 2022.

Requirements: Participants must have access to a computer with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below).

Accessibility: We are dedicated to providing a positive and accessible learning environment for all. Please notify the instructors in advance of the workshop if you require any accommodations or if there is anything we can do to make this workshop more accessible to you.

Contact: Please email or training@esciencecenter.nl for more information.

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Code of Conduct

Everyone who participates in Carpentries activities is required to conform to the Code of Conduct. This document also outlines how to report an incident if needed.

Report a Code of Conduct Incident

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Syllabus

• Incremental creation of complex ADQL and SQL queries.
• Using Astroquery to query a remote server in Python.
• Transforming coordinates between common coordinate systems using Astropy units and coordinates.
• Working with common astronomical file formats, including FITS, HDF5, and CSV.
• Managing your data with Pandas DataFrames and Astropy Tables.
• Writing functions to make your work less error-prone and more reproducible.
• Creating a reproducible workflow that brings the computation to the data.
• Customising all elements of a plot and creating complex, multi-panel, publication-quality graphics.

Schedule

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Setup

To participate in a Data Carpentry workshop, you will need access to software as described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

Software setup

The setup instructions for the Data Carpentry Astronomy workshops can be found at the workshop overview site.

Install the videoconferencing client

If you haven't used Zoom before, go to the official website to download and install the Zoom client for your computer.

Set up your workspace

Like other Carpentries workshops, you will be learning by "coding along" with the Instructors. To do this, you will need to have both the window for the tool you will be learning about (a terminal, RStudio, your web browser, etc..) and the window for the Zoom video conference client open. In order to see both at once, we recommend using one of the following set up options:

• Two monitors: If you have two monitors, plan to have the tool you are learing up on one monitor and the video conferencing software on the other.
• Two devices: If you don't have two monitors, do you have another device (tablet, smartphone) with a medium to large sized screen? If so, try using the smaller device as your video conference connection and your larger device (laptop or desktop) to follow along with the tool you will be learning about.
• Divide your screen: If you only have one device and one screen, practice having two windows (the video conference program and one of the tools you will be using at the workshop) open together. How can you best fit both on your screen? Will it work better for you to toggle between them using a keyboard shortcut? Try it out in advance to decide what will work best for you.

This blog post includes detailed information on how to set up your screen to follow along during the workshop.