I am looking to hire one software developer in India on an hourly contract. This is not a full time position. The work is project based and the hours are flexible.
The task is to build an automated pipeline that monitors selected local galaxies every clear night, aligns incoming images to a reference frame, performs PSF matching and image subtraction, and flags any new point source such as a supernova or nova.
This requires a developer who understands both code and astronomy, because the workflow depends on correct calibration, plate solving, and realistic handling of seeing, noise and stellar PSFs.
Required background:
You must already have solid experience in:
- Astrophotography or astronomical data reduction
- FITS images
- Calibration frames including bias, dark and flat
- Plate solving
- PSF measurement and FWHM analysis
- Star detection and centroiding
- Handling real sky data with noise, gradients and tracking drift
Required coding skills:
Strong abilities in:
- Python
- NumPy
- Astropy
- Photutils
- Scikit image or OpenCV
- Writing robust automation scripts for remote hardware
- Logging, error handling and performance tuning
Work scope:
You will build the core of an automated astronomical survey pipeline:
- Automatic calibration of nightly images
- Plate solving and alignment to the master reference frame
- PSF matching
- High quality image subtraction
- Detection and scoring of possible transients
- Automatic validation with follow up exposures
- Preparation of TNS submission data
- Full automation so the system runs without human input
Compensation:
This is an hourly paid contract. The rate is flexible and depends on your experience with real astronomical data.
Who should apply:
A single developer who has worked with astrophotography or observatory data, handled FITS images in Python, has some understanding of photometry or transient detection, and is motivated to build a complete working pipeline.
If interested, send a message with your background and examples of astronomical data processing you have done.