Topics in Observation and Instrumentation in Astronomy

Code:

AST614

Acronym:

AST614

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Astronomy

Instance: 2024/2025 - A

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Physics and Astronomy
Course/CS Responsible:	Doctoral Program in Astronomy

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
PDA	3	P.E. do Programa Doutoral em Astronomia	1	-	6	30	162

Teaching language

English

Objectives

This curricular unit provides advanced training in relevant topics of current research on the different components of observation and instrumentation in Astronomy, through specific modules in active areas of research and development. The aim is to address in detail the tools and fundamental principles that are necessary for a research activity in this area intervention of modern Astronomy.

The student is expected to acquire knowledge and skills necessary to plan, implement and reduce observations in different wavelengths and to understand the development and operation of astronomical instrumentation used in these observations. The student should also be able to understand the technology used and the methods for collecting information in astronomy and how those observations can be transformed into useful scientific data for research in Astronomy.

Learning outcomes and competences

Each module of the course will be presented by an expert, covering active areas of research and development, so that in specific cases relevant for the future it is possible to address the critical aspects of observation in astronomy and development of instrumentation that are required to implement a thesis project in astronomy with international relevance. The contents of each module are defined to ensure it achieves the objectives of the course that is part of a 3rd cycle in astronomy.

Working method

Presencial

Program

The contents depend on the topics selected every year. As an example, the research topics that were discussed in the Academic Year 2023/2024 were enclosed in the following two modules:

I- Introductory Instrumentation for Astronomy
(Dr. Bachar Wehbe)

In this module, students will learn about how the light propagates from the source towards the detector. We will focus on the main parts along the way mainly:

1. Atmosphere: seeing, dispersion…
2. Telescopes
3. Front-End: ADC, guiding, injection
4. Fibers: types, scrambling…
5. Instruments and detectors: spectrographs, CCDs…

- Class preparation: 30% The students will be asked to prepare a presentation about one of the topics during a class.

- Paper review/presentation: 70% Each student will choose an instrumentation related paper (from a pre-defined set) to present at the last day of classes.

II. High Resolution Spectroscopy
Dr. André Silva

## Overview

1. Basics of high-resolution spectroscopy;
2. Detailed characterization of state-of-the-art detectors (CCDs and CMOS);
3. The different steps of spectroscopic data reduction;
4. Impact of atmosphere on data from ground-based instruments;
5. Retrieval of data from ESO archives and implementation of a basic pipeline

Não sei se precisas já disto, mas em princípio devo seguir isto:

**Mandatory literature:**
- Howell; HandBook of CCD Astronomy, Cambridge University Press
- Massey & Hanson; Astronomical Spectroscopy (arXiv:1010.5270)

Mandatory literature

Howell; HandBook of CCD Astronomy, Cambridge University Press
Massey & Hanson; Astronomical Spectroscopy (arXiv:1010.5270)
Sérgio Sousa, Daniel Andreasen; Tutorial: Measuring Stellar Atmospheric Parameters with ARES+MOOG (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018ASSP...49..275S)

Comments from the literature

For each module, scientific papers, manuals and other online support material will be indicated to students.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Contact hours include presentations of material, working on specific tasks, project development, problem solving of key issues in observation and instrumentation, familiarization with the state of the art through the literature and the analysis of active projects or in preparation for instrumentation and / or space missions.

keywords

Physical sciences > Astronomy

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	20,00
Participação presencial	15,00
Trabalho escrito	17,50
Trabalho prático ou de projeto	47,50
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	132,00
Frequência das aulas	30,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

Students must attend at least 50% of all classes.

Calculation formula of final grade

As an example, evaluation was done through individual assignements (per module) given to students. Assignments and respective weights are as follows:

Module I:

- Class preparation: 30% The students will be asked to prepare a presentation about one of the topics during a class.

- Paper review/presentation: 70% Each student will choose an instrumentation related paper (from a pre-defined set) to present at the last day of classes.

Module II:
In this module the student will have a grade that is computed as follows:
grade_module = 0.30*Par+0.70*W
where Par (graded from 0 to 20 values) is the participation in classes (including a fast quiz test to be performed in class), and W (graded from 0 to 20 values) is the development of autonomous work plus its presentation in a written report and orally respectively, with respective discussion/answer to questions.

The final mark will be computed averaging the marks obtained in the two modules (ie. each module contributes with a weight of 50%).

Classification improvement

There is no option for improving the classification or to repeat the evaluation in this course.

Observations

The jury of this curricular unit includes:
- Catarina Lobo
- Nuno Santos
- Jorge Gameiro