Astronomy 191 is encouraged. Courses in related subjects may be substituted by permission of the Head Tutor. Such a project may be used to satisfy the requirement upon request of the student and approval by the student's project supervisor and the Astronomy Head Tutor. Letter-graded credit is required for all physics and mathematics courses. The sixteen half-courses required for the honors concentration include the prerequisites for the courses listed above.
Students meet with their adviser at least once a term and at other times as needed.
The Department of Astronomy is located within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, which also contains the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, at 60 Garden Street and 160 Concord Avenue, Cambridge. The Center for Astrophysics has a large staff of scientists and is among the largest institutions devoted to astronomy and astrophysics in the world. A very broad range of astrophysical research is conducted by the many scientists at the Center, in its divisions of Atomic and Molecular Physics, High-Energy Astrophysics, Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Planetary Sciences, Radio and Geoastronomy, Solar and Stellar Physics, and Theoretical Astrophysics. Scientists in these divisions encourage students to participate in their research. Through the Center for Astrophysics students may make use of a wide range of observational, experimental, and theoretical facilities.