ASTM13 Dynamical astronomy (7.5 hp)


Documents and resources for the course


This page contains links to various documents, programs and data sets used in the course.

Hipgal is a PC program for extracting data from the Hipparcos Catalogue.


MATLAB is the main program used for calculations:

P0 - Preparatory exercises. These exercises are intended as an introduction to the use of Hipgal and MATLAB. The results are discussed in class but no report should be handed in. Data for the Coma Cluster can be found here.

Project descriptions:
P1 - Oort's constants - to be handed in by Tuesday, 29 November 2011
P2 - The motion of nearby stars and the LSR - to be handed in by Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Either, P3 - Galactic orbits - to be handed in by Friday, 23 December 2011
[Space velocities for 2086 stars in the solar neighbourhood can be found here.
Format: one line per star with Hip#, u, v, w [km/s] relative to the Sun.]
Or, P4 - The local mass density - to be handed in by Friday, 23 December 2011

Examination:
In order to pass the course, you have to pass the home exam (see below) and hand in acceptable reports for P1, P2 and either P3 or P4. This is how the grading is done:
- Each of the problems (P1-P4) as well as the exam (E) is graded on a scale from 0 to 100%
- The mean grade is calculated as M = 2(P1+P2+(P3 or P4))/9 + E/3.
- You have failed if any of P1, P2, P3 or P4, or E is <50 (but see below how you can still pass).
- Otherwise, you get a "Pass" (Godkänd) if M<75 or a "Pass with Distinction" (Väl godkänd) if M is at least 75.
- As long as you have failed, you are entitled to hand in improved versions of the failed reports, or re-do a failed home exam once.
- If you are close to receiving a "Pass with Distinction", you may also be allowed to improve the reports.

Home exam:
- A set of questions was published here on 13 December, 2011.
The answers should be handed in or sent by e-mail to mbd@astro.lu.se before the end of Friday 23 December 2011.

Melvyn B. Davies (046-22 21568), mbd@astro.lu.se

Anders Johansen (046-22 21589), anders@astro.lu.se

Lennart Lindegren (046-22 27309), lennart@astro.lu.se

Bjorn Samuelsson (046-22 23494), bjorn.samuelsson@thep.lu.se

Back to the home page of the course

Last modified: Monday, October 17, 2011