ASTR485

While the origin of optical astronomy is lost in the mists of time, we know exactly when radio astronomy was born, January 1932. This was when Karl Jansky began his first experiments at Bell Telephone Laboratory in Holmdel, NJ. Since then radio astronomy has grown from a serendipitous science to a cornerstone of modern astronomy. In radio astronomy we use photons with characteristic dimensions from 100's of meters to 100's of microns, to probe a huge variety of objects and phenomenon, everything from comets and the origin of the solar system to the origin and structure of the Universe. In this course, you will be introduced to the fundamentals of radio astronomy. Topics will include instrumentation and techniques, emission and absorption mechanisms, present and future telescopes, as well as data analysis techniques. Course material will be introduced through a mixture of classroom discussion, hands-on laboratory experiments, and observational projects.

Spring (even years only)