The final exam will be held on Friday,
31 October 2025 (time and place will be informed later).

Possible questions for the exam: [PDF]

765640S

Observational Astronomy

an advanced course (5 credits)

at the Space Physics and Astronomy research unit, University of Oulu

The course period is September 2 – October 17, 2025.

Lectures take place usually on Tuesday at 14-16 and Wednesday at 12-14,

exercises and practical sessions on Thursday at 14-16, see Peppi for detail.

The course is lectured in English

Teacher: Vitaly Neustroev, MA 308, vitaly[-at-]neustroev.net
Assistent: Paula Kvist, paula.kvist [-at-] oulu.fi

Course content:

  • Methods of Observations with modern Space- and Ground- based Telescopes
  • Observational Techniques in Gamma, X-ray, UV, Optical and Infra-Red astronomy
  • Observational Experiments, Calibrations And Data Reductions
  • Data Analysis

Theoretical and practical considerations will be supplemented with the home exercises which constitute the important part of the course.

Literature:

  • Astrophysical techniques (5th Edition – 2008) – C.R. Kitchen: Taylor & Francis / CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4200-8243-2.
  • Observational Astrophysics (3rd Edition – 2012) – P. Léna, D. Rouan, F. Lebrun, F. Mignard, D. Pelat, Translated by S. Lyle: Springer. ISBN 978-3-642-21815-6.

    • Can be useful:

  • An Introduction to Astronomical Photometry Using CCDs (October 22, 2006) – W. Romanishin: the latest version of this book can be downloaded from here
  • ISSI Scientific Report Volume 9 (SR-009): Observing Photons in Space (2010) – Edited by M.C.E. Huber, A. Pauluhn, J. Len Culhane, J. G. Timothy, K. Wilhelm and A. Zehnder. ISBN 978-92-9221-938-3.
  • Observational Astronomy (Second Edition – 2006) – D. Scott Birney, Guillermo Gonzalez & David Oesper: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85370-5.

Practical manuals:

  • An Introduction to Astronomical Photometry Using CCDs (October 22, 2006) – W. Romanishin: the latest version of this book can be downloaded from here
  • IRAF-1 by S. Larsen
  • IRAF-2 by T. Coenen and Y. Grange
  • Spectral Reduction Procedures by Mike Bolte

    • Schedule

    • Lecture 1: September 2: Introduction (Seeing the Night Sky with Our Naked Eyes, Viewing objects in wavebands other than optical, The Effect of the Earth’s Atmosphere), Continuum Radiation Processes (Electromagnetic radiation from Radio to Gamma-Ray wavelengths, Blackbody radiation, Multi-Wavelength Observations), Eye as a detector.

      PDF * Slides by Masataka Okabe & Kei Ito about Color blindness

    • Lecture 2: September 3: Telescopes (Historical introduction, General principles, Diffraction and Spatial resolution, Aberrations in reflecting telescopes, Optical configuration, Telescope configurations, Optical, Radio, Infra-Red and UV Telescopes).

      PDF * Homework: see slide 102 (deadline September 9)

    • Lecture 3: September 9: Very large radio telescopes. Segmented mirror telescopes; New large optical telescopes; Problems of Extremely large telescopes. X-ray and Gamma-ray telescopes.

      PDF

    • Lecture 4: September 10: Gamma-ray telescopes. James Webb Space Telescope. Telescopes (Adaptive Optics).

      PDF

    • Lecture 5: September 11: Detectors (Detector Parameters, Types of Detectors, The primary interaction processes, Photographic emulsions, Photomultipliers, Micro-Channel Plates, CCDs)

      PDF

    • Self-study: Introduction to Statistics: PDF
    • Lecture 6: September 16: X-ray Detectors (Proportional Counters, CCDs, Microchannel plates), Gamma Ray detectors (Scintillation crystals, Compton Scattering detectors, Pair production detectors, Solid state CZT detectors, Coded mask imaging, Air Čerenkov detectors)

      PDF * Compulsory problems [set1] (return by September 18)

    • Lecture 7: Self-study: Infrared detectors.

      PDF

    • Lecture 8: September 17: Methods of Observations, CCD Imaging, Image processing.

      PDF

    • Lecture 9: September 18: Methods of Observations: Physical limitations on the precision of photometric measurements. Photometry (Magnitudes, Photometric Systems)

      PDF * Compulsory problems [set 2] (return by October 6)

    • Lecture 10: October 7: Photometry (Magnitude systems), Practical Photometry (Colour indices, Units, Aperture photometry, SNR)

      PDF

    • Lecture 11: October 8: Practical Photometry (SNR, Aperture Correction, Profile Fitting). Practical Procedures for photometry (Instrumental magnitudes, Calibration, Atmospheric absorption).

      PDF

    • Lecture 12: October 9: Practical Procedures for photometry (Atmospheric absorption). CCD Gain.

      PDF * Compulsory problems [set 3] (return by October 14)
      Exercise session: Data page

    • Lecture 13: October 14: Spectroscopic techniques.

      PDF

    • Lecture 14: October 15: Practical spectroscopy. Calibration.

      PDF

    • Exercise session: October 16. Exposure Time Calculators.

      • Compulsory problems (return by the deadline). 3 sets (30% of the final score).

      The final exam will be held on Friday, 31 October 2025 (the time and place will be informed later).
      List of possible questions for the exam: [PDF]