ASTR 306/406 - Astronomical Techniques

None. Readings will come from a variety of sources available online and in the astronomy lab and library. When readings are assigned for a class (see schedule below), you should do the reading before the indicated class!

• BGO: Observational Astronomy, by Birney, Gonzalez, and Oesper
• Howell: Handbook of CCD Astronomy
  

Programming will be required. The specific language you choose to program in is up to you -- for some purposes, a scripting language (e.g., Perl) or graphics environment (Supermongo) may be appropriate; for others, a compiled language (C/C++ or Fortran) will likely be preferable. If you do not have an account on our linux workstations, please see Charley Knox (Sears 568) to get set up ASAP. 

Individual Assignments: Every few weeks there will be a short assignment geared towards the development of technical skills. Typical assignments could include conducting a simple photometric analysis of astronomical image data, writing a short program to analyse numerical simulations, or finding and downloading appropriate astronomical datasets off of the web. In addition, there will be several individual writing assignments throughout the semester which might include

• an observing proposal
• a technical "white paper" for computational simulation work
• a grant proposal for research using an on-line database
• referee's reports of the group projects

Group Projects: For each major unit, the class will be broken up into small groups to complete a larger research project. Projects might include age-dating star clusters through isochrone fitting, simulating the survival of satellites orbiting around disk galaxies, or quantifying the clustering properties of galaxies as a function of Hubble type using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For each project, the group must submit a final project report written in the form of an Astrophysical Journal paper. These reports will be peer-reviewed by the other groups in the class.

Graduate students will be responsible for the same individual assignments as the undergraduates, along with some extra problems on each assignment.

Projects for graduate students will be greater in scope.

Graduate students will also give a 30-40 minute presentation at the end of the semester, describing an upcoming non-OIR astronomical observatory.

You get one "free" late homework, which must be turned in no later than one week past the due date. After that, late work will not be accepted without a prearranged agreement.