Special Topics: Astronomical Instrumentation & Data Analysis

(UTRGV PHYS-5387)

Course Information (Fall 2025 Version)

Contact Information:

Email: ryan.oelkers(at)utrgv.edu
Phone: 956.882.6617
Office: BINAB 2.140
Office Hours: Monday 12:00 PM - 1:00PM in BINAB 2.140 or on ZOOM
Classroom: BINAB 2.124
Lecture Time: Tuesday and Thursday from 10:45 AM to 12:00 PM

(Left) A view from Estacion Astrofisica de Bosque Alegre. The small hexagon at the center of the image is the camera system I built for my PhD dissertation. The image is from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Image Credit & Copyright

Photogragh: Sebastian D' Alessandro; Constellations: Judy Schmidt

Please note: You will need to be logged into your UTRGV Microsoft 365 account to access the course material.

Course Syllabus

You can find the course syllabus here.

Course Textbook

There is no assigned textbook for the course. However, I highly recommend the two following books as they provide additional insight into the topics we will cover.

Course Schedule

The lecture slides are available through the links below.

Date Topic (click link for slides)

01/20/2026 An Introduction to Measurement

01/22/2026 The Sky & its Coordinate System

01/27/2026 The Sky Continued & Light

01/29/2026 Light Concluded

02/03/2026 Telescopes & CCDs

02/05/2026 Signal to Noise & Uncertainty