1B11 Foundations of Astronomy

Syllabus

Astronomical co-ordinates (5 lectures)
Co-ordinate systems, star maps and catalogues, precession and nutation, time systems, atmospheric refraction, aberration, parallax, stellar distances and proper motion.

Star names and magnitudes (2 lectures)
Basic nomenclature, constellation names, nebulae and galaxies, the magnitude scale, converting from fluxes to magnitudes, UBV Johnson System, colour index, temperature and colours, absolute magnitudes and distance modulus, reddening and extinction, bolometric quantities.

The Electromagnetic spectrum (2 lectures)
EM waves and photons, spectroscopy, continuum emission, blackbody emission, absorption and emission lines, atomic transitions, excitation, ionization and recombination.

Telescopes and instruments (4 lectures)
Refractors, reflectors, focii, f-ratios, resolution, atmospheric seeing, chromatic and spherical aberration, coma and astigmatism, Schmidt telescopes, Maksutov cameras, telescope mounts, instruments and detectors, CCDs and spectrographs, UV, IR, radio and X-ray telescopes.

The cosmic distance scale (2 lectures)

The Sun (2 lectures)

Orbits (3 lectures)

The Earth as a planet (4 lectures)

The other planets (5 lectures)

Extrasolar planets (1 lecture)