Download or read book Observational Astrophysics written by Pierre Lena and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the last twenty years astronomy has been developing dramatically. Until the nineteen-fifties, telescopes, spectrometers, and photographic plates consti tuted a relatively simple set of tools which had been refined to a high degree of perfection by the joint efforts of physicists and astronomers. Indeed these tools helped at the birth of modern astrophysics: the discovery of the expan sion of the Universe. Then came radioastronomy and the advent of electronics; the last thirty years have seen the application to astrophysics of a wealth of new experimental techniques, based on the most advanced fields of physics, and a constant interchange of ideas between physicists and astronomers. Last, but not least, modern computers have sharply reduced the burden of dealing with the information painfully extracted from the skies, whether from ever scarce photons, or from the gigantic data flows provided by satellites and large telescopes. The aim of this book is not to give an extensive overview of all the tech niques currently in use in astronomy, nor to provide detailed instructions for preparing or carrying out an astronomical project. Its purpose is methodologi cal: photons are still the main carriers of information between celestial sources and the observer. How we are to collect, sample, measure, and store this infor mation is the unifying theme of the book. Rather than the diversity of tech niques appropriate for each wavelength range, we emphasize the physical and mathematical bases which are common to all wavelength regimes.
Download or read book Observational Astrophysics written by Robert C. Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-06-30 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining a critical account of observational methods (telescopes and instrumentation) with a lucid description of the Universe, including stars, galaxies and cosmology, Smith provides a comprehensive introduction to the whole of modern astrophysics beyond the solar system. The first half describes the techniques used by astronomers to observe the Universe: optical telescopes and instruments are discussed in detail, but observations at all wavelengths are covered, from radio to gamma-rays. After a short interlude describing the appearance of the sky at all wavelengths, the role of positional astronomy is highlighted. In the second half, a clear description is given of the contents of the Universe, including accounts of stellar evolution and cosmological models. Fully illustrated throughout, with exercises given in each chapter, this textbook provides a thorough introduction to astrophysics for all physics undergraduates, and a valuable background for physics graduates turning to research in astronomy.
Download or read book An Introduction to Observational Astrophysics written by Mark Gallaway and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-05-06 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The observational component of astronomy is an exciting and vital part of any astrophysics degree. With the advent of low-cost astronomical cameras and remote and robotic operation, more students than ever have the opportunity to observe and perform observatory research. This updated and fully corrected textbook provides a comprehensive overview of practical observing techniques for undergraduate astrophysics courses. The chapters introduce students to the basics of the field before delving into telescope types, the nature and operation of the astronomical camera, imaging techniques and reduction, photometry and spectrography, and solar and radio observations. The second edition covers the latest research on calibrating the telescope-camera-observatory system. It contains revised information on all available astronomy equipment, including filters, webcams, sensors, and telescope designs. Also included is an entirely new chapter on exoplanet transit measurements. The textbook’s practical approach will guide readers from basic first-year techniques to those required for a final-year project.
Download or read book Observational Astrophysics written by Pierre Lena and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second edition has been entirely restructured and almost doubled in size, in order to improve clarity and account for the great progress achieved in the field over the last 15 years. "This is not a handbook for observers. It is a broader reference for students, active researchers, and anyone who wants a detailed look at the tools of modern astronomy..." -PHYSICS TODAY
Download or read book Observational Astrophysics written by Pierre Léna and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-01-11 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ,This is the updated, widely revised, restructured and expanded third edition of Léna et al.'s successful work Observational Astrophysics. It presents a synthesis on tools and methods of observational astrophysics of the early 21st century. Written specifically for astrophysicists and graduate students, this textbook focuses on fundamental and sometimes practical limitations on the ultimate performance that an astronomical system may reach, rather than presenting particular systems in detail. In little more than a decade there has been extraordinary progress in imaging and detection technologies, in the fields of adaptive optics, optical interferometry, in the sub-millimetre waveband, observation of neutrinos, discovery of exoplanets, to name but a few examples. The work deals with ground-based and space-based astronomy and their respective fields. And it also presents the ambitious concepts behind space missions aimed for the next decades. Avoiding particulars, it covers the whole of the electromagnetic spectrum, and provides an introduction to the new forms of astronomy becoming possible with gravitational waves and neutrinos. It also treats numerical aspects of observational astrophysics: signal processing, astronomical databases and virtual observatories.
