PHYS-L381 Observational Astronomy Laboratory
Field trips to local observatories, subject to sky conditions. Use of Stellarium software for determination of latitude and longitude of a place, planetary orbits, and solar rotation using sunspots. Study of composite spectra and elemental composition, focal ratios, light gathering power, image scale and resolving power of a telescope. Also included are exposure time calculations, spectral classification using VIREO, stellar surface temperatures using VIREO, H R Diagram, light curve of eclipsing binaries and exoplanets, radial velocity curves of binary stars.
Prerequisite
Permission of Dept. Chair Required. Take
PHYS-381 concurrently.