Phys 60441: Techniques of Radio Astronomy

Python Programming

Python

This is the Python programming section for Phys 60441 Techniques of Radio Astronomy. The other part is radio interferometry and imaging taught by Neal Jackson.

The Python section will be taught largely through examples - demonstrated by me in the face-to-face sessions and worked on by students outside of these sessions. I'll assume students have no prior experience of programming.



Lecture notes

Lecture 1 - Introduction to the course. Basic example in C, Fortran and Python. Arithmetic. Strings.

Lecture 2 - Lists, for and while loops, if statements, defining functions.

Lecture 3 - Tuples, dictionaries. NumPy arrays, input/output. Introduction to SciPy, numerical integration example. Introduction to Matplotlib.

Lecture 4 - More Matplotlib and SciPy e.g. linear regression and least squares fitting. PyFITS - handling FITS images. Download my example fits image by right-clicking on testimage.fits.

Lecture 5 - Summary from last practical session.

Download the simulated `star' example fits image for the coursework by right-clicking on star.fits.