February 2012

Job Interview Advice on the CSWA’s blog

by Kelle February 29, 2012

Today on the Women in Astronomy blog, there is a first post in a series with job interview advice. This first one lists some questions you should be prepared to answer about your teaching and research interests when interviewing for on a tenure-track academic position. Go check it out! Women in Astronomy | Job Interview Advice

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Category: Career, Links Tags: ,

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Bayesian Inference in Python

by Jessica February 24, 2012

Observational astronomers don’t simply present images or spectra, we analyze the data and use it to support or contradict physical models. A key aspect of data analysis is understanding the certainty of claims that are made. Thus using statistics is a fundamental part of observational astronomy. Statistical inference is one method of drawing conclusions, and establishing [...]

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Category: analysis, python Tags: , ,

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Crowdfunding Astronomy Research

by Guest February 22, 2012

This is a guest post from Travis Metcalfe, astronomer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and former chair of the AAS Employment Committee. In 2008, with a grant from Google, he established the Pale Blue Dot project, a non-profit adopt-a-star program that funds an international collaboration supporting the Kepler mission. Motivated by a perfect [...]

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Category: proposals Tags:

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So you want to be a frequent flier? (Part 1)

by Guest February 17, 2012

This is a guest post from Adam Kraus, a Premier-Platinum flyer on United/Continental who specializes in HNL-LAX and HNL-SFO, plus frequently travels through DEN, ORD, and BWI. He also is an Emerald Executive with National and has Gold status with Hilton. In his free time, Adam is a Hubble Fellow at the University of Hawaii [...]

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Category: travel Tags: ,

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Marketing for Scientists: A Book about the Business of Doing Science

by Guest February 15, 2012

This is a guest post by Marc Kuchner, a staff scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center.  Kuchner is a former Hubble fellow, and he won the SPIE Early Career Achievement Award in 2009 for his work on exoplanets. He is also the author of a new book that we should probably all read. Six years [...]

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Category: Career Tags: , , ,

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Code in the Astrophysics Code Source Library is now citeable

by Guest February 8, 2012

This is a guest post from Alice Allen, primary editor of the Astrophysics Source Code Library (ASCL). Last September, I introduced and described the Astrophysics Source Code Library, a free on-line registry for source codes. I’m happy to report that ASCL is now indexed as a publication by ADS! This provides a reliable and consistent [...]

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Category: programming Tags: , ,

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Astropy website/logo design competition

by Tom February 6, 2012

Last Monday, I wrote about the Astropy project, and mentioned various ways of contributing to the project code and documentation. We’ve now launched a competition to design the website and logo for Astropy, with a prize for the winning entry, so if you’re looking for a fun way to contribute to Astropy, this is your [...]

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Category: python Tags: ,

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LaTeX on the iPad [Ask AstroBetter]

by Kelle February 3, 2012

K asks: Any way to mark up text with Latex on the iPad? Or any other tablet? Without internet access (on an airplane)? I’m spending a lot of time on days-long international flights, and in economy class the risk is too high of the person in front of me lowering their seat and encountering my [...]

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Category: applications Tags: , , , ,

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Review of Book about Gemini Observatory

by Jane Rigby February 1, 2012

On a long flight, I read a fascinating and frustrating book about the history of the twin Gemini 8m telescopes and the optical/infrared astronomical landscape: Giant Telescopes: Astronomical Ambition and the Promise of Technology by historian Patrick McCray. Time for a book review and a new wiki page for books! “Giant Telescopes” is two books in one. The second half [...]

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Category: astro community Tags: , ,

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