Download or read book Fundamentals of Astrophysics written by Stan Owocki and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-03 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This concise textbook, designed specifically for a one-semester course in astrophysics, introduces astrophysical concepts to undergraduate science and engineering students with a background in college-level, calculus-based physics. The text is organized into five parts covering: stellar properties; stellar structure and evolution; the interstellar medium and star/planet formation; the Milky Way and other galaxies; and cosmology. Structured around short easily digestible chapters, instructors have flexibility to adjust their course's emphasis as it suits them. Exposition drawn from the author's decade of teaching his course guides students toward a basic but quantitative understanding, with 'quick questions' to spur practice in basic computations, together with more challenging multi-part exercises at the end of each chapter. Advanced concepts like the quantum nature of energy and radiation are developed as needed. The text's approach and level bridge the wide gap between introductory astronomy texts for non-science majors and advanced undergraduate texts for astrophysics majors.
Download or read book Observational Astronomy written by Edmund C. Sutton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Astronomy is fundamentally an observational science and as such it is important for astronomers and astrophysicists to understand how their data are collected and analyzed. This book is a comprehensive review of current observational techniques and instruments. Featuring instruments such as Spitzer, Herschel, Fermi, ALMA, Super-Kamiokande, SNO, IceCube, the Auger Observatory, LIGO and LISA, the book discusses the capabilities and limitations of different types of instruments. It explores the sources and types of noise and provides statistical tools necessary for interpreting observational data. Due to the increasingly important role of statistical analysis, the techniques of Bayesian analysis are discussed, along with sampling techniques and model comparison. With topics ranging from fundamental subjects such as optics, photometry and spectroscopy, to neutrinos, cosmic rays and gravitational waves, this book is essential for graduate students in astronomy and physics. Electronic and colour versions of selected figures are available online at www. cambridge.org/9781107010468.
Download or read book Fundamentals of Radio Astronomy written by Jonathan M. Marr and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2015-11-30 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As evidenced by five Nobel Prizes in physics, radio astronomy in its 80-year history has contributed greatly to our understanding of the universe. Yet for too long, there has been no suitable textbook on radio astronomy for undergraduate students.Fundamentals of Radio Astronomy: Observational Methods is the first undergraduate-level textbook exclus
Download or read book Observational Molecular Astronomy written by David A. Williams and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-25 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Molecular line emissions offer researchers exciting opportunities to learn about the evolutionary state of the Milky Way and distant galaxies. This text provides a detailed introduction to molecular astrophysics and an array of useful techniques for observing astronomical phenomena at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths. After discussing the theoretical underpinnings of molecular observation, the authors catalogue suitable molecular tracers for many types of astronomical regions in local and distant parts of the Universe, including cold gas reservoirs primed for the formation of new stars, regions of active star formation, giant photon-dominated regions and near active galactic nuclei. Further chapters demonstrate how to obtain useful astronomical information from raw telescope data while providing recommendations for appropriate observing strategies. Replete with maps, charts and references for further reading, this handbook will suit research astronomers and graduate students interested in broadening their skill to take advantage of the new facilities now coming online.
Download or read book Observational Astronomy written by D. Scott Birney and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-06-29 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New and updated edition of advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate textbook on observational astronomy.
Download or read book A Practical Guide to Observational Astronomy written by M. Shane Burns and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2021-09-16 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Practical Guide to Observational Astronomy provides a practical and accessible introduction to the ideas and concepts that are essential to making and analyzing astronomical observations. A key emphasis of the book is on how modern astronomy would be impossible without the extensive use of computers, both for the control of astronomical instruments and the subsequent data analysis. Astronomers now need to use software to access and assess the data they produce, so understanding how to use computers to control equipment and analyze data is as crucial to modern astronomers as a telescope. Therefore, this book contains an array of practical problems for readers to test their knowledge, in addition to a wealth of examples and tutorials using Python on the author’s website, where readers can download and create image processing scripts. This is an excellent study guide or textbook for an observational astronomy course for advanced undergraduate and graduate astronomy and physics students familiar with writing and running simple Python scripts. Key Features Contains the latest developments and technologies from astronomical observatories and telescope facilities on the ground and in space Accompanied by a companion website with examples, tutorials, Python scripts, and resources Authored by an observational astronomer with over thirty years of observing and teaching experience About the Author M. Shane Burns earned his BA in physics at UC San Diego in 1979. He began graduate work at UC Berkeley in 1979, where he worked on an automated search for nearby supernovae. After being awarded a PhD in 1985, Professor Burns became a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wyoming. He spent the summer of 1988 as a visiting scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where he helped found the Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP). He continued to work as a member of the SCP group while a faculty member at Harvey Mudd College, the US Air Force Academy, and Colorado College. The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the leader of the SCP for the group’s "discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae." During his career, Professor Burns has observed using essentially all of the world’s great observatories, including the Keck Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Download or read book Astrophysics for Physicists written by Arnab Rai Choudhuri and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-11 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed for teaching astrophysics to physics students at advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level, this textbook also provides an overview of astrophysics for astrophysics graduate students, before they delve into more specialized volumes. Assuming background knowledge at the level of a physics major, the textbook develops astrophysics from the basics without requiring any previous study in astronomy or astrophysics. Physical concepts, mathematical derivations and observational data are combined in a balanced way to provide a unified treatment. Topics such as general relativity and plasma physics, which are not usually covered in physics courses but used extensively in astrophysics, are developed from first principles. While the emphasis is on developing the fundamentals thoroughly, recent important discoveries are highlighted at every stage.
