Indice degli argomenti
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Earth Atmosphere
We introduce the role that the Earth atmosphere has on astronomical observations. In particular we focus on three aspects: transparency, turbulence, and background due to the Sun or the Moon.
Jorge Melendez has slides which describe the topic in great detail:
http://www.astro.iag.usp.br/~jorge/aga5802/2018_06_atmosfera_terrestre.pdf
I also encourage you, if you can, to check Chapter 2 of "Observational Astrophysics" from Léna, Rouan, Lebrun, Mignard, and Pelat.
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Telescopes
In this lecture we cover the different types of optical designs of (optical and NIR) telescopes, mounts, and domes. We review some of their advantages and disadvantages.
The topic is covered also in basically any of the books I have suggested. For an introduction, though, I may suggest reading the chapter on observations of the book by Carrol and Ostlie (also familiarly known as "the big orange book").
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Observing Proposals
In this class, we speak about how to write observing proposals.
Jorge Melendez has some very good slides here
Most of Jorge’s sources (as well as mine) can be found at the end of this page http://amiga.iaa.es/ESOUsers/239-preparation-of-proposals.htm which, although a bit old, comes with several interesting tips.I have added three (accepted) proposals, two from OAJ and one from OPD.
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Test 1: Prepare an ESO Proposal
ESO offers a nice range of optical/NIR/radio telescopes. It sounds natural, given the heterogeneity of this group, to suggest writing a proposal for ESO. All the people will have to go through the same process.
The ESO Call for Proposal is here https://www.eso.org/sci/observing/phase1/p106/proposalsopen.html
The deadline for sending the proposal to me (i.e. upload the pdf generated by the system) is 14 April, 23:59, time of Brasilia.
Failing to deliver a proposal will mean mark 0 (zero) in this test.
You get 1 extra point if you submit the proposal.
I will evaluate as follows:
-) 3 points - clarity of the scientific rationale
-) 2 points - clarity of the immediate objective
-) 2 points - clarity of the technical description
-) 1 point - meaningful weather constraints / estimate of the exposure time
-) 1 point - meaningful instrument configuration
Note: I do not give a mark to science but to clarity.
Penalties:
-) 3 points less if you ask for targets not observable during P106 from Paranal
-) you loose point every time you use some sentence which are out of context. E.g., with a title “The role of t3 and FWHM on the MMRD in CNe”, you have already lost points.
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[Forum] Questions about Test #1: Proposal
We can use this forum for the doubts you can have about the first test of the course.
This way the questions and the answers become available to everyone.
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Scheduling Observations
In this class, we learn how to schedule an observation. The basic rules of the game are:
1) think first!
2) order your targets by right ascension
3) try to observe always with the lower airmass
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[Forum] Schedule the night of 27th January 2020
A forum so that we can share our ideas on the night of 27th January with everyone.
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Surveys
In this lecture, we describe how to design and carry out a survey.
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