Three LSST team members held a successful book signing event for their recently published book Statistics, Data Mining, and Machine Learning in Astronomy, A Practical Python Guide for the Analysis of Survey Data during the January 2014 meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Washington, D.C. Zeljko Ivezic, Andrew Connolly, and Jacob VanderPlas collaborated with co-author Alexander Gray on the book, which provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the cutting-edge statistical methods needed to efficiently analyze complex data sets from astronomical surveys such as PanSTaRRS, DES, and LSST.
Demand for the book proved impressive; all copies available at the meeting, including a supplementary overnight shipment the following day, sold out. Additional orders also were taken.
In the book, the authors present a wealth of practical analysis problems, evaluate techniques for solving them, and explain how to use various approaches for different types and sizes of data sets. For all of the applications described, the authors provide Python code and example data sets. The downloadable data sets are from contemporary astronomical surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The accompanying code is publically available, well documented, and follows uniform coding standards.
Ivezic is a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington (UW) and LSST Project Scientist. Connolly is a professor of astronomy at UW and head of the LSST Simulations team. VanderPlas is an NSF postdoctoral research fellow in astronomy and computer science at UW and a member of the LSST Simulations team. Gray is a professor of computer science at Georgia Institute of Technology. The book is part of the Princeton University Press Series in Modern Observational Astronomy.
Financial support for Rubin Observatory comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Cooperative Support Agreement No. 1202910, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515, and private funding raised by the LSST Corporation. The NSF-funded Rubin Observatory Project Office for construction was established as an operating center under management of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). The DOE-funded effort to build the the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera (LSSTCam) is managed by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC).
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an
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NSF and DOE will continue to support Rubin Observatory in its Operations phase. They will also provide support for scientific research with LSST data.
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