Learner profile of an
Observational Astronomer
John is an observational astronomer who primarily uses HST and Subaru data. Over his time as a researcher, he has acquired a set of skills and knowledge he uses regularly, such as:
- Accessing MAST
- Reducing HST CCD data
- Reducing Subaru data using a legacy pipeline
- Maintaining and reading legacy code
- Using SExtractor
- Using IRAF to model galaxy light profiles
- Creating masks
- Measuring profiles of point sources
- Creating completeness measurements
- Using APT (aperture photometry tool) to look at individual point sources
- Using DS9
- Displaying images
- Layering images
- Creating region files/overlays
- Sanity checking outputs
- Visually inspecting areas/point sources of interest/conflict
- Writing Python code with powerful libraries:
- NumPy
- pandas
- SciPy
- Astropy
- Astroquery
- Scikit-learn
- pandas
- AstroML
- Planning and executing observations with ground-based telescopes