Introduction

ASTR 3010

Lecture 1

Chapter 4

http://cosmos.physast.uga.edu/iSong/ASTR3010

Course Homepage

• http://cosmos.physast.uga.edu/iSong/ASTR3010• Course announcements will be made through this page. Occasionally, some

relevant lecture notes will be provided as PDF files from this site.

• Three exams (two in-class exams and a final). • Some homework and extra credit works (email submission).

• Accounts were created for you on a computer servero server name : cosmos.physast.uga.eduo userid = UGA myido passwd = “astr3010” reset your passwd after your 1st login

at the command prompt, type “passwd”

Course Layout

Changes in Observational Astronomy

• Until early 60s: Selected few elites have exclusive accesses to largest telescopes (e.g., Palomar 5m telescope by Caltech, Cornell, etc.)

• “National Observatory” : Kitt Peak National Observatory, Cerro Toloro InterAmerican Observatory, Gemini (international), VLT, etc…any astronomers with a brilliant idea can carry out a project.

• All-sky surveys and science archives : data obtained from publically funded programs need to be shared!o Hubble Space Telescopeo Data archives for ROSAT (X-ray), IRAS (IR), Spitzer, GALEX, ISO, AKARI, WISE,

Gemini, VLT, Keck, …o Hard to find relevant information Need for a better tool Virtual Observatory

• No more lame excuse: “I do not have an access to large telescopes…”

Ground-based telescopes

• http://astro.nineplanets.org/bigeyes.html

Why larger telescopes?

Space Telescopes• James Webb Space Telescope

• Launch ~2018• post HST• 6.5m primary mirror• mid-IR telescope

Why space telescopes?

Upcoming TelescopesName Size Location Comments

GMT 25.4m Chile 2019

LSST 8.4m Chile survey telescope

TMT 30m Hawaii

E-ELT 40m ? European

Pan-STARRS 4 x 1.8m Hawaii Survey

Why large area surveys?

Python!!

Importance of a good programming skill!

Essential skill for a survival.

Make sure that you will be able to run “python” code.o If you are using Mac, you’re already set.o If you are using linux, even better!o If you are using a Windows OS

dual-booting (Win+Linux) live linux CD Virtualization (VMWare, VirtualBox, etc.)

o Python python core graphing tool (matplotlib) science tools (scipy and numpy)

o Google is your good manual for the above tasks.

Python Tutorials

Real basics : o Good introductory book: “Python for Dummies”o http://www.learnpython.orgo http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~rschaaf/Python2008/

Little advanced : http://python4astronomers.github.com/

In summary…

Important Concepts• Importance of a programming skill• Needs for larger telescopes• Needs for space telescope• Needs for larger surveys

Important Terms• Python

Chapter/sections covered in this lecture : N/A