From sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net Mon Jan 4 21:21:22 2010 From: sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net (Wayne Watson) Date: Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:21:22 -0800 Subject: [AstroPy] Is There an AstroCalc Module? In-Reply-To: References: <4B38DF8E.3040901@sbcglobal.net> <8044925C-1661-4AF6-800E-64D2E3515EED@uw.edu> <4B38FA1D.2050009@sbcglobal.net> <4FEEB42C-4B53-4EC9-8293-200D4D3BA5CA@uw.edu> <4B3BA4E5.50500@sbcglobal.net> <4B3BB605.2050006@sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: <4B42A222.5040905@sbcglobal.net> Mr. Perrin. Ah, so I need to be a professional and credentialed astronomer and work for some academic institution or major observatory? Admittedly, I am not an astronomer and work on my own. However, the problem I'm trying to solve is no simple task, and some of the tools I think I see here can help me solve it. The taks is quite important to a collection of people who want to do this. My problem concerns two-station determination of meteor trajectories, ground and atmospheric. If you are the moderator and plan to silence me, then I think I can get what I need elsewhere, if necessary. You could just ignore me. I had hoped this list would be a bit more cordial. Although I appreciate Mr. Owens providing to a direct route to the description of his library, I see it is not what I hoped for. Googling, (Yes, I do know how to do that and suggest searching with it are bit more complex than you say.) with python "astronomy library examples" has given me some useful insight what I might expect elsewhere. Further, I now have access to a very good astro library in C++ that looks like it will serve my purposes. I only suffer the inconvenience of translating some of the functions to Python. I do believe for the most part they are short. Of course, I do have access to the common Python math, linear algebra, regression, non-linear optimization methods that are in no way connected to this list. Perhaps you can bear with me a little longer while I get my feet a little wet, so to speak. Marshall Perrin wrote: > > Mr. Watson, > > /Please learn to use Google/. Ten seconds with any web browser will > tell you what PyPI is, and with a few more clicks you can find your > way to the overview documentation that Russell describes. Likewise for > SLALIB, DST conversions, and pretty much the majority of your posts to > this list. > > You really should understand, astropy is a list for full-time > professional astronomy researchers. At that level, folks are expected > to know how to do a reasonable amount of research on their own. Your > frequent queries on basic matters that could be answered via a web > search seem unnecessary and add mostly noise to the list. Please do > the rest of us the courtesy of trying to resolve things on your own, > or else emailing individual contacts rather than bombarding the list > with so many posts per day! > > I hope this doesn't come across wrong - I'm not trying to discourage > you! - I just would encourage you to try learning how to resolve some > of these issues on your own. > > - Marshall > > > > On Dec 30, 2009, at 3:20 PM, Wayne Watson wrote: > >> What is PyPI? I unzipped the file, and searched for an html, but don't >> see any. I guess it's only at PyPI. Snap shot of my folder below >> this line. >> >> >> Russell Owen wrote: >>> There is an overview at PyPI and in an html doc that is part of the >>> source distro. Other than that, no...use the doc strings and the info >>> I sent you. >>> >>> -- Russell >>> >>> On Dec 30, 2009, at 11:07 AM, Wayne Watson wrote: >>> >>>> Before I install it, is there a document that summarizes what's in >>>> it? That is, gives a brief summary of each function? >>>> >>>> Russell Owen wrote: >>>>> The RO package is pure python so I only have a source code version >>>>> available. That is the one you want. >>>>> >>>>> I suggest you use "easy_install" or "pip" to install it. >>>>> >>>>> You can also install it by downloading it and running "setup.py >>>>> install" in the main directory--though it may require setuptools. >>>>> Once you have installed setuptools you have "easy_install" so you >>>>> might as well use that. (pip also requires setuptools -- nearly any >>>>> sort of installer does these days). >>>>> >>>>> Or if you wish to avoid setuptools then you can download the source >>>>> and copy or move the "RO" directory (/python/RO) into >>>>> your site-packages directory. I don't know where site-packages is on >>>>> Windows. >>>>> >>>>> Regards, >>>>> >>>>> -- Russell >>>>> >>>>> On Dec 28, 2009, at 10:34 AM, Wayne Watson wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Hi, I'm on Python 2.5, Windows. Are any of the downloads on the >>>>>> link applicable to my situation? If I use it, where under >>>>>> c:/Python25 do I put it? Lib? >>>>>> >>>>>> Russell Owen wrote: >>>>>>> There is various software that will perform astronomical >>>>>>> transformations of time and position. I do not know what exists >>>>>>> for projections (other than any projections that might exist in >>>>>>> matplotlib). >>>>>>> >>>>>>> One option is RO.Astro >>>>>>> >>>>>> >, which I >>>>>>> wrote. The routines are easy to use (see documentation in doc >>>>>>> strings) and the coordinate transformations are performed to high >>>>>>> accuracy. It is pure python (though it uses numpy) so it is >>>>>>> trivial to install and fully cross-platform, but not as fast as >>>>>>> some other options. