Welcome to Astrolab

Lab links

Skill links

Software for Lab computers

This install script includes most of the software necessary for the lab. It works for ubuntu-derived linux systems, but the software packages are available for most platforms.

Plotting w/ Matplotlib

Download and open code with "emacs plot_simple_sine.py" from the terminal. Start ipython with "ipython --pylab" from the terminal.

Computer control and data acquisition

Type "arduino" from the terminal.

Sensors

Latex document preparation (for lab reports)

You can run latex via a command like "pdflatex latex_simple_with_plot.tex" which will generate a PDF file.

Ephemeris computation (PyEphem)

Soldering

Circuit Elements

FITS files

FITS = Flexible Image Transport System: a standard image / data format for astronomical information.

"sudo pip install pyfits"

Convolution

Important for the radio astronomy tasks.

Reference Material

A Beginner's Guide to Working with Astronomical Data by Markus Pössel