Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
AST 613, Astronomical Observational Techniques and Instrumentation: Spring 2025
This material can be found online at URL
http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/ast613/ast613.html
Outline/syllabus for the course, class schedule, etc.
Tentative schedule for the quarter
- Week 1A:
The Forces of Evil: the Earth's atmosphere,
the interstellar medium, and assorted minions
- Week 1B: Neutrinos I. Properties of neutrinos, "chemical" detectors
- Week 2A:
Neutrinos II. "Cerenkov" detectors, SN 1987A
- Week 2B:
Highest-energy gamma rays. Using the atmosphere as a detector,
telescopes and observatories. Sources.
- Week 3A:
Lower-energy gamma rays. Satellite-borne detectors,
gamma-ray bursts, the local vs. cosmic debate
- Week 3B:
X-rays I. X-ray telescopes and detectors, satellite
missions, current and future plans
- Week 4A:
X-rays II. X-ray sources, thermal vs. non-thermal.
Our friend Mr. Brehmsstrahlung.
- Week 4B: The poor, neglected UV.
What could we learn?
Why don't we?
- Week 5A:
X-ray data analysis I. The Tycho SN remnant
- Week 5B:
X-ray data analysis II. A second SN remnant
- Week 6A:
optical detectors: eyes, plates, and chips.
Some history, the rise
and fall of photographic plates.
- Week 6B:
optical detectors: CCDs, CMOS, and KIDs
- Week 7A: day of review
- Week 7B: midterm test
- Week 8A: No class
- Week 8B: No class - cancelled :-(
- Week 9A:
optical telescopes
Also, students should prepare for the next class
by installing (if necessary) an X-Windows client:
- Week 9B:
optical data analysis I.
Here are some raw CCD images.
Make them clean! Then measure something.
- Week 10A:
optical data analysis II.
Perform aperture photometry on your clean images
(now including homework!)
- Week 10B:
signal and noise
- Week 11A:
optical spectroscopy
- Week 11B:
Near-IR.
Mostly ground-based. Similarities and differences
from optical CCD work. Why so many adaptive optics
systems?
- Week 12A:
Mid-IR.
Mostly space-based. What can we learn from
these wavelengths?
- Week 12B:
Far-IR and sub-mm.
Making the transition from photons
to waves.
- Week 13A:
Radio I. The many sources of radio waves continuum
vs. line emission. A few selected uses of
radio observations
- Week 13B:
Radio II. How to detect waves (instead of photons).
Progress of radio telescopes and detectors.
- Week 14A:
Radio interferometry.
The basic idea, and why it's
so easy in radio and so hard in optical.
- Week 14B:
Gravitational waves I. How to detect them.
-
Final Exam: Thurs, May 1, 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM, GOS-1365
Homework
-
HW 1: Plotting and extinction
Due Thursday, Jan 23, at start of class.
-
HW 2: Neutrinos and gamma rays
Due Thursday, Jan 30, at start of class.
- HW 3: Chandra X-ray analysis exercise
Due Thurs, Fe 20, at start of class.
- Please write down answers to all the items (with names
like "Part 6, A" or "Part 2, B") in the following
lecture. We'll be doing these in class, so you may
do most or all of this work during our regular meetings.
- Answers to Chandra exercises
- HW 4: optical CCD analysis: aperture photometry
(MWR: need to revise slightly)
Due Thursday, Mar 27, at start of class.
- Please write down answers to all the items (with names
like "Part 6, A" or "Part 2, B") in the following
lecture; note it's Day Two of the optical exercise only.
Don't worry about Day One.
- Answers to CCD exercises
-
HW 5: Optical CCD analysis: differential photometry
Due Thursday, Apr 4, at start of class.
-
HW 6: Observing in the IR
Due Tuesday, Apr 15, at start of class.
-
HW 7: Radio stuff and interferometry
Due Monday, Apr 28, at 5 PM.
For more information
-
NASA's Astrophysics Data System
is the place to go to search for papers, old or new.
-
arXiv.org's "Astrophysics" section
is a good place to find the latest hot preprints
- Some good interfaces to the enormous wealth of on-line catalogs are
-
SIMBAD especially good for objects in the Galaxy
-
NED specially good for objects outside the Galaxy
-
Vizier for detailed catalog queries
-
Ned Wright's Cosmology Calculator
is an excellent tool for converting redshift values
into distances, volumes, or other quantities.
-
Stellarium
is a very nice (and free) planetarium program
- Good tools for making finding charts or investigating new sources include
-
Aladin (can download program, or use web version)
-
Skyview (web interface only)
This page maintained by Michael Richmond.
Last modified Aug 23, 2023.
Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.