Astronomy with Python, for non-astronomers

Astronomers have been dealing with digital data since the 1980s and online databases since the early 90's, and now, almost all research astronomers use Python to access and process that data. Most astronomical database are open to the public, and most research software tools are either open source, or freely available. I'll give an intro, aimed at non-astronomers, to some Python packages (astropy, skyfield) and online research tools.

This talk will give an overview on what tools and databases are available and how to access them. Maybe you're writing a game, and you want the 3D locations and properties of the nearest 10,000 stars (or extrasolar planets, or galaxies). Maybe you're building a Solar panel that tracks the Sun, or a camera mount that tracks the International Space Station. Maybe you're trying to model shadow lengths and directions in satellite images. Or maybe you just want to play around with real telescope images that haven't had a PR department make them 'prettier'...