PHYS08050 Introductory Astrophysics: Course Notes
From the archive (2022). Corrected in October 2026; see the note at the end.
These are my notes for the University of Edinburgh course Introductory Astrophysics (PHYS08050), written with reference to the course book. Prof. Catherine Heymans kindly gave permission for my adapted notes to be shared here.
Prerequisites: calculus and Newtonian mechanics.
Scope: galaxies and cosmology, with some coverage of stars.
The notes have not been carefully proofread, so if you spot a mistake I would be grateful for a correction.
The \(\LaTeX\) source is reproduced on the sample files page as an example of a longer document.
Changes on 25 October 2026
What was wrong. Nothing on this page, although the introduction mostly apologised for errors in the notes.
What changed. I rewrote the introduction, which now gives the prerequisites and the scope of the notes. The PDF itself is unchanged. Previously titled “PHYS08050 (Introductory Astrophysics) Course Notes”.