Binney and Merrifield, 2.1-2.3, 2.5. We will not cover the material
in 2.4 on gravitational
lensing but it's important and interesting.
Read over BM 3.1-3.5 although we will not cover this material in
class;
if you don't know this
material already you will have to know it for generals anyway
Optional reading:
Green, R. M. 1985, Spherical astronomy (Cambridge:
Cambridge
University Press).
Murray, C. A. 1983, Vectorial astrometry (Adam Hilger: Bristol)
Two clear and concise descriptions of astronomical coordinate systems,
time measurement, and astrometry
Supplementary material:
Hipparcos
- a comprehensive site with nice stereo views of the solar
neighborhood,
an mpeg tour through the Hyades cluster, and movies showing the motions
of nearby stars---look at Barnard's star in particular
For the latest round in the controversy about the distance to the
Pleiades cluster see Soderblom
et al. (2005)
A good description of the International celestial reference System
(ICRS) is here.
Moving-cluster method for the Hyades cluster: Perryman
et al. (1998) and de
Bruijne et al. (2001)
A good reference on magnitude systems is here.