Useful(?) links for astronomy students at Uppsala

• Observatory Web pages
  • Labs and problem sets: [ svenska ] [ english ]
  • This semester's undergraduate courses
  • Information om grundutbildningen (undergraduate education)
  • Library (internal link only)

• Units and physical constants
  • Look up units of measurement you don't know.
  • International System of Units (SI)
  • cgs units: yes, they're a pain but they're still used by many astronomers
  • Values of fundamental physical constants
  • List of ionization energies for neutral atoms
  • Careful using the gas constant for your problem sets!

• Advice on tutorials...or why should I bother to talk in class?
• Unix
  • UNIXhelp for Users
  • A Basic UNIX Tutorial
  • These and other links on the Observatory WWW computer pages (internal link only)

• LaTeX
  • There are a few steps needed to produce a document in LaTeX:
    1. Create a plain text file (e.g., sample.tex) using a text editor of your choice.
    2. Compile it and create a viewable DVI file by typing
       latex sample.tex
       (you can leave out the ".tex") in a terminal window.
    3. View the DVI file by typing
       xdvi sample.dvi &
       (you can leave out the ".dvi") in the terminal.
       The "&" lets xdvi, the DVI viewer, run in the background. This means that you can type further commands in the terminal without first having to quit xdvi.
    4. If you make changes to sample.tex, save it and recompile it by repeating step 2.
       View the results with xdvi (if you still have it running in the background; otherwise, repeat step 3).
    5. Once you are happy with your final version, you can print it by using
       dvips sample.dvi
       (you can leave out the ".dvi").
    6. You can also create a Postscript file (e.g., sample.ps) from the DVI file without sending it automatically to the printer by using the -o option to dvips:
       dvips -o sample.ps   sample
       and print it later using
       lpr sample.ps

  • Probably all you'll need can be found in the 17-page Essential LaTeX (from the CTAN archive).
    Type "lpr essential2up.ps" to print.

  • This on-line reference is useful after you have been using LaTeX a little while.
    But note the changes that have been included in LaTeX2e since that was written.

  • More advanced users will find basically all aspects of LaTeX covered concisely in this excellent 45-page PDF file entitled LaTeX for Computer Scientists.
    Download the file and type "acroread &" in your terminal window to launch the Acrobat reader for PDF files.

  • Finally, for those of you who want to get very fancy and don't want to buy a LaTeX book, there is The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2e.
    For reading on-line, PDF format from CTAN is convenient (type "acroread &" in your terminal window to launch the Acrobat reader).
    But PLEASE do not print this out at the Observatory (wastes paper)!
    If you really need a printout, use this Postscript version instead.
    Type "gunzip lshort2up.ps.gz" to uncompress and "lpr lshort2up.ps" to print.

• IDL
  • Brief IDL Manual by Rob Rutten
  • Once you have started running IDL, take advantage of the on-line help by typing "?" at the IDL command line