Astronomy and Astrophysics
General Links
NASA/ADS: Online database astronomy and physics papers (freely available).
arXiv: Open-access repository of electronic preprints and postprints approved for posting after moderation, but not peer review (freely available).
NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED): Online astronomical database that collates and cross-correlates astronomical information on extragalactic objects (freely available).
NED Search: Same as NED above, but here you can serach references, reviews and thesis on a particular topic in astronomy and astrophysics. I find this very useful sometimes to go through some notes on a particular topic (freely available).
AAS Job Portal: To find and post astronomy related jobs (faculty, postdoc, PhD and internships).
Astronomy Conferences: To find details about astronomy conferences.
List of Astronomy Journals: Astronomy journals comparison, based on their impact.
Astronomical Data Products
SDSS V: Official SDSS-V website.
SDSS Data Release 16: Publicly available SDSS DR16 data and catalogues.
DESI Data Release: Publicly available DESI Early Data Release and catalogues.
Legacy Survey: Publicly available legacy imaging survey data.
Hubble Space Telescope: Official NASA HST page.
HST Archival Data: Data products from HST.
ESA/Hubble Wallpapers: High quality astronomy images taken by Hubble and ESA telscopes.
Keck Archive: Archival data from Keck Observatory.
ESO Science Archive Facility: Data from ESO telescopes at La Silla Paranal Observatory.
VLT MUSE Data: Archival data from VLT MUSE.
NASA Chandra X-ray: Official NASA website.
Chandra Archive: Chandra X-ray archival data.
VLA Archive: NRAO’s Very Large Array archival data.
Computer Simulations
Illustris Project: Large cosmological simulation of galaxy formation.
Illustris TNG: Ongoing series of large, cosmological MHD simulations of galaxy formation.
Auriga Simulations: Large suite of high-resolution MHD simulations of Milky Way-sized galaxies.
GADGET-4: Parallel cosmological N-body and SPH code meant for simulations of cosmic structure formation.
AREPO: Finite-volume MHD code for astrophysics (moving mesh hydrodynamics).
FIRE Simulations: Simulating ISM and CGM of galaxies.
EAGLE Project: Simulation aimed at understanding how galaxies form and evolve.
L-Galaxies Project: Semi-analytic models of galaxy formation built upon dark matter simulation only such as Millenium.
Programming Links
Stack Overflow: Question and answer website for professional and enthusiast programmers.
Python: Python is an interpreted high-level general-purpose programming language.
Python Document: The official documentation of Python language.
PEP 8: Official style Guide for Python Code.
NumPy: Library for the Python programming language, adding support for large, multi-dimensional arrays and matrices.
SciPy: free and open-source Python library used for scientific and technical computing.
Astropy: Collection of software packages written in the Python programming language and designed for use in astronomy.
Jupyter notebook: Open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations and narrative text.
Matplotlib: Comprehensive library for creating static, animated, and interactive visualizations in Python.
HDF5 library: A great data software to manage large array datasets. Very easily importable to Python.
Wolfram online: Compute answers using Wolfram’s online solvers.
Overleaf: Collaborative cloud-based LaTeX editor used for writing, editing and publishing scientific documents.
WebPlotDigitizer: Online tool to extract the underlying numerical data from an image (I find it very useful).
Mendeley: Online reference manager to manage and share research papers and also to generate bibiliographies (semi-free).
Zotero: Free and open-source reference management software.
Online Courses in Astronomy
Scientific Computing in Astronomy: Krittika Astronomy Club, IITB
GROWTH Astronomy School 2020: Caltech
ZTF Summer School 2022: Caltech
Summer school and Refresher course in Astronomy & Astrophysics 2020: Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA)
Radio Astronomy Winter School 2020: National Centre for Radio Astrophysics - Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR)
GW@Home: LIGO-India & IUCAA
Data-Driven Astronomy: Coursera
Observational Astronomy: Dr. Stuart Littlefair, University of Sheffield
Scientific Python & Astronomy
Python for Astronomers:
Python Programming And Numerical Methods: A Guide For Engineers And Scientists: UC Berkeley
A Beginner’s Guide to Working with Astronomical Data: Markus Pössel, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
Python Data Science Handbook:
Explorable Physics:
MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo): A (very) Beginner’s Guide:
Blender for Scientists - Complete Intro to 3D:
3D Scientific Visualization with Blender: Brian R. Kent
A Simple Guide to Beautiful Visualizations in Python: Frank Andrade
Learn AstroPy:
Useful YouTube Videos & Channels
3Blue1Brown: Concepts of Mathematics visualized at its best!
Constellations | Seeker: Sarafina Nance, UCB
Your Daily Equation with Brian Greene:
The Maths of General Relativity:
Dr. Becky (Astrophysicist):
Life Around Science:
Crashcourse:
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell:
A Stellar History of Modern Astronomy: Emily Levesque, University of Washington
Daily Life of an Astrophysicist: Dr. Becky, Oxford University
Life of an IUCAA Astrophysics Research Scholar: Parisee Shirke, IUCAA
A day in the life of an Astronomer: South African Astronomical Observatory
Be An Astrophysicist: Colleen Hoon, ANU
Useful Websites & Articles
Astrobites: Briefing research papers for undergrads
How to make an Astrophysicist: A resourceful website for astronomical resources and opportunities
You and Your Research: [Article][YouTube Video], Richard Hamming
Astronomy in Everyday Life: IAU
Why is astronomy important?: Ask a Spaceman!, Paul M. Sutter
Astronomy in our daily lives: Canadian Space Agency
Constellations: (suggested by Tina & Stacy Martin)
Sleeping Under Stars & Planets: (suggested by Payton & Michelle Bass)
How to send and reply to Email: Matt Might
ArXiv: Free distribution service and an open-access archive for Scholarly Articles & Research Papers
NASA/ADS: Digital library portal for researchers in Astronomy and Physics
Graduate School Advice and Admissions
The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.: Matt Might, University of Utah
Questions to Ask as a Prospective Graduate Student: Ryan Rubenzahl, Caltech
Ph.D. Admission Series: Lilian Horin, Harvard
Ph.D. Guide: Astrophysics Girl
Honest advice for the Astronomy grad school application process:
Tips for Applying to Graduate School in Astronomy: University of Texas at Austin
Guide to Graduate School: Astrobites
Funded Masters Programmes: Astrophysics Girl
All about PhD applications: Lucy Lai
Statement of Purpose for Graduate School: MIT MechE Comm Lab
Another Annotated Example: CS PhD Statement of Purpose: Eugenie Y. Lai
Personal Statements and Statements of Purpose: UCLA
DIY: Personal Website
Website with Wix:
GitHub Pages with Jekyll:
Website with GitHub/Gitlab: Wowchemy
Gitfolio: A website for your GitHub Repos
Creating a simple and effective academic personal website: Elsevier
Personal Academic Webpages: How-To’s and Tips for a Better Site: University of California, Berkeley
General Links
Wikipedia: Free online encyclopedia.
Springer Free Books: Free books from Springer, just have a look.
Encyclopaedia Britannica: Free general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia (similar to wikipedia).
Grammarly: Online english grammar check (basic version is free).