.. _guide: ESAC Python Workshop ==================== About this website ------------------ This Python course for ESAC is adapted from the `Practical Python for Astronomers `_ course written by Tom Aldcroft, Tom Robitaille, Brian Refsdal, Gus Muench (Copyright 2011, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) and released under a `Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License `_. The present course has been restructured and adapted to reflect the interests of the ESAC audience. About the course ================ The ESAC Python course is a series of hands-on workshops to explore the Python language and the powerful analysis tools it provides. *The emphasis is on using Python to solve real-world problems that astronomers are likely to encounter in research.* - The workshops immediately make use of the full suite of plotting, analysis, and file reading tools. - Along the way elements of the Python language such as data types, control structures, functions, and objects are introduced. - This is an interactive experience using tutorial examples run by participants on their laptops. **Workshop topics** .. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 installation/installation intro/intro pure_python/pure_python files/files core/core plotting/plotting fitting/fitting vo/vo .. toctree:: :hidden: local/local.rst Sample Workshop Schedule ------------------------- The workshop schedule is as follows. Except for the first introductory session all workshops are hands-on and participants should bring a laptop. ======== ======================================= ============== ========= Date Topic Time Presenter ======== ======================================= ============== ========= 30th May Installation and Understanding Packages 9:30-10:00 Eli 30th May Introduction to Python for ESAC 10:00-11:00 Eli 30th May Introduction to Pure Python 11:30-13:00 Neil 30th May Reading and Writing Files 14:00-15:30 Neil 30th May IPython, Numpy and Scipy 15:45-17:00 Pieter 31st May IPython, Numpy and Scipy continued 9:30-11:00 Pieter 31st May Introduction to Matplotlib 11:30-13:00 Pieter 31st May Publication quality plots 14:00-15:30 Neil 31st May Plotting images and APLpy 15:45-17:00 Eli 1st June APLpy continued 9:30-11:00 Eli 1st June Fitting and modelling, Q&A 11:30-13:00 Eli 1st June urllib2, ATPy, examples 14:00-15:30 Neil 1st June multiprocessing, f2py, more examples 15:45-17:00 Pieter ======== ======================================= ============== ========= About the Workshops ------------------- The content presented here is suitable for self-study by those wishing to learn Python for astronomy or other scientific research applications. **A greater goal is for those knowledgable in Python to teach the workshop series at their local institutions, adapting the content as desired.** To that end we have developed the content in `Sphinx `_ RestructuredText and hosted the source on github at ``_. Anyone interested can clone the repository or download a tarball and make modifications needed to present the material locally. We would also welcome comments, fixes, or suggestions for improvement. This can be done as a Github issue or pull request, or by sending email to aldcroft@head.cfa.harvard.edu. The workshop material here was presented in the Spring of 2011 at the Harvard / Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. A range of about 25 to 50 people participated in the different workshops, which were 1.5 hours in duration. Based on our experience a 2 hour slot would have been more reasonable to allow time for the exercises and discussion. About the Format ----------------- The workshop presentations are formatted as Sphinx web documents instead of the more traditional slide presentation. This was a natural choice for the authors who all use `Sphinx`_ for Python documenation. Further inspiration was drawn from `Dumping PowerPoint in Favor of Web Sites `_. This site highlights by discussion and examples the advantages in using a web-based study guide. In particular we found the non-linear format (e.g. jumping to different sections or web sites) and ability to show longer examples were quite valuable. Having full prose text results in a document which is far more useful as a standalone study guide than presentation slides. Ironically it also reduces the temptation to read from the screen. +---+ | | +---+ .. :Authors: Tom Aldcroft, Tom Robitaille, Brian Refsdal, Gus Muench .. :Copyright: 2011 Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory