Spring 2013 course

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Modern Astronomical Optics

Spring 2013

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

This course provides an overview of astronomical optical systems for astronomy. It introduces astronomical and optical concepts related to exoplanets observations. By focusing on a particularly challenging observational problem of modern astronomy, the course will teach design and analysis of high precision optical systems and measurement techniques for astronomy, including spectroscopy, photometry, optical metrology and interferometry. Design and fabrication of both ground-based and space-based astronomical observatories and instruments will be discussed.

The course consists of lectures and team projects. For each of the four team projects during the semester, astronomy and optics students will work together to design a mission/telescope/instrument for astronomy, using material presented during the lectures. Each team projects will result in an oral presentation.

Lectures

1. Course introduction, Fundamentals of astronomical imaging systems [Guyon, Breckinridge]

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.

• 2013-01-10: Introduction to course [pdf]
• 2013-01-15 2013-01-16: Fundamentals of astronomical imaging systems: diffraction limit, photon noise [pdf]

2. Optical systems for space-based scientific remote sensing [Breckinridge]

• 2013-01-22: part 1
• 2013-01-24: part 2
• 2013-01-29: part 3
• 2013-01-31: part 4

3. Fundamentals of Telescope design [Guyon, Hinz, Burge, Martin]

• 2013-02-05: First-order design: plate scale, field of view, pixel size, diffraction limit. Telescope types: refractive, reflective
• 2013-02-07: Wide field of view designs and aberration correction
• 2013-02-12: Space and ground: cryogenic telescopes, design choices, challenges
• 2013-02-19: Design and manufacture of mirrors, and active optics lecture given by Buddy Martin, Steward Observatory Mirror Lab

TEAM PROJECTS #1

4. Spectrographs for Astronomy [Guyon, Hinz]

• 2013-02-14: Fundamentals of spectroscopy: science goals, prisms, gratings, spectral resolution, detector sampling, wavelength coverage
• Types of spectrographs: slit, multi-object, Integral Field Units (IFUs)

5. Interferometry [Guyon, Hinz]

• 2013-03-19: What does an interferometer measure ? First-order design: angular resolution, wavelength. Applications to stellar diameter measurement, exozodiacal dust detection, exoplanet detection, image synthesis.
• 2013-03-21: Beam combination in interferometers. Interferometry on a single aperture: aperture masking, speckle interferometry

6. Adaptive Optics [Guyon, Hinz]

• 2013-03-26 and 2013-03-02: Introduction to adaptive optics systems, atmospheric turbulence
• 2013-04-02: Wavefront sensing for adaptive optics
• 2013-04-04: Wavefront correction
• 2013-04-04 to 2013-04-18: AO system architecture, Laser guide stars, control

7. High Contrast Imaging (nulling interferometry & coronagraphy) [Guyon]

• 2013-04-18: High contrast imaging goals and challenges
• 2013-04-23: Coronagraphs concepts and systems

Textbooks

• Astronomical Optics (Shroeder)
• Exoplanets (Seager)