Hackathon

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Astronomy Hackathon  

Who: students 4.5 and 6 VWO in groups of four  

Prior knowledge: likes programming and astronomy, knowledge of Python is useful!  

Language: English / Dutch  

Programming language: Python  

Do you want to participate in the very first Kapteyn Hackathon on Saturday 5 October, with the theme: "An atlas for the Blaauw Gratama telescope"? Sign up your team and step into the life of a data scientist.

Big data is becoming extremely important in a world where technology continues to develop. Every day, astronomers use gigantic streams of data from telescopes located all over the world or even in space. Can we help the astronomers? Is it possible to process astronomical data automatically? What is involved in the processing of data coming from a telescope? Can we use Machine Learning?

We are looking for enthusiastic and curious students from the last 3 years of pre-university education (VWO 4, 5, 6). You can sign up in groups of 4. No experience is needed to participate. The hackathon will use the Python programming language.

Background information
The ultimate goal of the Hackathon is to develop and design an automatic system in which observations from the Groningen Gratama telescope, on the roof of the Bernoulliborg, are automatically placed in a clear digital sky atlas.

In the past 5 years, for around 230 observation nights, the Gratama telescope has been used to observe the night sky. Astronomers collect astronomical data with this (semi) professional telescope, reduce this data to processed images, extract useful science and synthesize the results into an astronomical result.

The Hackathon is organized by the Kapteyn Institute, the astronomy department of the University of Groningen in collaboration with ADASS 2019: a global conference on data analysis and software in astronomy.

The exact time schedule and a detailed program of the day will be provided soon.