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The Department of Astronomy offers undergraduate and graduate instruction in a wide variety of fields, including theoretical and observational astrophysics; infrared, optical, and radio astronomy; galactic structure and dynamics of stellar systems; high-energy astrophysics and cosmology; and spectroscopy. A considerable amount of research and teaching related to astronomy is done in other units at Berkeley, including the Space Science Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and the Physics Department. Various professors in the Chemistry, Earth and Planetary Science, Mathematics, Statistics, and Engineering departments have an active interest in astronomy and are available for consultation.

A variety of instruments is available to students and staff, including a 30-inch telescope at Leuschner Observatory (near the campus), two 10-meter telescopes at the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, 30-inch, 40-inch and 120-inch telescopes at Lick Observatory, a 16-element millimeter-wave interferometer in Southern California, and the Allen Telescope Array at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory. Laboratories are available for the development of radio, infrared, and optical instruments, and for the precise measurement of images and spectra.

Current postdoc opportunities at Berkeley are described here.


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Two thousand nine is the International Year of Astronomy, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei. To celebrate the occasion, the department is presenting a series of public talks.