Syllabus
for Astronomy 302
Spring
2008
Prof.
Laird Close
office hours: 4-4:30 MWF after class
This course is solely intended
for those who
desire to pursue a career in astronomy or related imaging fields. The
prerequisites are MATH 125, PHYS 205, ASTR250, and either PHYS 142 or
152 or 162H. You
cannot take this course without these required courses. The goal of the
course
is to prepare the student for professional research experience in
astronomy. If
your career goals do not align with these goals, you may not like this
class --as
it is a lot of work for someone not interested in an astronomical
career.
This is a unique course to the University of Arizona
where you get
a chance to do real astronomical research with a professional 1.6m
(61inch)
telescope with an excellent 4096x4096 pixel CCD.
The 61inch Kuiper telescope is located on Mt. Bigelow
and operated by Steward Observatory. Dr. Betsy Green will oversee the
observing
runs. You will have the first part of a
night at the 61inch to carry out a “Professor Approved” observing
project that
you design with the other members of your group. Then using the skills
you have
learned in class you will each individually lead the reduction and
analysis of
your CCD data. Leading to a scientific result. Which will be reported
in an
individual paper and a class presentation.
The student projects in this class can lead to refereed publications
and often lay the foundation for a successful exciting career as an
astronomer. The more you put into this class the more you will get out.
Evaluation
Performance in this course will be
judged primarily on the basis of the lab exercises/projects (30% of the
final
grade), group observing project (40% of the grade). There will be two
exams: a
midterm (10% of the final grade) and a comprehensive final (20% of the
final
grade). As the lab projects are intense there are very few homeworks
assigned, the student is expected however to understand the material in
the lectures.
Policies
- Do your
own work. Modern science
is collaborative, and people learn from talking to each other. We will
have group assignments. Feel free to talk to me or to other students
about homework assignments or projects. But the work you turn in must
be your own -- don't just copy assignments/projects. Cheating will be
handled according to university policies and given a grade of zero to
everyone involved.
- Attendance
and participation. I will
take attendance on occasion. Students should attend every day to keep
up with the material. There is no textbook, so your class notes will be
your primary study material. All lab sessions (Fridays in rm 208) must
be attended.
- Late
homework is downgraded by
20% per day (so there is no point, as far as grades are concerned, in
turning in homework that is 5 or more days late).
- Class
notes I have gone through some trouble to “compose” lecture notes
from various sources (see below). I have gone through the additional
effort of posting each of these lectures as HTML files hosted off my
own server
http://exoplanet.as.arizona.edu/~lclose/a302
before each lecture please print out the
lecture on paper and
bring it to
class so you can mark-up the notes as you see fit. After class I may
pull each
lecture off the web as you will all have copies by that time. Typically
you only
need to
print the main page of the lecture.
There is no textbook for the class
although the following may be useful references:
· "Data Reduction and Error Analysis for
the Physical Sciences" by P.R. Bevington (Good
reference for statistics and error analysis)
· "Observing the Universe", edited by
A.J. Norton, The Open University Press
· "Handbook of CCD Astronomy" by S.B.
Howell
(Very good reference for CCDs)
· "Handbook of Infrared Astronomy" by
I.S. Glass
· "Astronomical Observations: An Optical
Perspective" by G.
Walker (good intro to
instrumentation)
· "Fundamental Astronomy" by H.
Karttunen et al.
· "Numerical Recipes: The Art of
Scientific Computing", Press et
al
(good place to find algorithms )
Current
Schedule of Classes for Astronomy 302
Spring
2007
Wed.
Jan 16
Lecture
1: Introduction
to the Class
& Telescopes –
Karttunen Chapter 3.1 & 3.2
**sign up for sagan LINUX
account on computers**
Fri.
Jan 18
Lab
1: Introduction to Lab and CCDs --
Chapter 2 Howell
** test out accounts, intro.
to IRAF –
start project #1: simple data reduction**
NOTE:
computer
Lab (rm
208)
Mon.
Jan 21
No Class
Wed.
Jan 23
Lecture
2: More on Telescopes,
Diffraction, &
Imaging – Karttunen Chapter 3.3
rm
204
Fri.
Jan 25
Lab
2: work on project #1, basic data reduction, bias, flat,
and averaging
**continue work on project #1**
rm
208
Mon.
Jan 28
Lecture
3: Noise –
Discrete and Continuous, Variance, Gaussian, Sigma, RMS
room
204
Wed.
Jan. 30
Lecture
4: Intro To the 61" telescope, Group projects
room
204
Fri.
Feb 1
Lab
3: Continue working on project#1, intro to photometry,
lists, imexam etc.
room
208
Mon.
