Optical, Infrared and Radio Astronomy ― From Techniques to Observation

This textbook presents the established sciences of optical, infrared, and radio astronomy as distinct research areas, focusing on the science targets and the constraints that they place on instrumentation in the different domains. It aims to bridge the gap between specialized books and practical texts, presenting the state of the art in different techniques. 

For each type of astronomy, the discussion proceeds from the orders of magnitude for observable quantities that drive the building of instrumentation and the development of advanced techniques. The specific telescopes and detectors are then presented, together with the techniques used to measure fluxes and spectra. 

Finally, the instruments and their limits are discussed to assist readers in choice of setup, planning and execution of observations, and data reduction.

The volume also includes worked examples and problem sets to improve student understanding; tables and figures in chapters summarize the state of the art of instrumentation and techniques.

Rosa Poggiani graduated in Physics from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 1988. Her work has focused especially on the gravitational acceleration of antimatter probes, the detection of gravitational waves with interferometers, and the optical properties of astrophysical compact objects. She has made significant contributions to the physics of low-energy antimatter, suspension systems, high-vacuum compatibility and the cryogenic design of interferometric gravitational wave detectors, the optical spectroscopy of novae and the microvariability of blazars. Dr. Poggiani has been an investigator in a number of research projects and has been involved in various international collaborations. She was Coordinator of Control and DAQ for the P118T experiment on antiproton deceleration and trapping at CERN. She has been a member of the Virgo Collaboration for the interferometric detection of gravitational waves since 1993, and was the Coordinator of the last stage of the suspensions and of the vacuum compatibility of the suspension components. The LIGO and Virgo members were awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize In Fundamental Physics and the 2016 Gruber Cosmology Prize for the detection of gravitational waves.