Research Techniques in Observational Astronomy

Astronomy 598-VI

T-Th 1:40 PM, PSF 226


January 20-27 Overview; Coordinates and Transformations; Time; Catalogs and Atlases; Data Bases
Jan. 29 - February 5 Signal Detection and Statistics
February 10-12 Telescope design and aberrations
February 17-24 CCDs
February 26 - March 5 Photometry
March 10 Midterm Exam
March 24-31 Infrared
April 2-14 Spectroscopy
April 16-23 Radio and millimeter techniques; Interferometry
April 28 - May 5 High-energy techniques, detectors, and telescopes; Future instruments and telescopes
May 14, 12:20-2:10 PM Final Exam

There is also a more detailed and up-to-date lecture schedule.


Instructor: Eric Jensen, office PSF 287.

Phone: 727-6335; e-mail jensen@gila.la.asu.edu

No formal office hours, but the door to my office is always open. Stop by whenever you have a question, or feel free to set up an appointment.


Class will meet twice a week in PSF 226, from 1:402:55 PM.

The course web page at http://gila.la.asu.edu/observing/ will always have up-to-date information about the lecture schedule and homework and project deadlines, as well as links to useful web resources for the course.

 

Textbooks:


The main text is Electronic Imaging in Astronomy: Detectors and Instrumentation , by Ian McLean, available at the University Book Store. Also recommended is An Introduction to Error Analysis by John R. Taylor (2nd edition). This is not required, but gives good, clear explanations of the statistical issues we will discuss early in the semester and will serve you well as a reference book later. If you already own or have access to Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences by Bevington and Robinson, that is also a good reference and it's probably not worth buying the Taylor book. (There are two copies of Bevington in the Reserve book section of Noble Science Library.)


Since no single book covers all of observational astronomy well, there will also be supplementary reading assigned throughout the semester. Some of it will be photocopied and distributed in class; longer sections may be put on reserve in Noble Science Library.

Course Goals and Required Work:



The aim of the course is to acquaint you with the tools and techniques of observational astronomy research. Above all, the approach will be a practical one, with emphasis on applying the concepts learned in class to real astronomy research problems. As such, daily work is important and a relatively large weight is put on work other than exams. The daily work will comprise written homework questions as well as exercises using the department computers to work with real astronomical data.


A research paper (based on the astronomical data provided as part of these exercises) is also required; its content and style will be that of a journal article in the Astronomical Journal or Astrophysical Journal. It will be formatted according to journal guidelines and submitted electronically following the procedures specified by those journals. The paper will be returned with referee's comments, and then must be revised and re-submitted to take those comments into account. We will discuss more about the subject matter of the paper as the semester progresses.

Grading:

Homework and computer projects

50%

Paper*

15%

Midterm exam

15%

Final exam

20%



*The grade on the paper will be based on the average of the grade received for the initial submission and the grade received after responding to the referee's comments and re-submitting the paper.

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Last modified: Wed Feb 25 11:13:51 1998 ;