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Overview: >>>>>>> RO.Sph: handles computations in spherical coordinates (e.g. RA/Dec >>>>>>> to Az/Alt). RO.Sph.coordConv is the "do it all" routine. It also >>>>>>> has angSideAng, a routine to handle spherical geometry >>>>>>> computations, and routines to convert between spherical and >>>>>>> cartesian coordinates. >>>>>>> RO.Cnv: handles computations in cartesian coordinates; this is >>>>>>> where most of the real computations are performed >>>>>>> RO.Tm: handles various time computations >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> -- Russell >>>>>>> >>>>>>> On Dec 28, 2009, at 8:40 AM, Wayne Watson wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> See Subject. I'm looking for something like the methods >>>>>>>> described in >>>>>>>> Meeus' Astro Formulae for Calculators. Something too that provides >>>>>>>> rotation matrices, calculations to find sidereal time, and az >>>>>>>> equal-distance projections. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA) >>>>>> >>>>>> (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time) >>>>>> Obz Site: 39? 15' 7" N, 121? 2' 32" W, 2700 >>>>>> feet "... humans'innate skills with >>>>>> numbers isn't much >>>>>> better than that of rats and >>>>>> dolphins." -- Stanislas Dehaene, >>>>>> neurosurgeon Web Page: >>>>>> > >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA) >>>> >>>> (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time) >>>> Obz Site: 39? 15' 7" N, 121? 2' 32" W, 2700 >>>> feet "We're leaving you with a world >>>> that runs like >>>> clockwork. And the clock it runs like is a cuckoo >>>> clock." -- Frank Oppenheimer, physicist >>>> Web Page: >>> > >>>> >>> >>> >> >> -- >> Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA) >> >> (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time) >> Obz Site: 39? 15' 7" N, 121? 2' 32" W, 2700 feet >> >> "We're leaving you with a world that runs like >> clockwork. And the clock it runs like is a cuckoo >> clock." -- Frank Oppenheimer, physicist >> >> Web Page: > > >> >> _______________________________________________ >> AstroPy mailing list >> AstroPy at scipy.org >> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/astropy > -- Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA) (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time) Obz Site: 39? 15' 7" N, 121? 2' 32" W, 2700 feet "We're leaving you with a world that runs like clockwork. And the clock it runs like is a cuckoo clock." -- Frank Oppenheimer, physicist Web Page: From sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net Mon Jan 4 21:38:32 2010 From: sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net (Wayne Watson) Date: Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:38:32 -0800 Subject: [AstroPy] Module for Determining the Radiant Constellation for a Meteor? Message-ID: <4B42A628.1000505@sbcglobal.net> See subject. If I know the radiant point, does such Python code exist? -- Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA) (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time) Obz Site: 39? 15' 7" N, 121? 2' 32" W, 2700 feet "We're leaving you with a world that runs like clockwork. And the clock it runs like is a cuckoo clock." -- Frank Oppenheimer, physicist Web Page: From sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net Thu Jan 7 11:41:31 2010 From: sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net (Wayne Watson) Date: Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:41:31 -0800 Subject: [AstroPy] Module for Determining the Radiant Constellation for a Meteor? In-Reply-To: <4B42A628.1000505@sbcglobal.net> References: <4B42A628.1000505@sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: <4B460EBB.8010901@sbcglobal.net> Thinking about this a bit further, I think this should be pretty easy if there is a table or data set containing all the boundary data for each constellation. I haven't looked yet, but I would think the boundaries follow lines of RA/DEC, and not be drawn in some sort of zig-zag fashion. If so, then this should not be hard. It appears this is the "official" site for these matters. . Doesn't one of the astronomical python libraries have either the wherewithal to use it, and possibly even a simple file that just contains the boundaries. It looks like the IAU has 88 files, and more non-boundary data than needed for this. Maybe there's even one big file? Wayne Watson wrote: > See subject. If I know the radiant point, does such Python code exist? > > -- Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA) (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time) Obz Site: 39? 