This course reviews the practices of modern observational astronomy, focusing primarily on techniques employed in the optical bands. Topics will include a description of the use of digital detectors for imaging, photometry, and spectroscopy in a wide variety of applications. Data acquisition, image processing, and data analysis methods will be discussed. In particular, students will gain hands-on experience with the analysis of data obtained from both ground- and satellite-based observatories. An introduction to the relevant error analysis methods is included. |