[AstroPy] Practical Python for Astronomers web tutorial

Fri May 27 13:26:31 EDT 2011

As people have noted, getting SciSoft and EPD to play together and
allowing easy switching between environments could be tricky.  For
Kelle's original need to set up a bunch of summer REUs to go through
the tutorial and then use PyRAF, I would recommend uninstalling (or
ignoring) the SciSoft installation and installing IRAF / PyRAF from
the base of EPD.  This requires possibly more work up front, but if
you have 10 new students and start playing around with paths and links
on each laptop I think there will be trouble.  Also, do they *all*
have Macs?  If not there need to instructions for linux as well.

If anybody can provide a specific IRAF / PyRAF installation guide
assuming a clean EPD7.0 install on Mac and/or linux, that would
tremendous!  This would be immediately included in the Practical
Python Workshops.  I'm a bit on the busy side this week and have
travel impending so I don't think I can do this right now...

Thanks, Tom

On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 12:53 PM, James Turner <jturner at gemini.edu> wrote:
> I think you could get started by allowing EPD to set up its environment
> as normal and then setting "iraf" and "IMTOOLRC" (and possibly "host")
> to point to scisoft (compare with what they're currently set to). You
> might need to set "tmp" too (don't ask why). Of course you'll also need
> to add the "bin" directory with all the symbolic links to "cl" etc. in
> your "PATH". Disclaimer: I have no real experience with SciSoft and hear
> it's IRAF setup is quite quirky, but this kind of thing works for my own
> source installations. Following Chris's suggestions might be safest.
>
> When you install PyRAF, I think you'll need the EPD environment set up
> first.
>
> Cheers,
>
> James.
>
>
> On 27/05/11 11:50, Kelle Cruz wrote:
>> Such a great resource, thanks guys!!
>>
>> We've decided to do the workshops during the first two weeks of our CUNY/AMNH
>> REU program and so far, I anticipate one problem: Scisoft. There's a bit in the
>> Installation workshop about handling packages with multiple python installations
>> (http://python4astronomers.github.com/installation/packages.html#multiple-pythons-on-your-computer),
>> but I would like some specific advice on how to handle existing Scisoft
>> installations.
>>
>> Specifically, if we want to keep Scisoft installed for the IRAF installation
>> (which we need for pyraf, right?), but NOT for the Python install, what should
>> we do? I figure there's some combo of environment variables that need
>> setting/unsetting in the .tcshrc and if someone can point us in the right
>> direction, that would help get us started as smoothly as possible.
>>
>> Are there any other conflicts that I should anticipate with installing the EPD
>> on computers that have existing Python installations?
>>
>> Thanks for your advice!
>> kelle
>>
>> On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 10:18 AM, Tom Aldcroft <aldcroft at head.cfa.harvard.edu
>> <mailto: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
>>     <mailto: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
>>     _______________________________________________
>>     AstroPy mailing list
>>     AstroPy at scipy.org <mailto:AstroPy at scipy.org>
>>     http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/astropy
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Kelle Cruz, PhD — http://kellecruz.com/
>> 917.725.1334 — Hunter ext: 16486 — AMNH ext: 3404
>>
>>
>>
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