AST325H: PRACTICAL ASTRONOMY

Materials on line for 2002/2003. Instructor: Stefan Mochnacki

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Course Description in PDF format

TEACHING ASSISTANT'S NOTES

  • Kris' notes, links and the assignments

    Spectroscopic Project Notes

  • Directions in PDF.
  • Directions in PostScript.

    DIRECTIONS FOR PROJECT REPORT

    Here are the directions in PDF for the project and the report. They are also given here in PostScript.

    Manuals for Equipment

  • Spectrograph Manual for 16-inch telescope.
  • Spectrograph Brochure
  • SBIG ST-7/8 etc. Manual for 16-inch. (Note: We are using MaxIM/DL software rather than what SBIG provide).
  • Marc Castel's notes on preliminary calibration.

    Spectroscopic Data and Tools

  • KPNO Spectral Atlas Central Th-Ar, Fe-Ar, He-Ne-Ar, Cu-Ar
  • Spectra of Gas Discharges 4000 - 7000 A.
  • Line Spectra of the Elements (Reader, Corliss 1980-1981) ADC Archive, 300 A to 3.5 microns.

    Data 2003-02-11

  • Spectra taken by me 2003/02/11

    IRAF Page

  • IRAF is the Image Reduction and Analysis Facility.

    Quiz 1 Model Answers

  • Page 1 Q1, Q2
  • Page 2 Q3
  • Page 3 Q4, Q5
  • Marks Distribution (PDF Figure).

    Quiz 2 Model Answers

  • Spread sheet form of model answers. (PDF)

    LECTURE NOTES

    Please note that these notes are not complete: use the recommended reading and other references. Quite a bit has already been given to you on paper. I won't scan or convert everything.

  • Celestial Globe; Spherical Coordinate Systems
  • Spherical Trig Formulae; Some Applications

    N.B.: Read over pp. 166-204 of Wallace's SLALIB documentation (see below)

    Coordinate transformation notes:

  • Unit vector: direction cosines
  • Rotation about an axis. Generalization to 3D.
  • Horizon system --> hour angle system
  • HA --> RA ; RA --> ecliptic
  • Inverse transformations
  • Precession
  • Precession formulae and their simple application.
  • Descriptive tables for the four principal systems.
  • Diagrams of the four principal systems.
  • The three rotation matrices and how they are used to transform between the four systems (diagrams).

    Notes on CCD readout noise & gain determination.

  • Noise & Gain
  • Noise & Gain (cont'd)
  • Poisson, Normal distributions
  • Normal distribution
  • Summary of CCD effects to be corrected in reductions.

    Notes on Fourier Transforms, cross-correlation, radial velocity measurement, etc.

  • Notes on Fourier Transforms. Basics.
  • Notes on Fourier Transforms. Cross correlation.
  • Notes on Fourier Transforms. Convolution Theorem.
  • Notes on Fourier Transforms. Discrete transforms.
  • Notes on Fourier Transforms. Tonry-Davis Cross Correlation Function.
  • Fourier Transform Spectrometer.

    Links (probably good only from U of T):

  • Lecture by Roger Griffin (2000)
  • Paper by Murdoch & Hearnshaw (1991) Nice review of errors, etc.
  • Paper by Furenlid & Furenlid Griffin mask in a computer.
  • Original paper by Tonry & Davis (1979)

    There are useful Web sites at:

  • The Celestial Sphere (University of Indiana site)
  • View of the Moon
  • Maps of the solar system (interactive).
  • On-line planetarium (celestial sphere).
  • University of Oregon celestial sphere diagrams and simulations.

  • RECOMMENDED READING

    See the Course Description , and the following:

    An Introduction to Astronomical Photometry Using CCDs by W. Romanishin (University of Oklahoma). The latest version can be downloaded from here .

    SLALIB -- A Positional Astronomy Library documentation download site. Version 2.4-8 (6 Sep. 2001) is available here in PostScript. The hypertext version is here .

    Astronomy Computer Manual (not very current).