Astronomical Data Analysis II
Dr L. Fletcher
10 lectures, starting 10th January 2007
| This ten-lecture H-level course aims to introduce and explore the basic concepts underpinning data analysis in astronomy, with emphasis on the interpretation of measurements to yield the physical parameters of the remotely-sensed astronomical object. This includes a treatment of the different kinds of instrumentation; measurements made and their associated sources of error; extraction of data from CCD and other detector devices; and discussion of how these data are combined with understanding some of the typical physical processes at work in astronomical objects to give values for temperature, density, velocity etc. |
Books
There is no single recommended textbook for this
course, but useful material can be found in:
Astrophysical Techniques, Fourth Edition, Kitchin (Taylor Francis Publishing)
Astronomy Methods, Bradt (CUP).
Course materials
Lectures
and Websites Below you will find pdf versions of the
slides I have shown during the lectures. You will receive the handouts
during the lectures themselves; however in the versions posted on the web
I have implemented corrections which I've noticed or have been brought to my attention, and marked them with a small tick . You should therefore look
at these to correct errors in the handouts.
Lecture 1 - Introduction: overview of detectors and observables
Lecture 2 - CCDs: background physics, noise, flat-fielding
Lecture 3 - CCDs: gain, calculation of flux from CCD measurement, photometry, point spread function
Lecture 4 - Correcting for cosmic rays, spectroscopy, wavelength calibration, correcting for tilt of spectrum, interpolation
Lecture 5 - Background removal from spectrum, significance of an observation, absorption lines, equivalent width
Lecture 6 - equivalent width as a diagnostic for column density, emission lines, LTE, collisional equilibrium, collisional excitation rate, a diagnostic for temperature.
Lecture 7 - Saha ionisation equilibrium; density of states argument, emission lines from ions and the g(T) function, metastable states and line density diagnostics.
Lecture 8 - velocity measurements; Lorentz, Gaussian and Voigt profiles, thermal and turbulent speed. Doppler measurements, spectra from galaxies - deconvolution and cross-correlation.
Question Sheets
See main Moodle site
Feedback and comments? Please mail me