Astrophysics - Table of contents

This is a table of contents for my notes on astrophysics. The posts are arranged in an order that might be found in a textbook.

The Celestial Sphere

• Sidereal and synodic periods of planets
• Astronomical coordinates - declination and right ascension
• Julian dates
• Angular distances on the celestial sphere

Celestial mechanics

• Ellipses
• Orbits in the centre of mass frame - energy and angular momentum
• Kepler's laws
• Kepler's third law and satellite orbits
• Kepler's third law and the moons of Jupiter
• Halley's comet - numerical calculation of orbit
• Halley's comet - an application of Kepler's laws
• Elliptical orbits - numerical simulation
• Velocity in an elliptical orbit
• Orbital velocities at perihelion and aphelion
• Mars's orbit - ellipse versus circle
• Oppositions of Mars - numerical calculation
• Escape speed
• Virial theorem for gravitational orbits

Radiation from stars

• Parallax and the distance to Mars
• Solar irradiance
• Apparent and absolute magnitude
• Bolometric magnitudes and colour indices
• Stellar parallax and the parsec
• Apparent and absolute magnitudes - relation to flux
• Solar sails
• Blackbody radiation rate
• Dschubba (Delta Scorpii) - a blackbody model
• Blackbody radiation - classical approximations
• Blackbody radiation in the frequency domain
• Stefan-Boltzmann constant - luminosity of a star as a blackbody
• Colour-colour diagrams
• Vega as a blackbody
• Bolometric magnitude from flux
• Colour indices in terms of blackbody radiation rate
• Shaula (Lambda Scorpii)

Special relativity in astrophysics

• Lorentz transformations - derivation from symmetry
• Lorentz transformations and causality
• The light clock and time dilation
• Length contraction and time dilation - a few examples
• Another trip to Alpha Centauri - more Lorentz transformation examples
• Relativistic acceleration in terms of force
• Acceleration under a constant force
• Relativistic energy revisited

The nature of light

• Barnard's star - distance and velocity
• Diffraction gratings in spectroscopy
• Photoelectric effect
• Compton scattering
• Compton wavelength
• Energy levels of hydrogen - Bohr's semi-classical derivation
• Gravitational hydrogen atom
• Hydrogen spectrum - Lyman, Balmer and Paschen series
• De Broglie waves
• Uncertainty principle - a couple of examples from astronomy
• Zeeman effect in stars
• Uncertainty principle - visualization with Fourier series

Optics and telescopes

• Image in a refracting telescope
• Lensmaker's equation
• Magnification in an astronomical telescope
• Single slit diffraction
• Diffraction from a circular aperture - Rayleigh criterion
• Image size at the focal plane - the plate scale
• Radio astronomy - spectral flux density and telescope efficiency
• Radio interferometry
• Optical interferometry - the SIM PlanetQuest project
• Resolving two single slit light sources - graphical example

Binary stars

• Binary star orbits - relation of semimajor axes
• Binary stars - determining masses and the mass function
• Eclipsing binary stars
• Sirius binary star system
• Spectroscopic binary stars - Zeta Phe
• Spectroscopic, eclipsing binary stars - mass, radius and temperature
• YY Sagittarii - an eclipsing binary star
• Extrasolar planets - some detection methods
• Radial velocities of a binary system - computer model
• Apparent motion of a binary star - computer model
• YY Sgr - computer model of an eclipsing binary star
• Extrasolar planet detection with light curves - OGLE-TR-56b

Stellar spectra

• Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution
• Boltzmann equation for energy levels in stellar atmospheres
• Saha equation for stellar atmospheres
• Saha equation - neutral hydrogen gas
• Ionization in a helium star
• Saha equation breaks down at the centre of the Sun
• Calcium in the solar atmosphere

Stellar atmospheres

• Energy in the human eye
• Photon density in a blackbody
• Intensity and radiation pressure
• Mean free path of gas molecules
• Opacity and optical depth
• Optical depth of Earth's atmosphere
• A free electron cannot absorb a photon
• Compton scattering
• Rosseland mean opacity
• Path of a photon in the Sun