Lecture Schedule

#	Title	OpenStax Astronomy 2e Reading	Paired Lab/PS
01	The Observing Chain and Telescope Optics Fundamentals	Ch. 6 (descriptive only)	Lab 01 / PS 01
02	Diffraction, the Rayleigh Criterion, and Telescope Resolution	Not in OpenStax; derived from first principles
03	Plate Scale, Field of View, and Focal-Plane Geometry	Not in OpenStax; derived from first principles	Lab 02 / PS 02
04	CCD Detectors: Architecture, Quantum Efficiency, and Charge Transfer	Ch. 6 (descriptive only)
05	Detector Noise: Read Noise, Dark Current, and CMOS/IR Arrays	Not in OpenStax; derived from first principles	Lab 03 / PS 03
06	The CCD Signal-to-Noise Equation and Exposure Time Calculators	Not in OpenStax; derived from first principles
07	Calibration Frames: Bias, Dark, Flat-Field, and Standard Stars	Not in OpenStax; derived from first principles	Lab 04 / PS 04
08	Photometric Filter Systems	Not in OpenStax; derived from first principles
09	Spectrograph Fundamentals: The Grating Equation and Dispersion	Ch. 6 (descriptive only)	Lab 05 / PS 05
10	Resolving Power, Echelle Spectrographs, and Slit/Fiber-Fed Systems	Not in OpenStax; derived from first principles
11	Adaptive Optics: Wavefront Sensing and the Strehl Ratio	Not in OpenStax; derived from first principles	Lab 06 / PS 06
12	Space-Based Instruments and Observatory Operations	Ch. 6 (descriptive only)
13	Radiometric Error Budgets and Instrument Sensitivity Modeling	Not in OpenStax; derived from first principles	Lab 07 / PS 07
14	Instrument Proposal Design: Capstone Synthesis	Not in OpenStax; derived from first principles

Lab Schedule

Lab	Title	Real Data Source
01	Diffraction-Limited Resolution Across Five Real Telescopes	Keck aperture/collecting area (live-verified this session); HST, VLT, JWST apertures (standard published mission/facility specifications)
02	Plate Scale, Pixel Scale, and the Nyquist Sampling Criterion	Keck, HST, JWST focal lengths and DECam pixel size/format (standard published facility specifications)
03	Building a CCD Exposure-Time Calculator	Representative e2v-class CCD read noise/dark current; standard published V-band zero-point and sky-brightness values
04	Photometric Calibration and Zero-Point Derivation	Landolt standard star SA 98-978 UBVRI magnitudes (standard published photometric standard)
05	The Grating Equation and HIRES's Resolving Power	Keck HIRES radial-velocity precision and 1 AU planet-detection limit (live-verified this session); HIRES resolving power, groove density, blaze angle (standard published instrument specifications)
06	Adaptive Optics Strehl Ratios at K Band and V Band	Representative Keck natural-guide-star AO residual wavefront errors (standard published performance figures)
07	Capstone: Instrument Proposal Design and Error Budget	Synthesizes datasets from Labs 01-06 into a self-chosen, instructor-approved instrument proposal