Postgraduate / Part III Astrophysics Introduction to Computing (2011)
Jeremy Sanders

This page is an associated web page for the course I give to new graduate students at the Institute of Astronomy, and to undergraduates in Part III Astrophysics. Here are copies of the notes.

Links

Cambridge

• Institute of Astronomy
• IoA local pages
• IoA computers user guide
• IoA library
• Computing training courses (including programming)

Astronomy (papers)

• ADS (abstracts & papers), US original site
• arXiv(preprints)

Astronomy (databases)

• NASA Skyview (see the sky in any wavelength)
• NED (extragalactic object database)
• Simbad (astronomical database)

Astronomy (resources)

• Level 5, a knowledgebase of extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, links
• Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Handbook of Space, Astronomy and Astrophysics (Zombeck)
• Ned Wright's Javascript Cosmology Calculator

Astronomy (meetings, jobs and fun)

• AAS Jobs Register
• Astronomy Jobs Rumour Mill

Computers (connecting remotely)

• NX - recommended remote graphical access
• Putty - make ssh connections from Windows to Unix
• Xming - run Unix graphical applications remotely on Windows
• WinaXe/XWinPro - commercial X windows software to connect graphically
• WinSCP -for copying files

Computers (Unix)

• TCSH Reference
• AWK Introduction
• Cambridge Unix Courses (includes notes for text processing - awk, sed, LaTeX and Further Use of Unix)
• The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2e, Local LaTeX Users' Guide
• Unofficial .emacs Home (configuring emacs)
• Emacs Reference Docs
• Bash reference
• RUTE - Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition. Comprehensive guide to using Linux (also appropriate to other Unix systems)

Computers (Scripting and programming)

• A Byte of Python
• Advanced Bash Scripting Guide
• Python (and documentation)
• Perl
• Perl / Python Phrasebook
• F90 courses
• C course, another

Computers (Plotting)

• Veusz (my nice plotting program)
• GNUPlot Central
• SM Homepage, also tutorial and manual
• The joy of supermongo
• pgplot library
• OpenDX (complex but sophisticated plotting)
• QDP manual (Quick and Dirty Plotter)
• DS9 (FITS image viewer)
• Mathematica book
• Grace / xmgrace homepage

Computers (Floating point)

• What Every Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic
• GNU Scientific Library (C Numerical Library)
• Numerical Recipes Home Page

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