Observational Astrophysics

Pierre Léna is emeritus professor of physics and astrophysics at the university of Paris Diderot-Paris 7 and researcher at the Observatoire de Paris. Daniel Rouan is a director of research of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientific (CNRS) at the Observatoire de Paris. He specialises in very high resolution imaging and develops new optical concepts for observation of exoplanets. François Lebrun is an engineer at the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique. He has participated in major space astronomy missions, notably INTEGRAL. YOU COULD SAY ... an engineer at the French atomic energy authority (CEA). François Mignard is a director of research of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientific (CNRS) at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur. He specialises in astrometry and has played a major role in the future European space mission GAIA. Didier Pelat is an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris. He teaches signal and image processing and has developed powerful mathematical tools for astronomical data processing.

• Part I Foundations.- 1 Astrophysical Information.- 2 The Earth Atmosphere and Space.- 3 Radiation and Photometry.- 4 Space–Time Reference Frames.- Part II Data Collection.- 5 Telescopes and Images.- 6 Diffraction and Image Formation.- 7 Detectors.- 8 Spectral Analysis.- Part III Data Analysis.- 9 The Signal in Astronomy.- 10 Sky Surveys and Virtual Observatories.- A Fourier Transforms.- B Random Processes and Variables.- C Physical and Astronomical Constants.- D Tables of Space Missions.- E Webography.- F Acronyms.- Bibliography.- Index.

From the book reviews:“‘Observational Astrophysics’ is a textbook for graduate students and astrophysicists. … The book gives an in-depth overview of everything one might want to know specifically about observations. If you have ever wondered how exactly the X-ray or neutrino telescopes work and what kind of detectors are used there, then this is the right book to look into.” (Kadri Tinn, AstroMadness.com, October, 2014)“The third edition of Observational Astrophysics … is impressively massive and contains a very large number of things that an astronomer might want to know, from millimetres of precipitable water above some of our favourite sites (less than 1 at the summer south pole to a shameful 7.1 at Kitt Peak) to the meaning of the Rao-Cramer inequality (which applies to the variance of an estimator). … include an expanded discussion of data analysis and a new chapter on sky surveys and virtual observatories.” (Virginia Trimble, The Observatory, Vol. 132 (1229), August, 2012)