autolens 2026.1.21.3

Open-Source Strong Lensing

Installation Guide | readthedocs | Introduction on Colab | HowToLens

When two or more galaxies are aligned perfectly down our line-of-sight, the background galaxy appears multiple times.

This is called strong gravitational lensing and PyAutoLens makes it simple to model strong gravitational lenses, using JAX to accelerate lens modeling on GPUs.

Getting Started

The following links are useful for new starters:

• The PyAutoLens readthedocs: which includes an overview of PyAutoLens’s core features, a new user starting guide and an installation guide.

• The introduction Jupyter Notebook on Binder: try PyAutoLens in a web browser (without installation).

• The autolens_workspace GitHub repository: example scripts and the HowToLens Jupyter notebook lectures.

Support

Support for installation issues, help with lens modeling and using PyAutoLens is available by raising an issue on the GitHub issues page.

We also offer support on the PyAutoLens Slack channel, where we also provide the latest updates on PyAutoLens. Slack is invitation-only, so if you’d like to join send an email requesting an invite.

HowToLens

For users less familiar with gravitational lensing, Bayesian inference and scientific analysis you may wish to read through the HowToLens lectures. These teach you the basic principles of gravitational lensing and Bayesian inference, with the content pitched at undergraduate level and above.

A complete overview of the lectures is provided on the HowToLens readthedocs page