Course Goal: The class goal is to introduce students to professional research methods in astrophysics, focusing on data analysis from ground-based optical telescopes. The course will cover observational data reduction methods and comparison to theoretical models.

Computer Programming: The majority of astrophysical research is done on the computer. In this class, we will use the Python computing language. No prior Python experience is required. It is expected that students will have some familiarity with general programming, or be prepared to quickly learn the basics of computing.

Course Work: See the Problem Sets page for both pre-course work and data links during the course.