Astronomy Seminar

From the image to the scientific application

With the study result it will be evaluated if the students acquired competences to define, analyze and evaluate the scientific and technical requirements of a scientific question they have defined of their own. For this it is required to do a literature survey and to apply competences obtained during previous studies. The run of a telescope does not only need technical competence and programming skills, but it is a co-laboration, a team work has to be built and competences exchanged within the team of students. The student teams will be supported by consultancy of the lecturers.

Information about study result: At the end of the seminar the student team gives an overview about the project and the related scientific and technical requirements. During intermediate meetings with the lecturers the next development steps will be discussed. The study results will be done by students homework. The students will maintain a web site to inform other interested students.

It is recommended to have basic knowledge in mathematics, physics and engineering sciences as it is typically acquired in an engineering course at Bachelor level

After participating at the module students are capable,
- to understand the components needed to observe with a telescope,
- to automatically take pictures with a CCD camera adopted on the telescope,
- to define the scientific requirements for astrometric observations,
- to extract object right ascencion and declination from photos with a star background,
- to take light curves
- to develop software for astro navigation,
- to assess the technical requirements to run a telescope routinely.

The module will be evaluated by a presentation of at least 30 min. which will be regarded as a study result of this course. (ECTS-Credits: 3)