[AstroPy] Practical Python for Astronomers web tutorial

[Tom Aldcroft]

The goal was definitely to make a living document that would be
improved and expanded by contributions from the community.  That was a
key motivation for hosting the source and web site on github and
writing it using Sphinx.  Adding content is as easy as forking the
repository, writing new material and building locally until you are
happy, then submitting a github pull request.  If someone became a
regular contributor we would be happy to add them as a project member
with full commit rights.  Other methods for contributing would also
work of course, e.g. emailing a tar file with new content.

If there is interest along these lines please let me know or talk to
me at SciPy.

- Tom

On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 7:40 PM, Erik Tollerud <erik.tollerud at gmail.com> wrote:
> Are you planning on having this be a "living document"?  That is, do
> you intend to have this document evolve and want others to submit new
> sections or improvements for future workshops, or just things like
> small improvements and typo corrections?
>
> On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 7:18 AM, Tom Aldcroft
> <aldcroft at head.cfa.harvard.edu> wrote:
>> My colleagues and I would like to announce the availability of a web
>> tutorial aimed at teaching Python to astronomers through a series of
>> interactive workshops:
>>
>>  http://python4astronomers.github.com/
>>
>> Practical Python for Astronomers is a series of hands-on workshops to
>> explore the Python language and the analysis tools it provides. The
>> emphasis is on using Python to solve real-world problems that
>> astronomers are likely to encounter in research.  Some features:
>>
>> - Workshops immediately use plotting, analysis, and file reading tools.
>> - Along the way elements of the Python language are introduced.
>> - Workshops are interactive using examples run by participants on their laptops.
>> - Comprehensive instructions a given for installing a full Python environment.
>>
>> There are two goals.  First is to provide tutorials suitable for
>> self-study by those wishing to learn Python for astronomy.  The
>> 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
>> https://github.com/python4astronomers/. 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 at 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.  One key accomplishment was installing a working
>> Python with NumPy, SciPy, and IPython on over 50 laptops (MacOS,
>> linux, and Windows) during a single session.
>>
>> Tom Aldcroft
>> Tom Robitaille
>> Brian Refsdal
>> Gus Muench
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>> AstroPy at scipy.org
>> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/astropy
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Erik Tollerud
>
>