MKEP5 Astronomical Techniques

Core course for Master students, listed on Moodle and heiCO

Course content (short summary): Concepts, technologies, and physical principles of modern observational techniques, along with their scientific applications. Includes optical telescopes and detectors, imaging and spectroscopy, characterization of data, effect of the atmosphere, multi-wavelength and particle astronomy.

Lecturer: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Anna Pasquali

Time and location: Tuesday and Thursday 9:15 - 11, Grösser Hörsaal (gHS), Philosophenweg 12

Lectures will start on Tuesday April 14th 2026. Tutorials will begin on Monday/Tuesday April 27th/28th.

Homeworks: Homework sheets become available every Tuesday on Moodle and have to be submitted by Tuesday of the following week to the lecturer before the start of the lecture. We encourage solving and submitting the homework in groups; the maximum is 3 people.

Prerequisites: Knowledge of the introductory astronomy lectures (MVAstro0 or WPAstro). Basic knowledge on electromagnetic radiation.

Credit points: 8

Literature:

P. Léna, "Observational Astrophysics", Springer
F.R. Chromey, "To Measure the Sky", Cambridge University Press
C.R. Kitchin, "Astrophysical Techniques", CRC Press

Additional recommendations for specific parts of the lecture:

S.B. Howell, "Handbook of CCD Astronomy", Cambridge University Press
I. Appenzeller, "Introduction to Astronomical Spectroscopy", Cambridge University Press
D.J. Schroeder, "Astronomical Optics", Academic Press

Exam: To be fixed

50% of homework points are required for participating in the exam.

Course content and planned schedule:

01 April 14th: Lecture organization; Coordinates and time
02 April 16th: Atmospheric extinction and airmass; Geometric optics: focal length and image scale
03 April 21st: Optical aberrations and telescope design
04 April 23rd: Instrumental diffraction and Airy-PSF
05 April 28th: First part of optical detectors and CCDs
06 April 30th: Second part of optical detectors and CCDs
07 May 5th: The night sky; S/N calculation
08 May 7th: Spectroscopy 1: gratings-grisms-prims, basic mathematical relations
09 May 12th: Spectroscopy 2: scientific information at different wavelength and resolution: SED and population models, redshift, rotation/dispersion; IFUs
10 May 19th: Imaging data: flux, magnitudes, noise
11 May 21st: Imaging data reduction, spectroscopic reduction
12 May 26th: Imaging data analysis: photometry; Spectroscopic data analysis: line centers, equivalent widths; Flux calibratios
13 May 28th: Atmospheric turbulence and seeing
14 June 2nd: Active Optics, Adaptive Optics
15 June 9th: Observation and analysis of the Sun
16 June 11th: Web-based access of data and measurements; Observational tools
17 June 16th: Near-, mid-, and far-infrared Astronomy (detectors and instrumentation, science)
18 June 18th: Radio astronomy (detectors and instrumentation, science)
19 June 23rd: Interferometry: concepts, optical/near-infrared, radio
20 June 25th: UV astronomy
21 June 30th: X-ray astronomy: detectors and science
22 July 2nd: Gamma-ray astronomy and particle astronomy
23 July 7th: Neutrino astronomy; Gravitational wave astronomy; Gravitational lensing; Observational cosmology
24 July 9th: Questions and answers