Download or read book Optics in Astrophysics written by Renaud Foy and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-01-14 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Astrophysics is facing challenging aims such as deep cosmology at redshift higher than 10 to constrain cosmology models, or the detection of exoplanets, and possibly terrestrial exoplanets, and several others. It requires unprecedented ambitious R&D programs, which have definitely to rely on a tight cooperation between astrophysics and optics communities. The book addresses most of the most critical interdisciplinary domains where they interact, or where they will do. A first need is to collect more light, i.e. telescopes still larger than the current 8-10 meter class ones. Decametric, and even hectometric, optical (from UV to IR wavelengths) telescopes are being studied. Whereas up to now the light collecting surface of new telescopes was approximately 4 times that of the previous generation, now this factor is growing to 10 to 100. This quantum leap urges to implement new methods or technologies developed in the optics community, both in academic labs and in the industry. Given the astrophysical goals and technological constraints, new generation adaptive optics with a huge number of actuators and laser guide stars devices have to be developed, from theoretical bases to experimental works. Two other newcomers in observational astrophysics are interferometric arrays of optical telescopes and gravitational wave detectors. Up-to-date reviews of detectors and of spectrographs are given, as well as forefront R&D in the field of optical coatings and of guided optics. Possible new ways to handle photons are also addressed, based on quantum physics. More and more signal processing algorithms are a part and parcel of any modern instrumentation. Thus finally the book gives two reviews about wavefront processing and about image restoration and deconvolution algorithms for ill conditioned cases.
Download or read book Astrophysics For Dummies written by Cynthia Phillips and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2024-02-23 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the undiscovered with this jargon-free introduction to astrophysics Astronomy is the study of what you see in the sky. Physics is the study of how things work. Astrophysics is the study of how things in the sky work, from large objects to tiny particles. Astrophysics For Dummies breaks it all down for you, making this difficult but fascinating topic accessible to anyone. Tracking the topics covered in a typical undergraduate astrophysics class, this book will teach you the essential pieces to understanding our universe. Get ready to launch into outer space with this ever-changing branch of science. Discover the latest advances in the world of astrophysics Understand how and why galaxies form and evolve Find out the origins of cosmic rays Get a standalone primer on the science or supplement your astrophysics course Students in introductory astrophysics courses and would-be astronomy buffs who want to better understand the mechanics of the universe will love Astrophysics For Dummies.
Download or read book Introduction to Astrophysics written by Jean Dufay and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-10-17 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concrete, mid-level treatment, this readable and authoritative translation from the French provides an excellent guide to observational astrophysics. Methods of research and observation receive as much attention as results. Topics include stellar photometry and spectroscopy, classification and properties of normal stars, construction of Hertzsprung- Russell diagrams, Yerkes two-dimensional classification, and much more. Reprint of Introduction à l’astrophysique: les étoiles, Max Leclerc et Cie, 1961.
Download or read book Astrophysics of Black Holes written by Cosimo Bambi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-28 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the state of the art of the basic theoretical and observational topics related to black hole astrophysics. It covers all the main topics in this wide field, from the theory of accretion disks and formation mechanisms of jet and outflows, to their observed electromagnetic spectrum, and attempts to measure the spin of these objects. Black holes are one of the most fascinating predictions of general relativity and are currently a very hot topic in both physics and astrophysics. In the last five years there have been significant advances in our understanding of these systems, and in the next five years it should become possible to use them to test fundamental physics, in particular to predict the general relativity in the strong field regime. The book is both a reference work for researchers and a textbook for graduate students.
Download or read book Astrophysics of Planet Formation written by Philip J. Armitage and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Graduate-level textbook providing a basic understanding of the astrophysical processes for readers in planetary science, and observational and theoretical astronomy.