Observational Astronomy
Physics 308

The class is offered in fall semesters, and in 2024 it will be an online course. Additional content is available for enrolled students on our server

Observational Astronomy Weekly Class Content


The course includes live remote access to facilities at Moore Observatory in Kentucky, Mt. Kent Observatory in Queensland, Australia, and Mt. Lemmon in Arizona. Observing sessions will be scheduled throughout the semester when weather permits. Optional in-person activities may be offered when weather permits, at Moore Observatory in the evening, or the Rauch Planetarium for solar observing in the daytime.

For students taking the class, please check your email and Blackboard Announcements for the latest information before the semester begins. When remote or in-person observing is scheduled, use the high resolution images from the GOES-16 satellite to see weather patterns for yourself.

Weekly topics

Syllabus
Everything you need to know about the class

Star Charts
Maps of the visible sky

Stellarium
Sky simulator on the web

Time
Meaning and measure

Celestial coordinates
Mapping the sky

Observables in Astrophysics
What light reveals

Our observatories
Moore Mt. Kent and Mt. Lemmon


Class resources

Project guide
Suggestions for projects in 2019

Overleaf
Online collaborative LaTeX

Overleaf template
Zip and LaTeX source

Satellite tracker
Based on two-line elements (TLE)

Two-line elements
Earth satellite TLE

Sky and Telescope
Observing geosynchronous satellites

Transit Finder
Known Exoplanets

Exoplanet Transits
Observations

Exoplanet
Database

Supernovae
Latest Information

Sky Tonight
Messier and Caldwell Lists

Observable Comets
Images and Observations


Observatory Access

Data download
Use name and password provided

Astronomy website
Moore Observatory and Shared Skies

Directions
To Moore Observatory


Astronomical Coordinates


On-line Public Astronomical Data

NASA ADS
NASA Astrophysics Data System publication index and archive

Aladin-Lite
View Astronomical Image Databases

Simbad
SIMBAD Astronomical Database

VizieR SED
Spectral Energy Distribution

SDSS
Sloal Digital Sky Survey

MAST
Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes

ESO Archive
Science archive from ESO telescopes


Ground-based Observatories and Telescopes

LSST
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will have an 8.4-meter diameter mirror and a 3.5 degree field of view

VLT
ESO's Very Large Telescope is 4 8.2-meter telescopes

Keck
The University of California's twin 10-meter telescopes on Mauna Kea

Siding Spring
4-meter and 2.3 meter telescopes in Australia

WIYN
An observatory with a 3.5-meter telescope operated by a university consortium and offering community access

Moore and Mt. Kent
Small telescopes in Kentucky and Australia operated by the University of Louisville and the University of Southern Queensland


Software

AstroImageJ
Astronomical photometry, data reduction, and image processing

AstroCC
Celestial coordinate converter and object locator

Aladin
Data base visualization

ds9
FITS image display

Stellarium
Sky simulator

Cosmographia
3D space simulator

Python
A Python tutorial for physics and astronomy students

Julia
High performance programming language


Links

Sky-Map
Color version of the DSS

Exoplanet Transits
Ephemerides for observable known exoplanets

In-the-Sky
Any time and place

Heaven's Above
Louisville sky simulation

SAO/NASA ADS
Abstracts and articles

astro-ph
Astrophysics arXiv

Astronomy Picture of the Day
Amateur and professional

Lunar Picture of the Day
From ground and space

News from ESO
Black hole in M87



Last update: August 22, 2021
kielkopf at louisville dot edu