Charge-Coupled-Devices and Image Analysis in Astronomy Classes

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Electronic imaging sensors called charge-coupled-devices (CCDs) will be used to replace the photographic techniques and the single- channel electronic devices currently used in an undergraduate course of Observational Techniques in Astronomy. This change will accomplish three important educational goals: 1) it will afford the students a more realistic data collection experience, using the kinds of detectors commonly employed in modern optical astronomy, 2) it will extend the useful life of our on-campus telescope by combating the effects of the increased brightness of the night sky, and 3) it will allow students to explore the analytical techniques of image analysis which find widespread use not only in all parts of astronomy but in most other sciences as well. Two scientific-grade CCD imaging camera systems and the accompanying data acquisition and reduction computers will be purchased. The cameras will be used on two teaching telescopes on campus; a solar telescope and a 12-inch refracting night-time telescope. On the solar telescope, students will acquire time- lapse images of prominences and of active regions on the sun through a narrow-band hydrogen filter. On the night-time telescope, students will acquire images of star clusters and of variable stars to gain experience in the techniques of broad-band stellar photometry.