Amanda Kepley
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Like most astronomers, I spent a lot of time in front of computers. Here's some tools I use to get the job done.

Commerical 
Software

As a scientist, I have to stay on top of multiple projects, organize large amounts of information, and work effectively in a team environment. Here's some tools I use every day to make these tasks easier:
  • Todoist: This is the first application I open every morning. I use it to keep track of my daily/weekly tasks, my current priorities, and the state of my many (too many?) projects. I used to use Asana. However, I've found the Todoist Karma system helpful for tracking my productivity and using this data to shape my future plans. I also really like the ease of scheduling and rescheduling items. Finally, it has great iPad and Android apps (with offline modes), so it's easy to always have my list with me.
  • Evernote: Words cannot fully describe how much I love this app. Evernote makes it easy to save, find, and share information. I keep everything from my lab notebook to observing logs to travel info to recipes here. 
  • Mendeley: I use this application to organize the many different documents I need to access. I have everything from technical memos and documentation to journal articles for my latest paper here. Importing from ADS (the main astronomy literature database) is relatively easy. The meta-data search makes it easy to find the reference I'm looking for even if I can't quite remember the first author name.
  • Github: I use this service make working on code projects and papers with others easier after years of emailing files back and forth (which is a convenient method, but a horrible software development practice). Github also has excellent documentation and a nice website that makes git easier to learn. Take a look at my repos if you'd like. 

Programming Languages

I spend a significant portion of my time writing programs to calibrate data, analyze the results, and do tedious tasks. 
  • IDL: My current primary analysis package. Check out Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming for tons of helpful tips and tricks.
  • Python:  I'm using Python more frequently because it's free and there are some really nice packages  available for it.  For example, APLpy makes creating figures from astronomical images easy (no more compositing in Adobe Illustrator). The aptly named python4astronomers website is a good Python tutorial aimed at astronomers.

Calibration
Packages

Great science starts with great data. I use several special purpose packages to get that last ounce of signal-to-noise. 
  • CASA: Today I do most of my data reduction and analysis in CASA. The package is still under active development, but I prefer the freedom of being able to easily incorporate python into my scripts instead of being bound by the five letter commands and having to remember which imaging experiment belongs to which catalog number. I've written a special purpose pipeline for calibrating radio recombination line observations, which have some special requirements because they are faint lines superimposed on strong continuum emission.
  • AIPS: I have black-belt level experience with AIPS, which was THE reduction package for VLA back in the dark ages when I was doing my thesis. I wrote developed special purpose scripts to calibrate continuum polarization data in AIPS.
  • GBTIDL: This package is designed for reducing data from the Green Bank Telescope. I've developed a 4mm mapping data reduction pipeline using this package and am in the processing of developing a continuum data reduction pipeline.
© 2016   A. Kepley
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