Synopsis:

· Introduction to astronomical facilities

· Coordinates, catalogues, time, observability

· Earth’s Atmosphere and advantages of Space

§ Atmospheric Transmission and Emission

§ Refraction and Seeing

· High Resolution imaging : Corrections for atmospheric phase

§ Adaptive Optics,

§ Interferometry

· Telescopes

· Detectors

· Photometry

· Spectroscopy

PDF Copies of the slides are available here:

Lecture 1 Facilities and Coordinates

Lecture 2 Earth’s atmosphere : emission, transmission

Lecture 3 Earth’s atmosphere : refraction and seeing

Lecture 4 Achieving High Resolution ; Adaptive Optics and Interferometry

Lecture 5 Telescopes

Lecture 6 Detectors

Lecture 7 Imaging & Photometry

Lecture 8 Spectroscopy

Lecture 9 Proposals

While videos of some Lectures are available here:

Lecture 4 : Achieving High Resolution ; Adaptive Optics and Interferometry

Lecture 6 : Detectors

Hopefully Useful References and texts

Essential sites:

• Simbad : http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/
• NED : Nasa Extragalactic Database http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu
• NASA Space Data Center http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/astro/
• Canadian Astronomy Data centre http://www.cadc-ccda.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/en/
• IRSA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/frontpage/
• NRAO VLA Sky Survey http://www.cv.nrao.edu/nvss/

Reference Books

· Arthur Cox Allenճ Astrophysical Quantities

· George Rieke Measuring the Universe -A Multiwavelength Perspective

· Ian McLean, Electronic Imaging in Astronomy: Detectors and Instrumentation, Second Edition, 2008

· C.K. Walker, Terahertz Astronomy

· Jonathan M. Marr, Ronald L. Snell, Stanley E. Kurtz Fundamentals of Radio Astronomy: Observational Methods

· Bevington, P. R., and Robinson, D. K. 2002, Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences

Review Articles

· M Bessell, Standard Photometric Systems, ARAA, 43, 293, 2005

· G Rieke, Infrared Detector Arrays for Astronomy, ARAA, 45, 2007

· R Davies & M Kaspar, Adaptive Optics for Astronomy, ARAA, 50, 305, 2012

· Taylor, G B, Carilli, C. L, Perley, R. A. (eds) Synthesis Imaging in Radio Astronomy II, ASP Vol. 180 (1998)

Technical Documents

· Basic Image Processing and CCD features : https://www.eso.org/~ohainaut/ccd/

· Starlink CCD Data Reduction Cookbook : http://www.starlink.ac.uk/docs/sc5.htx/sc5.html

· ALMA Technical Handbook : https://almascience.eso.org/documents-and-tools/latest/documents-and-tools/cycle7/alma-technical-handbook

· Gemini Data Reduction Workshop Presentations https://www.noao.edu/meetings/gdw/

· Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit http://casu.ast.cam.ac.uk/surveys-projects/vst/technical