An Introduction to Astronomical Photometry Using CCDs

Автор: W. Romanishin
Издательство: University of Oklahoma
Страниц: 175
Год: 2006
Размер: 1,99 МБ

This book began as a set of lecture notes for an undergraduate course entitled ”Observatory Methods” that I teach each year at the University of Oklahoma (OU). The book is intended as an introduction for the college astrophysics major to photometry in the optical region of the spectrum of astronomical objects using CCD imaging from groundbased telescopes. Of course, in these times of Giga-buck satellite telescopes of various sorts, groundbased optical astronomy is only a part of observational astronomy. Within groundbased optical astronomy, spectroscopy, only briefly mentioned here, probably takes up as much or more telescope time as photometry. That said, it is still obvious that imaging photometry is an important part of observational astronomy. With the ready availability of inexpensive CCDs and computer power, even a small telescope can provide an important ”hand on” learning experience not readily available with large, oversubscribed research telescope, or remote satellite observatories.

This book represents knowledge I have accumulated over 25 years of observing with a wide range of telescopes. My PhD dissertation, finished in 1980, was probably one of the last observational dissertations to use photographic emulsions as the primary detector. Since then I have observed with various photomultiplier detectors and many different CCD systems, on telescopes ranging in aperture from 0.4 to 10 meters.