Introduction to coding using Python
Being able to interact with data is very important as a researcher, and one of the best ways to do that is with coding. The most commonly used coding language in in astronomy is called Python, so that's what we'll be using on Planet Hunters Coffee Chat!
Code can be used to plot and visualise data, to calculate parameters and to keep track of large datasets. Watch the videos below to find out more on how you can get started.
The very first video of this mini-series is an introduction into coding Notebooks (Jupyter notebook and COLAB). Notebooks are a convenient way to keep track of code and notes. Once we have covered the basics of how to work with one of these notebooks, the videos will move on to coding with a tool called Lightkurve. Lightkurve is python tool that allows us to access TESS data and visualise it, and it's a tool that many astronomers use!
All Colab notebooks can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_9DElqVM_1Ww4Y4tIkbjLjLpwO1Cn7Q1?usp=sharing
And all Jupyter Notebooks can be found here:
https://github.com/noraeisner/PH_Coffee_Chat/tree/main/Intro%20to%20Lightkurve
Links:
Jupyter Notebook: https://jupyter.org/
COLAB: https://colab.research.google.com/
Getting started with a coding Notebook
Kassie begins her coding journey! Nora introduces Jupyter Notebooks, and how citizen scientists can use Python to interact with TESS data. This quick tutorial covers how to get started with python coding in a Notebook. It starts off by going over how to run a Jupyter notebook, before moving on to coding in a COLAB notebook. You can find the links to both below. If you're new to coding we suggest that you start off with COLAB, as this is a completely online tool and doesn't require you to dowload anything.
This document will provide some more information on how to get started with both Jupyter Notebook and COLAB.
Plotting data using LightKurve
This tutorial covers how to download TESS data using the lightkurve tool and how to plot it. To get started, open the Colab notebook (this can be found online and doesn’t require installation; however, a Google account is needed). Alternatively, if you have Jupyter notebook already installed on your computer, download the provided Jupyter notebook file and open with your local version of the program. If you haven't already we recommend you watch last weeks video on how to get started with Python.
Link: https://docs.lightkurve.org/
Click the logos to open up the Colab notebook or to download the Jupyter notebook. You can use these to follow along with the video.
Click the logos to open up the Colab notebook or to download the Jupyter notebook. You can use these to follow along with the video.
How do you make your data look beautiful using Lightkurve?
Once you have downloaded and plotted TESS data, you might want to change the colour of the figure, or alter the size of the markers. In this episode Nora and Kassie discuss how to enhance a figure not just to make it look prettier, but also to make the data easier to read and interpret.
Plotting multiple sectors of TESS data
Many of the TESS stars are observed in just one of the TESS sectors, but some are observed in multiple. Watch this video to find out how to plot data from multiple TESS sectors and how to normalize the data.
Click the logos to open up the Colab notebook or to download the Jupyter notebook. You can use these to follow along with the video.
Binning data using lightkurve
Find out what binning data is and why its so useful in this episode! Follow along with the code using the notebooks below!
Click the logos to open up the Colab notebook or to download the Jupyter notebook. You can use these to follow along with the video.
What is phase folding?
If there are multiple transit events in a data set it's very useful to phase fold them. Watch this video to find out what phase folding in and how you can do it yourself using lightkurve.
Click the logos to open up the Colab notebook or to download the Jupyter notebook. You can use these to follow along with the video.