The book supersedes the classic text Galactic Astronomy that James Binney wrote with. Vinnie moore youtube. Binney and Merrifield introduce all astronomical concepts necessary to.

AY 202a --- Galaxies and Dynamics Harvard Department of Astronomy (Catalog #8237), Fall Term 2009/10 Professor John Huchra Observatory P-309 495-7375 huchra@cfa.harvard.edu TA Joey Munoz Observatory P-203 495-9501 jamunoz@cfa.harvard.edu John's Assistant Lisa Catella Observatory P-323 495-7390 lcatella@cfa.harvard.edu The class meets Monday+Wednesday 10:15-11:45 A.M. In the Observatory Classroom (in A building). First meeting Wednesday, September 2th. The goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of extragalactic astronomy and the astrophysics that describes the workings of galaxies.

We will study the basics of extragalactic astronomy, the properties of galaxies and galactic nuclei, stellar and gas dynamics, clusters of galaxies, the large scale distribution of galaxies and galaxy clusters and their use as cosmological tools. Further details of mathematical cosmology and observations will be provided in AY202b in the following spring term. We will use Peter Schneider's Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology as the primary textbook (ISBN-10 3-540-33174-3, Springer), and will also cover some material from two other very useful texts, Binney & Tremaine's Galactic Dynamics (ISBN, Princeton) and Binney & Merrifield's Galactic Astronomy (ISBN, Princeton). Both of these are well worth having on your astronomical bookshelf and can be obtained at several booksellers including the COOP. (see links on JPH's homepage for alternatives).

The course will be graded in part on problem sets (50%), class participation (10%) and the take home final exam (40%). We will experiment with reading a 'paper of the week,' either a classic in extragalactic astronomy or a recent ArXiv preprint relevant to the topics under discussion at the time. Below are the course syllabus and draft lecture schedule followed by a set of useful links and an (moderately complete) list of references and texts relevant to the material.