Course Dates Credits
Observational Astronomy II 2
Lecturers
Marcella Massardi

Program:

  • Lecture 1 - Intro - electromagnetic signal, photon vs wave, distances, coordinates, fluxes vs luminosities vs magnitude, instrument structure (properties and atmospheric limits), sensitivity, resolution (ang & spect), polarimetry
  • Lecture 2 - Continuum - broad band signals, spectral indices, colors, SED fitting, photometric redshift, cross-matches - Radio interferometry
  • Lecture 3 - Spectroscopy - line definition, critical density, main lines (HII, CO, molecules, PAH, CII, OIII, NII, Hrecombination series, X-ray lines), momenta, ratios, spectroscopic redshift determination, line flux density, Lyman break technique - Optical-IR spectroscopic techniques
  • Lecture 4 - Cosmological probers and other carriers: CMB & foregrounds removal GW (pulsar timing arrays + GW detectors) neutrinos - Writing an observational paper
  • Lecture 5 - Open Science - Archives & VO tools - Visualization tools (with tutorials)
  • Lecture 6 - Calibration and Imaging, Noise and sistematics - Gaussian vs non Gaussian noise, Confusion noise, Eddington bias, Malmquist bias, instrumental systematics
  • Lecture 7 - Surveys vs small samples - detections, reliability, completeness, stacking, statistical analysis (luminosity fuction, redshift distribution, number counts), upper and lower limits, survival analysis, small numbers statistics
  • Exam: Present to the class (in max 10min and 4 slides) the analysis of data of your favourite band, telescope, target[s], no need to perform calibration, extract values for science

    Prerequisites:

    Books:

    Online Resources:

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