Letures and additional material for the course "Astronomical Optics" (offered to graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Arizona)

Lectures prepared by Olivier Guyon, Phil Hinz and Jim Burge
Spring 2011 semester
Course syllabus, summary
See bottom of this page for spring 2011 schedule

Introduction to course

Introduction to course [pdf]

1. Fundamentals of astronomical imaging systems

This part of the course serves as an introduction to the course, and introduces fundamental concepts of astronomy and optics which will be explored in more details during the rest of the course. Connect astronomy to telescope and instrument requirements. Introduction of units used for astronomy and how they relate to radiometric quantities.
Part 1 , Jan 13, 2011 lecture [pdf]
Part 2 , Jan 18, 2011 lecture [pdf]

2. Fundamentals of Telescope design

2.1. Telescope types: refractive, reflective

lecture , Jan 20, 2011 lecture [pdf]

2.2. Wide field of view designs and aberration correction

lecture , Jan 25, and Jan 27, 2011 lectures [pdf] (Guyon)

2.3. Space vs. ground: cryogenic telescopes, design choices, challenges

lecture, Feb 1 (Guyon)

2.4. Fabrication challenges and solutions (large optics fabrication, integrating optics and telescope structure)

lecture Feb 3, Guest lecturer (Buddy Martin)

Team project #1: Telescope design

first-order design (plate scale, FOV, pixel size, diffraction limit), introduction to aberrations with field of view
TEAM PROJECT #1 ASSIGNMENTS GIVEN ON FEB 1
TEAM PROJECT #1 WILL BE DISCUSSED DURING FEB 10

3. Spectrographs for Astronomy

3.1. Fundamentals of spectroscopy: science goals, prisms, gratings

lecture Feb 8 (Lecturer: Hinz)

3.2. Types of spectrographs: slit, multi-object, Integral Field Units (IFUs)

lecture Feb 15 (Lecturer: Guyon)

--------------- Feb 17: Mirror Lab tour ----------------------

lecture Feb 17, Guest lecturer (Buddy Martin)

Team project #2 : Spectrograph design

first-order design: spectral resolution, detector sampling, wavelength coverage, re-imaging optics, dispersing element
TEAM PROJECT #2 ASSIGNMENTS GIVEN FEB 15
TEAM PROJECT #2 WILL BE DISCUSSED FEB 22

4. Interferometry

4.1. What does an interferometer measure

lecture Feb 24 (Lecturer: Guyon)

4.2. Beam combination in interferometers

lecture Mar 1 (Lecturer: Hinz)

4.3. Phase correction in interferometers: delay lines and adaptive optics

lecture Mar 3 (Lecturer: Hinz)

4.4. Interferometry on a single aperture: aperture masking, speckle interferometry

lecture Mar 8 (Lecturer: Guyon)

Team project #3 : Interferometer design

First-order design: angular resolution, wavelength. Applications to stellar diameter measurement, exozodiacal dust detection, exoplanet detection, image synthesis.
TEAM PROJECT #3 ASSIGNMENTS GIVEN MAR 3
TEAM PROJECT #3 DISCUSSED MAR 22

5. Adaptive Optics

5.1. Introduction to adaptive optics systems

lecture Mar 10 (Lecturer: Guyon)

5.2. Atmospheric turbulence and its effect on image quality

lecture Mar 24 (Lecturer: Guyon)

5.3. Wavefront sensing for adaptive optics

lecture Mar 28 (Lecturer: Guyon)

5.4. Wavefront correction

lecture Mar 31 (Lecturer: Guyon)

5.5. Laser guide stars

lecture Apr 5 (Lecturer: Guyon)

5.6. Wide field of view correction: ground-layer, multi-conjugate and multi-objects adaptive optics

lecture Apr 7 (Lecturer: Guyon)
Adaptive Optics team project

5.7. System design, control strategies

lecture Apr 12 (Lecturer: Guyon)

6. High Contrast Imaging (nulling interferometry & coronagraphy)

6.1. High contrast imaging science: exoplanets and disks

lecture Apr 14 (Lecturer: Guyon)

6.2. Coronagraphs

lecture Apr 19 (Lecturer: Guyon)
lecture Apr 26 (Lecturer: Guyon)
lecture Apr 28 (Lecturer: Guyon)

6.3. High contrast imaging systems

lecture May 3 (Lecturer: Guyon)