Description
Our first talk of 2016! See http://baypiggies.net for the latest talks.
Abstract In this talk, I will discuss how I used Python to extract scientific information from a data cube. I used the astronomical instrument, NIFS (Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer), on the 8-m Gemini North telescope in Hawaii to acquire observations of the stunning, hourglass planetary nebula, HB 12. This instrument spreads light out into a spectrum over a small region of the sky. The output data is in the form of a data cube, with sky coordinates along the x and y directions and wavelength along the z direction. Spectra of planetary nebulae are important for understanding their structure and composition. I will discuss the Python scripts I used to analyze these data. Additionally, this talk will also cover the plotting library APLpy, which can be used to make publication quality figures.