Southampton Astronomy Group

Postgraduate Lecture Course


A variety of activities are provided for Year 1 postgraduate astronomy students, designed to give a general introduction to the astronomy PhD.

The key components of this course are:
These activities occur throughout the first year. Second (or third) year postgraduates are welcome to attend the courses again if they wish.

Astronomy Postgraduate Lectures

2013 Schedule

Note: All lectures are in the SEPNet videoconference room, Room 4121, in building 46, unless otherwise stated. All lectures except those with a "*" are being offered to SEPNet via the videoconference facility.
  1. Week of 4th Feb:
    Tomaso Belloni - "Time series analysis for high-energy astronomy"
    * Tues 11.30am-12.30pm
    * Wed 11am-12pm

  2. Week of 11th Feb: NO LECTURES - FACULTY INTERVIEWS

  3. Week of 18th Feb:
    Tomaso Belloni - "Time series analysis for high-energy astronomy"
    * Tues 11.30am-12.30pm
    * Thurs 11.30am-12.30pm
    * Fri 12pm-1pm

  4. Week of 25th Feb:
    Rob Fender
    Tues 11.30am-12.30pm - "Basics of accretion modes and efficiency"
    Wed 10am-11am - "Classic paper: Soltan MNRAS, 200, 115, 1982"

  5. Week of 4th March:
    Anna Scaife - "Radio interferometry"
    Tues 11.30am-12.30pm
    Thurs 10am-11am

  6. Week of 11th March:
    No lectures - FREE

  7. Week of 18th March
    Ian McHardy - "TBA"
    Tues 11.30am-12.30pm
    Wed 10am-11am

  8. Week of 25th March:
    (EASTER)

  9. Week of 1st April:
    (EASTER)

  10. Week of 8th April:
    Judith Croston - "Radio-galaxy dynamics and populations"
    Wed 1pm-2pm

  11. Week of 15th April:
    Tony Bird - "TBA"
    Tues 11.30am-12.30pm ** in TR4**
    Wed 10am-11am ** in TR3 **

  12. Week of 22nd April:
    Mark Sullivan - "Supernovae"
    Tues 11.30am-12.30pm
    Wed 10am-11am

  13. Week of 29th April:
    Judith Croston - "Radio-galaxy dynamics and populations"
    Wed 1pm-2pm

  14. Week of 6th May:
    Carsten Gundlach - "Perturbations in cosmology and their inflationary origin"
    Wed 10am-11am
    Thurs 11am-12pm

  15. Week of 13th May:
    Wynn Ho - "Neutron star cooling theory and observations"
    Tues 11.30am-12.30pm
    Leor Barack - "Orbital mechanics around black holes"
    * Wed 10am-11am

  16. Week of 20th May:
    Christian Knigge - "TBA"
    Tues 11.30am-12.30pm
    Wed 10am-11am

  17. Week of 27th May:
    Malcolm Coe - "Optical variability signatures in high-mass X-ray binaries"
    Tues 11.30am-12.30pm
    Wed 10am-11am

  18. Week of 3rd June:
    Phil Charles - "TBA"
    Tues 10am-11am
    Wed 10am-11am

  19. Week of 10th June:
    Kostas Skenderis - "Holography and black holes and early universe"
    Tues 11.30am-12.30pm
    Wed 10am-11am


Astronomy Techniques Self-Teaching Module

During the first semester, students should attempt one self-taught module per week (apart from the statistics module, which is 2 weeks).

Each module consists of a set of notes, which should be read, and in some cases a series of exercises. Any problems should then be discussed with the module co-ordinator.

Module 1 Introduction to computer systems Tony Bird Notes
Module 2 Overview of programming languages Tony Bird Notes
Module 3 (2 weeks) Statistical methods Christian Knigge Notes
Module 4 Techniques for storing and handling astronomical data - FITS files Tony Bird Notes
Module 5 X-ray spectroscopy Tom Maccarone Notes
Module 6 Timing analysis Malcolm Coe Notes
Module 7 Writing a scientific paper Christian Kaiser Notes
Module 8 Using INTEGRAL Tony Bird Notes


Undergraduate Courses

Postgraduates may attend all or part of any of the school undergraduate courses. Of particular relevance may be:

PHYS1005 - Intro to Astronomy and Space Science
PHYS2010 - Life in the Cosmos
PHYS2013 - Galaxies
PHYS3006 - Computer Techniques in Physics
PHYS3010 - Stellar evolution
PHYS3011 - Photons in Astrophysics
PHYS6005 - Cosmology

Postgraduates are also encouraged to attend, or view the online notes for these courses. Course information and on-line notes are available via the school's teaching web page.

This page is maintained by the course co-ordinator, Mark Sullivan.