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Ay 218 (2008-2009, Spring Term)
Precision Photometry: Why, How and Current/Future Results
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The outline below indicates both probable and possible lecture topics,
which will be set based on student interest.

1. Course Introduction and Motivation

Part I: WHY attempt precision photometry? (2 weeks)

The instructors will assemble a reading list for student consumption. 
They will also give the following talks explaining the applications
and diagnostic power of precision photometry.

2. Helioseismology and Asteroseismology (normal and other stars)
3. Rotation (stars ==> Kuiper belt objects)
4. Eclipsing Binaries (across the HR diagram) 
5. Planetary Transits
6. Microlensing and Exoplanets

Part II: HOW to achieve precision photometry (4 weeks)

Techniques:

The instructors will assemble a reading list for student consumption. 
They will also give the following talks explaining the difficulties
in achieving photometric precision.

7. Differential vs Absolute photometry; Time Series Measurements
8. Technical approaches in Optical and Infrared:  Hardware / Detectors
9.                                                Software / Photometry
10. Ground-based photometry: Atmospheric scintillation
11.                        : Atmospheric transparency variations
12.                        : Effect of irregular sampling 
13.                        : Effect of correlated noise
14.                        : Multi-site advantages and challenges
15. Space-based photometry and chief limitations

Facilities and Technologies:

Experts will be invited to speak on the technical capabilities of some of 
the following facilities.

16. OGLE/TrES/WASP/HAT/XO/PTF (Ciardi?  Law?)
17. LCOGT (Brown?)
18. GONG/SONG/WET (Riddle)
19. WIRE
20. MOST
21. COROT (Fridlund as heard at "Missions to Exoplanets")
22. Spitzer (Soifer?)
23. HST (Stapelfeldt?)
24. Kepler (Gautier?)

Part III: RESULTS from precision photometry (4 weeks)

Students will lead discussions of recent precision photometry results 
from the following current and future facilities.

Current Missions: 

25. MOST
26. COROT
27. Spitzer-cold

Expectations from Future Programs:

28. Spitzer-warm
29. Kepler 
30. BRITE Constellation 
31. LCOGT 
32. DomeC
33. JWST (Greene as heard at "Missions to Exoplanets")
34. TBD concepts:  MPS (Bennett as heard at "Missions to Exoplanets") 
                :  LEAVITT 
		:  PLATO (Fridlund as heard at "Missions to Exoplanets") 
		:  TESS (Ricker as heard at "Missions to Exoplanets")

Other considerations

35. Discovery/Search vs Characterization of Planets 


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Calendar:

week 1 (30 march) - LAH
week 2 (6 april) - SRK
week 3 (13 april)- LAH
week 4 (20 april)- LAH/SRK  class should attend 1:30-5:15 session on 21 april of http://exep.jpl.nasa.gov/exep_exoMtgAgenda.cfm
week 5 (27 april)- LAH
week 6 (4 may) - tbd
week 7 (11 may) - SRK
week 8 (18 may) - tbd
week 9 (25 may) - LAH
week 10 (1 june) - tbd

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