15' 7" N, 121? 2' 32" W, 2700 feet "We're leaving you with a world that runs like clockwork. And the clock it runs like is a cuckoo clock." -- Frank Oppenheimer, physicist Web Page: From sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net Thu Jan 7 12:11:26 2010 From: sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net (Wayne Watson) Date: Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:11:26 -0800 Subject: [AstroPy] A Small Useful Astronomy Python Module Message-ID: <4B4615BE.5030003@sbcglobal.net> While looking for a basic library more suitable for my needs, I found one (more like stumbled onto) at New Mexico Tech called sidereal. See . It works for my present needs. I would think the other universities, colleges, tech schools with an undergraduate program in astronomy might have similar libraries. -- Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA) (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time) Obz Site: 39? 15' 7" N, 121? 2' 32" W, 2700 feet "We're leaving you with a world that runs like clockwork. And the clock it runs like is a cuckoo clock." -- Frank Oppenheimer, physicist Web Page: From pebarrett at gmail.com Sun Jan 10 18:31:58 2010 From: pebarrett at gmail.com (Paul Barrett) Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:31:58 -0500 Subject: [AstroPy] Is There an AstroCalc Modulo? In-Reply-To: <200912281341.11466.sransom@nrao.edu> References: <4B38DD82.4080709@sbcglobal.net> <200912281153.24377.sransom@nrao.edu> <4B38F89F.5080706@sbcglobal.net> <200912281341.11466.sransom@nrao.edu> Message-ID: <40e64fa21001101531w2b1790a5sbc6e49f48f854e33@mail.gmail.com> Note that there is also the NOVAS library from the US Naval Observatory, which does not have the licensing restrictions that SLAlib has. However, currently there are no Python binding for this library. It is my hope to provide some one day. -- Paul On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 1:41 PM, Scott Ransom wrote: > Hi Wayne, > > SLALIB is a professional-grade library of Astronomical routines, mostly > for coordinate and time conversion. ? You can find documentation of all > the routines at many sites on the web. > > e.g.: ?http://star-www.rl.ac.uk/star/docs/sun67.htx/sun67.html > > You install it using the normal "python setup.py install" in the > directory where it was unzipped. ?However, I've never used it under > Windows and am not sure if anything special is needed or not (I suspect > there will be some trickery involved). > > Scott > > On Monday 28 December 2009 01:27:43 pm you wrote: >> Hello. What is SLALAB, and where do I put the unzipped file >> ?(Windows)? Is there documentation for this? >> >> Scott Ransom wrote: >> > Hi Wayne, >> > >> > I wrapped all of SLALIB a year or two ago and it has most or all of >> > what you are looking for I think. ?You can get it here: >> > >> > http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~sransom/pyslalib-1.0.tar.gz >> > >> > Scott >> > >> > On Monday 28 December 2009 11:32:02 am Wayne Watson wrote: >> >> See Subject. I'm looking for something like the methods described >> >> in Meeus' Astro Formulae for Calculators. Something too that >> >> provides rotation matrices, ?calculations to find sidereal time, >> >> and ?az equal-distance projections. >> > > -- > Scott M. Ransom ? ? ? ? ? ?Address: ?NRAO > Phone: ?(434) 296-0320 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 520 Edgemont Rd. > email: ?sransom at nrao.edu ? ? ? ? ? ? Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA > GPG Fingerprint: 06A9 9553 78BE 16DB 407B ?FFCA 9BFA B6FF FFD3 2989 > _______________________________________________ > AstroPy mailing list > AstroPy at scipy.org > http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/astropy > From sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net Mon Jan 11 21:44:01 2010 From: sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net (Wayne Watson) Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:44:01 -0800 Subject: [AstroPy] Killing Two Birds with One Stone--PyEphem and Radiant Constellation Message-ID: <4B4BE1F1.4080005@sbcglobal.net> In two posts above, "Module for Determining the Radiant Constellation for a Meteor?", and "A Small Useful Astronomy Python Module", I found what I needed in PyPphem a few hours ago. It looks quite good for my purposes, and the documentation (tutorial and quick reference). It even has city and star catalogs, and a method for determining the constellation of a point. I'm impressed. The sidereal module I mentioned in on of the posts is interesting, but there doesn't seem much support for it, nor any user documentation. I contacted the school where it is found, and they barely knew about it. Only their computer center. -- Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA) (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time) Obz Site: 39? 15' 7" N, 121? 