Feb 4
Lecture
4: Finish Noise
Lecture –
Poisson Distribution,
Counting statistics, Example of sky noise
General
Case, Chi-squared
room
204
Wed.
Feb 6
Lecture
5: How to Observe
room
204
Fri.
Feb. 8
Lab
4: finish Project
#1
room
208
Mon
Feb 11
Lecture
6: RA, Dec, Airmass etc.– Howell
Chapter 4
room
204
<>
Wed.
Feb 13
**************************
hand-in
project #1 ************************
Lecture
7: CCD
data reduction -- Karttunen
Chap 4, 2
room
204
<>
Fri.
Feb 15
Lab
5: Start project#2: Advanced CCD reduction, make flats,
DAOphot Apphot
room
208
Mon.
Feb 18
Lecture 7: CCD
noise calculations -- Karttunen
Chap 4, 2
room 204
Wed.
Feb 20
Assign groups, explain group projects, "how to select a group project"
room 204
Fri.
Feb 22
** Groups 1 & 2 start selecting observing
project **
Lab
6: Work on
project#2: PSF fitting Photometry & Astrometry
with IRAF DAOPHOT
room
208
Mon.
Feb 25
Lecture
9: Image Formation,
Deconvolution, and Photometry
– Chapter 5 Howell
room
204
Wed.
Feb 27
Lecture
9: GO TO INTERNAL SYMP.
room
204
Fri.
Feb. 29
**Groups
1 &
2 submit observing proposals**
Lab
7: Continue work on Project#2, sorting final list
etc.
**Groups 3-5 start picking
observing
projects**
room
208
Mon
March 3
Lecture
10: Extra Lab
time to finish Project #2
room
208
--feedback for Groups 1 and 2 on obs. prop
Wed.
March 5
****** Hand in
Project #2 *****************************************
Lecture
11: Adaptive optics
room
204
Fri.
March 7
**Group
3 submit observing proposal**
***Group 1 (Plusating star
group) leaves at 2PM to
Mt.
Bigelow
with Betsy Green********
Lab
7: Start Project #3, deconvolution
Groups 4-5 picking
observing
projects
room
208
--
no office hours
Sat.
March 8
***Group 2 (Gravitational Lens
group) leaves at 2PM for
Mt. Bigelow
with Betsy Green********
Mon.
March 10
Lecture
12: Mid-term
review
--give
feedback to group 3
room
204
Wed.
March 12
**********************
MIDTERM **************************
room
204
Fri.
March 14
**Groups
4 and 5 submit observing proposals**
****** likely no one leaves at
2PM to
Mt.
Bigelow
with Betsy Green******
Lab
8: Continue on Project #3, deconvolution
room
208
MARCH
BREAK
Mon.
March 24
Lecture
14: midterm review
--give feedback for Groups 4 & 5
room
204
Wed.
March 26
Lecture
11: AO systems
room
204
Fri.
March 28
****Group 4 (eclipsing binary
group) leaves at 2PM to
Mt.
Bigelow
with Betsy Green***********
Lab
9: Finish Project
#3 color images
room
208
Sat.
March 29
**********Group 3 (Exoplanet
Transit group) leaves at
2PM for
Mt. Bigelow
with Betsy Green*****
Mon.
March 31
lecture
8: CCDs
--- help group 4 with color images
room
204
Wed.
April 2
************************************ Hand in Project #3 ****************
Lecture
15: Spectra
room
204
Fri.
April 4
**Group 5 (VV Ser) leaves at
2PM
to Mt.
Bigelow
with Betsy Green***********
Lab
10: Work on Projects
room
208
Sat.
April 5
**Backup night2 leaves at 2PM
to Mt.
Bigelow
with Betsy Green***********
Mon.
April 7
Lecture
16: Spectra part
2
room
204
Wed.
April 9
Lecture
17: How to Write An
Astronomy Paper
Room
204
Fri.
April 11
Lab
11: Work on Projects
room
208
Mon.
April 14
Lecture
18: Steward's Large
Telescopes
room
204
Wed.
April 16
lecture
18cont: Large Telescopes
room
204
Fri.
April 18
Lab
12: review goals of group projects
room
208
Mon.
April 21
Lecture
19: Future
Space Missions
room
204
Wed.
April 23
extra Lab work on projects
NOTE room
208
Fri.
April 25
Lab
13: Work
on group projects
--no office hours
Mon.
April 28
********************Groups
1 & 2 present **************************
room
204
Wed.
April 30
********************
Group 3 present *******************************
room
204
Fri.
May 2
********************Groups
4 & 5 present **************************
room
204
Mon.
May 5
Lecture
19: Future Instrumentation
room
204
Wed.
May 7
** Final Review Class **
Room
204
Wed.
May 14 (2-4
PM)
****************************
FINAL EXAM ********************
rm
204