Course Identification

Title:

Experimental astrophysics: from exoplanets to supernovae

Code:

20221182

Lecturers and Teaching Assistants

Lecturers:

Dr. Barak Zackay, Dr. Sagi Ben-Ami, Dr. Yossi Shvartzvald

TA's:

N/A

Course Schedule and Location

Year:

2022

Semester:

Second Semester

When / Where:

Sunday, 14:15 - 16:00
Tuesday, 14:15 - 16:00

First Lecture:

27/03/2022

End date:

19/08/2022

Field of Study, Course Type and Credit Points

Physical Sciences: Lecture; Regular; 4.00 points

Comments

N/A

Prerequisites

No

Restrictions

Participants:

20

Language of Instruction

English

Attendance and participation

Obligatory

Grade Type

Numerical (out of 100)

Grade Breakdown (in %)

Attendance

10%

Assignments:

40%

Interim:

25%

Final:

25%

Evaluation Type

Final assignment

Scheduled date 1

Date / due date

N/A

Location

N/A

Time

-

Remarks

N/A

Estimated Weekly Independent Workload (in hours)

4

Syllabus

Experimental Astrophysics: Introduction.

The magnitude scale and astronomical coordinate systems

Telescopes and Imaging systems

Of mounts and men

Solid State Detectors

Case study: Sky surveys – from transit to transient.

Case Study: Gravitational lensing and microlensing

Interference and Diffraction: Introduction to Spectroscopy

Spectroscopy: Prism and Grating Dispersion.

Case Study: Low-resolution spectroscopy - Transient Classification

Case Study: High-resolution spectroscopy – Exoplanet RV measurements

High-Energy Astrophysics: UV to Gamma Ray

Case Study: ULTRASAT

Learning Outcomes

An introductory course in experimental and observation astrophysics.

The students will learn about the tools and methods used in modern experimental astrophysics research.

Several cutting-edge science cases are investigated in depth, such as sky surveys, exoplanet RV measurements, etc.

Reading List

Observational Astronomy - Birney (Cambridge, 2016)

Astronomical Optics - Daniel J. Schroeder (Academic Press, 2000)

Spectroscopic Instrumentation - Eversberg Thomas, Vollmann Klaus (Springer - Praxis, 2015)

Physical principles of Astronomical Instrumentation - Ade, Griffin and Tucker (CRC, 2021)

Selected papers

Website

N/A