tingyuansen/coding_essential_for_astronomers: Coding Essential for Astronomers

Release Notes: v1.0.0

Coding Essentials for Astronomers — First Complete Release

Overview

This is the first complete release of Coding Essentials for Astronomers, an open textbook covering Python programming, scientific computing, and modern data analysis techniques tailored for astronomical research.

What's Included

22 comprehensive lectures spanning:

Foundations (Lectures 1–6)

• Python fundamentals, data structures, control flow, and file operations
• NumPy numerical computing and vectorization
• Functions, object-oriented programming, and Matplotlib visualization

AI & Modern Tools (Lectures 7–10)

• LLM API integration and prompt engineering
• Function calling, RAG, and vector search
• Git/GitHub workflows and Streamlit web applications

Data Analysis (Lectures 11–15)

• Pandas for tabular data manipulation
• Astroquery, Astropy units, coordinates, and time systems
• Observation planning, FITS files, and SkyField ephemerides

Scientific Computing (Lectures 16–18)

• SciPy interpolation, differentiation, and integration
• Statistical analysis and measurement uncertainty
• Optimization and curve fitting

Astronomical Applications (Lectures 19–22)

• Exoplanet transit detection and light curve fitting
• PSF photometry and image fitting
• Spectroscopic fitting and stellar atmosphere analysis
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) for AI tool integration

Resources

• 📖 Online textbook: https://tingyuansen.github.io/coding_essential_for_astronomers/
• 💻 Source code: https://github.com/tingyuansen/coding_essential_for_astronomers

Acknowledgments

This textbook was written in collaboration with Claude (Opus 4, Opus 4.5, Sonnet 4, and Sonnet 4.5) by Anthropic. All material has been carefully designed, curated, and reviewed by the author.