[AstroPy] Hello from Siddhartha :)

[LAMBERT-HUYGHE Antigone]

Hi Siddhartha,

When you say you want to be part of astronomy, there are multiple ways, it only depend on what you want to do.

If you want to help in libraries, there are many of them, and indeed contributing to astropy is a very good way. However it cannot make a living, because it is a free open-source package and  you won't be paid for that (if I'm wrong, please correct me).

If you want to do research in astronomy/astrophysics, you will probably need to take one more master, to have a degree in astophysics (take care : it need a lots of physics knowledge). Most of the time you don't find a permanent job without having also a PhD, but it may be easier for engineers.

Sometimes, for groups working in hughe simulations or domains that require delicate high-level coding (cosmology, magneto-hydrodynamic simulations, etc...) groups can search for a developper/informatician with background or at least interest in astrophysics. There are also lots of data treatment and database organisation, and you can postulate for that.

There is a lot of coding and informatic work in astrophysics, but most of the time it is done by astrophysicists themselves. This field is funded by states, and as it doesn't produce directly benefits we don't have a lot of funding, so there is no money to hire specialists in informatics, even if it would be better.

So My advice would be to take more lessons, that at least give you an official level in astrophysics, and postulate in simulation and large data treatment. And be ready to travel a lot, too.

Cheers

Antigone
________________________________
De : AstroPy [astropy-bounces+antigone.lambert-huyghe=cea.fr at python.org] de la part de Aldcroft, Thomas [aldcroft at head.cfa.harvard.edu]
Envoyé : mercredi 16 octobre 2019 19:15
À : Astronomical Python mailing list
Objet : Re: [AstroPy] Hello from Siddhartha :)

Hi Siddhartha,

Thanks for your interest in astropy!  The best place to start is to look at the contribute page and see where you like to help out:

https://www.astropy.org/contribute.html

Cheers,
Tom


On Wed, Oct 16, 2019 at 11:53 AM Siddhartha Anand <siddharthalibra13 at gmail.com<mailto:siddharthalibra13 at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi Guys,

I am a Software Engineer based out of Bangalore, India. I have a background in Computer Science and have a Masters in Data Mining too. My personal interests lie in crawling large datasets and playing with them.

I have been interested in Astronomy since my school days
and now I would like to be a part of it.

I want to know how to build a career in this field where I can also use my
skills as a Software Engineer, and of course, end up contributing to this
package astropy as well.

Thanks much for your time,
Siddhartha

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