‘Astronomy from archival data’ introduced important concepts in astronomy, data analysis and methods to students through online sessions from 1 August-29 November 2020. The aim was to support students during a time of disruptions to education caused by COVID-19. Students were introduced to virtual observatory tools and programming techniques.
From 927 registrations, more than 100 students participated in the program actively. The project was implemented in three phases. The first consisted of live zoom lectures and interactive hands-on sessions. In the second phase, students selected projects and worked with mentors. Then the projects were presented in the final phase. Topics covered: Python, Astropy, TopCat, Aladin, EsaSky, R, Machine Learning and Big Data. The data used was from Gaia, SDSS, HST, Kepler, etc.
All the lectures are available on Youtube. The reading material, quizzes, data sources, analysis techniques, etc are available on the project website.
Here are a few responses from participants:
The course should be continued and floated again in the following years as it helps students at smaller universities who do not get the chance to work with those at premier institutions.
Thank you very much for making it accessible. The recordings are extremely helpful, one can watch them after exams or if one missed a few sessions.
I am really grateful that we were able to get an idea of data analysis in Astronomy, starting right from the basics. I am also thankful that this initiative was taken by Dr. Priya Hasan and Dr. SN Hasan to provide us with the opportunity to work with eminent scientists in this field.
The course was very good. It gave me a great introduction to various fields of astronomy and opened the door to the vast resources we have at the reach of our hands. The teaching was excellent and so were the resources.