Lectures: Galactic Astronomy

AS2001: Galactic Astronomy

Course Text: "Galactic Astronomy" by Binney and Merrifield

This course aims to explore the basics of Galactic Astronomy in order to construct a model of our Galaxy based on our knowledge of the individual components, the stars, gas and dust. Starting from the distribution of stars in the sky, the lectures explore how we determine stellar positions and kinematics from the observables.

Lecture notes are available as 6 slides per page postscript or PDFs

Lecture 1: Introduction

Postscript 6 slides per page or PDF

Lecture 2: Star Counting and Dust

Postscript 6 slides per page or PDF

Lecture 3: Stellar Census

Postscript 6 slides per page or PDF

Lecture 4: Stellar Dynamics

Postscript 6 slides per page or PDF

Lecture 5: The Disc Stars

Postscript 6 slides per page or PDF

Lecture 6: Peculiar Velocities

Postscript 6 slides per page or the Powerpoint file

Lecture 7: The Halo Stars

Postscript 6 slides per page or PDF

Lecture 8: Oort's Constants

Postscript 6 slides per page or PDF

Lecture 9: HI Rotation Curve

Postscript 6 slides per page or PDF

Lecture 10: Gravitational Lensing

Postscript 6 slides per page or the PDF

Lecture 11: The Galactic Nucleus

Postscript 6 slides per page or the PDF