UCO/Lick Observatory

Virginia L. Trimble

Observational Astronomy Workshop

May 18 - May 23, 2025

Lick Observatory, Mt Hamilton, CA

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Workshop Materials

All materials required for the workshop activities are located here for reference and download. They are also available for download on the workshop Google Drive. If you have difficulty downloading materials, contact the Support Astronomers for assistance.

Workshop Poster

Participant List (updated 2025-05-18)


Observing Logsheets

Nickel Logsheet 2025-05-20 through 2025-05-22

Kast Logsheet 2025-05-21 through 2025-05-22

CAT Logsheet 2025-05-21 through 2025-05-22


Lecture Notes

Introduction to Observational Astronomy

Introduction to CCD Astronomy

Introduction to Near InfraRed Astronomy

Introduction to Adaptive Optics

Proposal Writing I

Proposal Writing II

Night Sky and Public Education Resources


Observation Planning

Observing Planning Worksheet

Observing Planning Resources

Project Descriptions

Exposure Times and Limiting Magnitudes


Data Reduction

There are two data reduction activies. Direct imaging data reduction using Python and spectroscopic data reduction using IRAF (and a little Python).

Direct Imaging Data Reduction

Workshop participants should download/unzip the 'Data Reduction Notebooks' file below. Alternatively, the most up-to-date version of the software will always be available on github.

Python 3:
Data Reduction Notebooks
Data Reduction PDF file

Nickel Data sets:

If you have a recent M1, M2, or M3 Mac and can't get DS9 to work, you can use an on-line version of DS9: https://js9.si.edu.



Spectroscopic Data Reduction

Data Reduction Setup

Spectral Data Reduction Tutorial

How to make File Lists from the command line

Calibration Arc Spectra

Shane/Kast Data Sets:

For the ambitious student that wants to try reducing Echelle spectrograph data:

The following are not strictly necessary for the workshop, but are useful for Lick Observatory data reduction.

Python Scripts:
fixbadCCDcols.py
overscanLickObsP3.py