Computer Science in Astronomy: Essential Skills and Applications?

[Spacias]

Hi everyone,
How much of CS do astronomers need? What kinds of computer programs do they need to be proficient at?
Anyone has insightful information?
thank you.
- -

 

[chroot]

Astronomers have been known to write their own small programs to do image analysis, or to simulate orbits or plot data. On the other hand, astronomers rarely spend their time writing large programs which require software-engineering skills.

Most software used by astronomers is highly specialized, and often custom-written. They use software for photometry, astrometry, image calibration and analysis and so on. Most people have never heard of the majority of these programs.

- Warren

 

[franznietzsche]

Single quarter/semester courses in C or Fortran will teach you more than enough Computer Science to be able to meet whatever professional needs an astronomer/astrophysicist would face.

That said, MATLAB is a wonderful thing to be familiar with as well.

 

[Spacias]

Oh, thank you so much Chroot and Franz for the information. I guess I'll have to take in a lot programing stuff this summer. I'll probably study the C's first before matlab.