Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992aas...181.3102m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 181st AAS Meeting, #31.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 24, p.1168
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The Undergraduate Instructional Lab (UIL) is a network of 3 Sun workstations connected to a laboratory 576 x 384 CCD dedicated to the instruction of astronomical data acquisition and analysis to undergraduates. The UIL utilizes the IRAF data analysis environment. The UIL CCD data acquisition software is nearly identical with the ICE package which is utilized at the National Observatories. In addition to the UIL facility, the UW has available a 30" telescope at Manastash Ridge Observatory (MRO) which now uses hardware and data acquisition software that is identical to that used by the UIL. In the spring and summer quarters of this year we have taught the first two courses utilizing the UIL facility. The first course focused on astronomical data analysis and the second focused on observing techniques and the acquisition of astronomical data. A sample of topics taught in the data analysis course is: a primer on running routines in the IRAF data analysis environment, fitting model curves to astronomical data, CCD detector physics, CCD calibration techniques, the effects of Poisson noise and read noise on images, and the accuracy of centroid algorithms. A sample of topics covered in the observational astronomy course is: use of astronomical catalogues and maps, basic telescope designs, setting telescope coordinates, the use of popular filter systems, photometric color transformations, the measurement and causes of atmospheric extinction and scintillation, airmass and precession calculations, and examples of photometry used in stellar and solar system astronomy. For the observing course the students were required to choose or define an observational project which they were to complete using the MRO facilities. They were graded on both an oral and a written presentation of their project. Examples of these projects and lessons that we have learned from our first year of undergraduate instruction of these courses will be discussed.
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