Universitäts-Sternwarte München

Fakultät für Physik der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität

Astrophysical lab course
for Master’s students

Winter semester 2025 / 2026

P 2.1/2 · WP 16.1/2 · WP 17.1/2
P 2.1 · WP 2.1/2 · WP 1.1

Astrophysical basic lab · observational and instrumental lab · numerical lab

General information:

Places and Times:

Tuesday 13:30–18:00, main lecture hall, ground floor, University Observatory, Scheinerstraße 1.

Briefing for winter semester 2025 / 2026:

Tuesday, 14th of October 2025, 13:30.

Note: Master’s students in astrophysics or physics who have already completed their first semester of labs do not have to participate in this briefing if they correctly inscribe in the LSF, confirming that they will attend this course. Participants may suggest preferred lab partners, but there is no guarantee that this can be honored.

Date of first lab:

Tuesday, 21nd of October 2024, 13:30.

This lab course is for:

Master’s students in astrophysics and physics only.

LMU Bachelor’s students in physics can be admitted if they are already admitted to the Master’s program in astrophysics or physics and if we have enough tutors!
Students who have applied for the Master’s program in astrophysics or physics but have not been admitted cannot participate in this lab.

Important: only the astrophysical “basic” lab P2 is mandatory for students in the Master’s program in astrophysics. All topics in this lab build on the lecture P1 “Introduction to Advanced Astrophysics”. We therefore recommend that you take this mandatory lab course only after successfully completing the introductory lecture P1. We highly recommend doing the instrumental/observational or numerical lab in the first semester and the astrophysical basic lab in the second semester! Students in the Master’s program in physics can mix experiments from all three labs (depending on availability, no guarantee).

In case you have questions or need further information regarding these lab courses:

Please contact Dr. Arno Riffeser (arri_at_usm.lmu.de) by email.

Further information:

• VNC for the labs (version WiSe2024/25) (see also here).
• Lab structure, procedure, and guidelines for your lab report and feedback (version WiSe2024/25).
• Here you can obtain all lab manuals online.
• Lab schedule for the winter semester 2024 / 2025 (lab experiments and supervisors).^{[Updated 2024-11-26]}
• This is a cover sheet that you should fill in for all your lab reports.