UFAF503 Practical Astronomy

Faculty of Philosophy and Science in Opava
Summer 2017
Extent and Intensity
2/2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
RNDr. Tomáš Gráf, Ph.D. (lecturer)
RNDr. Tomáš Gráf, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
RNDr. Tomáš Gráf, Ph.D.
Centrum interdisciplinárních studií – Faculty of Philosophy and Science in Opava
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The subject immediately follows the subject Basics of Astronomy and Astrophysics lectured in the previous fall semester and it extends substantially in observational astronomy. Part of the course will be an excursion to the observatory and the planetarium. The main topics: radial velocity, the celestial sphere, the Earth's atmosphere and its influence on the observations, refraction, scintillation, extinction, Moon phases, libration, lunar occultation, catalogue of stars, databases, almanacs, ephemerides, observations in different spectral regions, optical telescopes, refractors, reflectors, mounting types, adaptive optics, photodetectors, CCD elements, telescopes, interferometry telescopes on satellites (HST), the IR, UV, X-ray astronomy, spectroscopy: emission and absorption spectra, types of spectrographs, cosmic rays, neutrino astronomy, microwave backround radiation (COBE, WMAP), gravitational waves and their detection.
Syllabus
  • 1. Transformation of systems of coordinates, time, stellar catalogs and atlases, astronomical databases, seminar: orientation on the sky, constellations
    2. Influence of Earth's atmosphere on observations, planning of observational night, seminar: observations with telescope
    3. Telescopes, aberrations, large telescopes, active and adaptive optical systems, detectors, seminar: practical astronomy "for pleasure" I (including critical commentary)
    4. Brief overview of observational methods used in radio, ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy, detectors of cosmic rays, neutrinos and gravitational waves, seminar: practical astronomy "for pleasure" II (including critical commentary)
    5. CCD imaging, CCD cameras, seminar: work with a CCD camera
    6. Astronomical photography(classical and CCD), robotic telescopes, seminar: camera obscura, digital camera, CCD camera
    7. Fundamentals of computer image processing, seminar: practical exercises
    8. Photometric systems, practical photometry I, seminar: visual photometry, CLEA
    9. Practical photometry II, astrometric measurements, seminar: CLEA
    10. Fundamentals of spectroscopy, seminar: simple spectroscope
    11. Practical Spectroscopy, seminar: CLEA
    12. Analysis of experimental data, seminar: practical exercises
Literature
    recommended literature
  • T. Gráf. Metody pozorovací astronomie. URL info
  • T. Gráf. Praktická astronomie. Opava, 2016. ISBN 978-80-7510-194-5. URL info
  • C. R. Kitchin. Astrophysical Techniques. London, 2003. ISBN 0750309466. info
  • Robert C. Smith. Observational Astrophysics. London, 1995. ISBN 0521278341. info
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
Teacher's information
75% attendance in seminars, active participation
oral examination
The course is also listed under the following terms Summer 2018, Summer 2019, Summer 2020, Summer 2021, Summer 2022, Summer 2023, Summer 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Summer 2017, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.slu.cz/course/fpf/summer2017/UFAF503