Astronomy 480 SPRING 2009 Syllabus

Homepage: http://www.astro.washington.edu/astro480/

Class Meets on MWF (see times below)

Text and Readings

• Handbook of CCD Astronomy, 2nd Edition (Cambridge Observing Handbooks for Research Astronomers) by Steve B. Howell (Paperback - April 3, 2006, ISBN-10: 0521617626)
• Various additional handouts and references

Course Objectives

This class will be an opportunity to learn the basic skills needed to obtain, reduce, and analyze astronomical data for imaging applications. You will become familiar with:

• the Charge Coupled Device (CCD), the detector of choice for optical wavelength astronomical observations,
• the basic optical configurations and operation of telescopes,
• navigating the night sky, and crafting an observing program,
• photometry
• the characteristics of the atmosphere, as applied to astronomical observations,
• IRAF (one of the "industry-standard" astronomical data reduction packages),
• how to draft a professional scientific paper detailing your results.

By the end of the class you should be able to

• plan a successful observing run
• calculate S/N expected for observations
• summarize how a CCD works
• characterize a CCD camera: nonlinear regime, plate scale, band-gap energy
• outline the principles of astronomical photometry
• carry out basic observations with the CCD camera on a telescope
• reduce the photometric data using IRAF
• aperture photometry
• PSF photometry
• scripting
• color-magnitude diagram
• isophote analysis
• write a scientific paper analyzing and summarizing your observations

Class Format

We will have a combination of lectures, discussions, computer tutorials and exercises, and night-time observing. The class meets at 2:30 - 3:50 on Mondays and Wednesdays and 2:30 - 4:20 pm on Fridays, in Physics and Astronomy Building, Room B356, unless A216 is specified.

Grading

You will be evaluated on reading quizzes (30% weight); on your performance on the in-class exercises (45%); on your final project and writeup (20%); and on our evaluation of your preparedness for each class and your night of observing (5%). There will be no midterm nor final exam (you'll be busy enough without them).

Assignment Due Dates

Our course calendar contains all of the reading assignments, topics of computer exercises, lecture topics, indications of observing weeks. We also have a separate listing of the due dates for assignments . Should anything change within this calendar, you will be notified immediately in class and/or via email.

You should expect your instructor and TA to come fully prepared to each and every class since we will expect that you will come fully prepared to each and every class.

Late Assignments

Your instructor grades the reading quizzes, observing prep activities, and final project reports. Your TA grades the IRAF and CCD exercises. The reading quizzes are located on the University of Washington's Catalyst Tools, and have well-defined deadlines. The quizzes disappear 24 hours after the programmed deadline; late submissions are penalized 50%. The final project reports are due the last day of finals week, 5 pm; strictly enforced. The observing prep activities may be on-line or in-class. Your TA will be setting his guidelines for submission of assignments.

Some Rules:

Because of past abuse of the liberal interpretation of the community use of the computers in B356, the following rules are now enforced to the full extent allowed by law:

• you will be responsible for replacing the keyboard if you spill anything in it
• eating at the computer is now totally forbidden; drinking of coffee or soft drinks is discouraged
• sneezing on the keyboard or in your hands and then start typing is just plain rude
• please clean the keys immediately if you get any liquid on them
• only a completely irresponsible person would ever consider putting anything liquid on top of the CPU
• we have a complete electronic record of who is on what and when; you cannot hide