2' 32" W, 2700 feet "I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me . . they're cramming for their final exam." -- George Carlin Web Page: From alsmirn at gmail.com Tue Jan 12 07:48:25 2010 From: alsmirn at gmail.com (Alexey Smirnov) Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:48:25 +0300 Subject: [AstroPy] adist - compute photometric distances with python Message-ID: <373b18711001120448s2f0d1a91ib816b87fdf0481b5@mail.gmail.com> Dear colleagues, I'm glad to present you a small python library called "adist". The main goal of this module is a computation of photometric distances using different extinction models: - Arenou model (described here: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992A%26A...258..104A); - model based on standards (described here: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AstL...34...17T); - I suppose another ones in the future. Link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/adist/ I hope that "adist" will help you in future research! Project is open for contribution ;) -- Alexey Smirnov alsmirn.moikrug.ru [ru] ru.linkedin.com/in/alsmirn [en] From pebarrett at gmail.com Wed Jan 13 10:35:32 2010 From: pebarrett at gmail.com (Paul Barrett) Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:35:32 -0500 Subject: [AstroPy] Is There an AstroCalc Modulo? In-Reply-To: <4B4A6668.9000406@home.nl> References: <4B38DD82.4080709@sbcglobal.net> <200912281153.24377.sransom@nrao.edu> <4B38F89F.5080706@sbcglobal.net> <200912281341.11466.sransom@nrao.edu> <40e64fa21001101531w2b1790a5sbc6e49f48f854e33@mail.gmail.com> <4B4A6668.9000406@home.nl> Message-ID: <40e64fa21001130735h7ae3f5abl1b19726ca9d4dc16@mail.gmail.com> Jaap, Thanks for pointing this out to me. I'll take a look at it and see what else can be done. I have two goals in mind for this library: 1) to provide a higher level interface than what is typically found by just wrapping a C or FORTRAN library, and 2) to vectorize it for use with lists or arrays. An example of #1 is converting a position at a particular epoch in B1950 to one in J2000 in a single function or method call. Often you have to string together two or three different function calls to get the desired result. As for #2, it would be nice to provide a list of stellar positions and have the function or method return a list of new positions. This is not only faster for large lists, but more convenient. If you are interested in participating, we would welcome the help. -- Paul On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 6:44 PM, Jaap Spies wrote: > Paul Barrett wrote: >> >> Note that there is also the NOVAS library from the US Naval >> Observatory, which does not have the licensing restrictions that >> SLAlib has. ?However, currently there are no Python binding for this >> library. ?It is my hope to provide some one day. >> > > Long time ago I made this: > > > Pynovas: http://pynovas.sourceforge.net/ > > Maybe someone (me?) can pick this up? > > Jaap > From cohen at lpta.in2p3.fr Wed Jan 13 15:39:05 2010 From: cohen at lpta.in2p3.fr (Johann Cohen-Tanugi) Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:39:05 +0100 Subject: [AstroPy] check out http://www.astropython.org/ Message-ID: <4B4E2F69.3000404@lpta.in2p3.fr> Nice effort! Maybe they could mention this mailing list.... Johann From sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net Thu Jan 14 10:45:44 2010 From: sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net (Wayne Watson) Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:45:44 -0800 Subject: [AstroPy] check out http://www.astropython.org/ In-Reply-To: <4B4E2F69.3000404@lpta.in2p3.fr> References: <4B4E2F69.3000404@lpta.in2p3.fr> Message-ID: <4B4F3C28.9080308@sbcglobal.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From aldcroft at head.cfa.harvard.edu Thu Jan 14 13:50:09 2010 From: aldcroft at head.cfa.harvard.edu (Tom Aldcroft) Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:50:09 -0500 Subject: [AstroPy] astropython.org Message-ID: While we had planned to announce the www.astropython.org site very shortly to the astropy mailing list, I'm pleased that the news is already spreading. So on behalf of the AstroPython team I would like to formally introduce a new web site: http://www.astropython.org The purpose of this web site is to act as a community-driven knowledge base for performing astronomy research using the Python language. It provides a forum for general discussion, advice, or relevant news items, collecting lists of useful resources, users' code snippets or scripts, and longer tutorials on specific topics. We hope that members of this mailing list will get involved and be able to contribute ideas and content. Since the site is newly developed any suggestions about the web site design or content would be most appreciated. And yes, we will certainly add a reference to the astropy mailing list, with apologies for not having already included it. All of us do follow this list. Sincerely, The AstroPython team Gus Muench, Eli Bressert, Thomas Robitaille, Tom Aldcroft