Format: 10 classes of 90 minutes each

Schedule:

I. (Lecture)
Telescopes, CCDs and astronomical filter systems; basic definitions (e.g. apparent and absolute magnitude, color, surface brightness); Complement of Optical Astronomy (e.g. Radio Astronomy, X Ray, InfraRed); The MOnitoring NEtwork of Telescopes (MONET)

II. (Lecture)
Gravitational Lensing (principles, strong lensing, weak lensing and its application on studies of the mass (and Dark Matter) distribution in e.g. galaxy clusters, examples of ray tracing models).

III. (Lecture)
Galaxies in the nearby Universe: the Hubble sequence; general properties of galaxies (colors, gas content, surface brightness profiles and galaxy fitting laws, bulge/disk ratio), and the radio counterpart.

IV. (Observing run)
Observations of the bulge component of M31. Acquisition of dithered exposures in three photometric bands with MONET North (Texas).

V. (Laboratory course)
Reduction (bias and flat field correction) of the images for M31 with ESO MIDAS and visualization of the results with ImageJ. Comparison of optical data with MONET with data from other wavelength intervals (X-ray, UV, radio).

VI. (Observing run)
Acquisition of several images for an Elliptical nearby galaxy with the MONET telescope in Texas.

VII. (Laboratory course)
Reduction (incl. imaging stacking) of the galaxy images, derivation and fitting of surface brightness profiles. Determination of the Sérsic Index and the bulge/disk ratio. Comparison of optical data with MONET with data from other wavelength intervals (X-ray, UV, radio).

VIII. (Lecture)
Star formation and galaxy evolution: Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, color-magnitude diagram; star formation history of Hubble-type galaxies; color evolution as a function of SFH (demonstration of predictions from evolutionary synthesis models), starburst activity in interacting galaxies.

IX. (Observing run)
Observations of an interacting/merging starburst galaxy in three filters with the MONET - Texas.

X. (Laboratory course)
Reduction of the imaging data for the starburst galaxy, computation of color maps and radial color profiles (using scripts in MIDAS). Estimation of the age of the starburst based on the observed colors.

Evaluation: Oral exam (to be confirmed).